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Collection Data
- Description
- Regina Resnik (1922-2013) was an American soprano and mezzo-soprano vocalist, as well as an opera director. The Regina Resnik papers, dating from 1934 to 2013, document Resnik's life and career through correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, programs, clippings, annotated scores, fan club magazines, awards, posters, yearbooks, school files, art, and artifacts. The collection also illustrates in part the career of Resnik's second husband, the designer Arbit Blatas, with whom she collaborated. Its strongest features are its visual documentation of Resnik and the scrapbooks and professional files illustrating the course of her career.
- Names
- Resnik, Regina, 1922-2013 (Creator)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1934 - 2013
- Library locations
- Music Division
- Shelf locator: JPB 15-65
- Topics
- Blatas, Arbit
- Bayreuther Festspiele
- Hamburgische Staatsoper
- Metropolitan Opera (New York, N.Y.)
- San Francisco Opera
- Wiener Staatsoper
- directors (performing arts)
- opera singers
- Opera -- 20th century
- Opera Production and direction
- Singers -- United States
- Genres
- artifacts (object genre)
- Awards
- Clippings
- Correspondence
- Drawings
- Fliers (Printed matter)
- Prints
- Photographs
- Posters
- Programs
- Scores
- Scrapbooks
- Sketches
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Regina Resnik (1922-2013) was an American soprano and mezzo-soprano vocalist, as well as an opera director. At the age of 13, she began studying voice with Rosalie Miller. Resnik attended high school in the Bronx and was offered a scholarship to attend the Juilliard School, but turned it down at the insistence of her parents to study music education at Hunter College. In 1942, Resnik made her concert debut as a soprano at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as well as her operatic debut with the New Opera Company as Lady Macbeth.
In 1943, Resnik debuted in Mexico City in Beethoven's Fidelio. The following year, she won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air, and was chosen as a last-minute replacement for Zinka Milanov as Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore, beginning a 30 year career with the Met. Her 300 performances there included the roles of Ellen Orford in the New York premiere of Peter Grimes, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Leonore in Fidelio, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Sieglinde in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. In 1946, Resnik began a long relationship with the San Francisco Opera, and she performed at the Bayreuther Festspiele in 1953 and 1961.
The first Bayreuth engagement proved pivotal when the conductor Clemens Krauss suggested that Resnik's voice was actually a mezzo-soprano. The baritone Giuseppe Danise, a friend, also advised that she lower her vocal range, and Resnik took a break from performance in 1955 to retrain, studying with Danise. She made an unprecedented return as a mezzo-soprano at the Met in February 1956, performing Marina in Boris Gudonov.
The new roles available to Resnik enlarged her artistic and professional opportunities, and her career rapidly expanded worldwide. She debuted at Covent Garden as Carmen in 1957, and went on to appear regularly in Vienna, Salzburg, and other major opera houses in the United States and Europe. She created the role of the Baroness in Samuel Barber's Vanessa (1958), and sang Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia at Stratford, Ontario. Resnik had strong working relationships with the greatest conductors of her era, such as Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, George Szell, and Leonard Bernstein. She also made many recordings for the Decca and Columbia labels.
In 1970, Resnik made her directorial debut with Carmen at the Hamburgische Staatsoper. It was there that she met the artist Arbit Blatas, who designed the sets and costumes. The couple continued to collaborate and married in 1975. The Hamburg production of Carmen was featured in a documentary film about Georges Bizet and the opera, titled Carmen: The Dream and the Destiny (1973). Among the other Resnik-Blatas collaborations, produced in Europe, Canada, and Australia, were Elektra, Falstaff, The Queen of Spades, and Salome. Resnik performed in these operas as well, and continued to perform into the 1970s and early 1980s. Her later opera appearances included the role of Claire in the 1972 American premiere of Gottfried von Einem's Der Besuch der alten Dame at the San Francisco Opera, and a 1973 BBC television production of Falstaff.
After her retirement from opera performance, Resnik continued to perform, making the transition to musical theater. Her performance as Fräulein Schneider in the 1987 Broadway revival of Cabaret earned her a Tony nomination, and she was nominated for a Drama Desk award for her role as Madame Armfeldt in the 1991 Lincoln Center production of A Little Night Music.
In 1983, Resnik was inspired by the art her husband created in Venice to direct a documentary film, Geto: The Historic Ghetto of Venice, a portrait of the city's Jewish ghetto.
Resnik also helped develop the careers of young artists. She taught master classes, and in the early 1990s founded, with Peter Maag, Bottega (later renamed Eurobottega), a workshop for European singers. In 2003, she was named Master Teacher-in-Residence at the Mannes College of Music.
Regina Resnik died in New York City in 2013.
- Content: The Regina Resnik papers, dating from 1934 to 2013, document Resnik's life and career through correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, programs, clippings, annotated scores, fan club magazines, awards, posters, yearbooks, school files, art, and artifacts. The collection also illustrates in part the career of Resnik's second husband, the designer Arbit Blatas, with whom she collaborated. Its strongest features are its visual documentation of Resnik, the scrapbooks, and the professional files illustrating the course of her career.
Professional files comprise the largest portion of the collection. They include project and business files; business and personal correspondence; contracts; programs; itineraries; fan club magazines; fan mail; biographical information; and photographs. Subjects include the collaborations between Resnik and Arbit Blatas; opera companies and other presenters; individual productions; special events; recording companies; and persons. The files also hold papers regarding the career of Arbit Blatas. Portions of the Professional Files are in German and Italian.
The papers regarding Resnik-Blatas collaborations document their joint productions, including The Bear, The Medium, Carmen, Elektra, Falstaff, The Queen of Spades, and Salome. These files include correspondence, stage designs, scores (which incorporate stage sketches and notes), photographs, programs, and clippings. The files for Carmen also evidence the film Carmen: The Dream and the Destiny.
The correspondence files hold letters from student artists, and brief notes and letters from Robert Merrill, Marilyn Horne, Leonard Bernstein, Burton Lane, and Sir Georg Solti, among others.
The Professional Files document special projects such as Geto: The Historic Ghetto of Venice and the Bottega/Eurobottega program for young artists. There are also files regarding master classes Resnik taught from the mid-1970s to the 2000s. These contain programs and correspondence with students.
Opera companies and presenters represented in the Professional Files include the Bayreuther Festspiele, Deutsches Oper Berlin, Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, La Monnaie (Belgium), Nemzetközi Koncertigazgatóság of Budapest, Opéra Municipal of Marseilles, and the San Francisco Opera, among others.
The Metropolitan Opera files include documentation of Resnik's 25th and 50th anniversaries with the company; photographs of the 1966 closing night of the old Metropolitan Opera House; contracts and correspondence; and scripts and programs for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air.
Individual productions documented in the Professional Files include Cabaret, A Little Night Music, and a 1968 recording of Elektra. These files hold correspondence, contracts, programs, photographs, and clippings.
Files regarding notable persons include the artist managers Herbert Breslin and William L. Stein; and John Coast (Resnik's European booking agent). Correspondence in these files details Resnik's decisions regarding her career path and performance schedules. Researchers should also consult the separate file titled "managerial correspondence."
The Arbit Blatas file holds photographs of Blatas and his work; letters of condolence to Resnik upon his death; and letters to Resnik regarding the disposition of his personal papers and art. Resnik's biographical files hold publicity biographies and interview transcriptions. The Professional Files also contain Resnik's 1943 diary.
The scrapbooks are mainly composed of "Regina Resnik Music Club Anniversary Books." Dating from 1957 to 1972, these were duplicated and sent to members of Resnik's fan club. They contain clippings, photographs, and programs. There are also two untitled books of letters, clippings, photographs, and programs, dating from 1942 to 1967; and a book compiled by Resnik's vocal mentor, Rosalie Miller, which documents both Miller's and Resnik's careers up to 1947.
Photographs and slides provide extensive coverage of Resnik's career on- and off-stage. Most slides are in separately-labeled boxes arranged by name of production. They mainly date from the 1960s to the 1970s. The photographs are in four albums, and in files of loose prints that hold negatives and slides. The albums, consisting primarily of performance photographs, mainly date from the 1950s to the 1960s. The files of loose photographs, dating from the 1930s to the 2000s, are arranged in four sections: Candids, Portraits, Roles, and Scenes.
The candid photographs are arranged by subject or by name of opera or company. Some were taken backstage or in rehearsals, others at social occasions. They include files for conductors, family, group photographs, the Metropolitan Opera, and a few productions at other companies. The Met photographs include images of Resnik's auditions, pictures taken on a tour of Don Giovanni, and images of the centennial celebration of the Met in 1983. Among the individuals pictured with Resnik in the group photographs are Leonard Bernstein, Fritz Reiner, Bruno Walter, Tony Randall, Danny Kaye, Beverly Sills, Rudolf Bing, Robert Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Ed Koch, Roberta Peters, Harry Belafonte, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Luciano Pavarotti, Marcel Marceau, Lady Bird Johnson, and Helen Hayes.
The Portraits, which date from the 1930s to the early 2000s, are mainly formal and were intended for private use, though some may also have been used for publicity. They include Resnik as a teenager, as well as later images with Arbit Blatas.
The Roles, arranged by name, date from the 1940s to the 1980s. Some are publicity headshots, while other prints show Resnik in performance. The production from which each originates is listed in notes in the container list. Unknown productions are arranged chronologically at the end of the list.
The Scenes are all of performances, some focusing on two or more characters, others providing panoramic views of the stage. Arranged by opera title, they often document more than one production.
Over 267 photographs in the collection were digitized by Resnik's son, Michael Philip Davis, prior to the collection's donation to the Music Division. Researchers should consult the digital versions as the file titles contain details about the images that may or may not be present with the originals.
Resnik maintained files of clippings and programs. The clippings are arranged chronologically. The programs are arranged either chronogically, by location, or by type of event (operas or concerts).
Posters and Fliers advertise Resnik's appearances from throughout her career. Most are arranged chronologically, with the exception of the Wiener Staatsoper, from which she collected a great many posters, and the Bayreuther Festspiele.
Awards date from Resnik's high school days to the final years of her life. They include honorary degrees, commendations, and proclamations.
The annotated scores, dating from the 1940s to the 1990s, consist of published opera vocal scores, oratorios, individual vocal parts, and song anthologies. They contain performance notes and edits. Composers represented include Bizet, Donizetti, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, and Wagner.
The artifacts in the collection consist of props used by Resnik as Sieglinde at Bayreuth, and as Count Orlofsky at the San Diego Opera. A set of castanets are from an unidentified production (possibly Carmen). Also present is Resnik's medal from Le Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.
The School Files contain yearbooks, diplomas, and assignments. They document Resnik's years in junior high school, high school, and college.
Original art in the collection includes drawings of Resnik by Arbit Blatas, a painting by Franco Zeffirelli of Resnik as Dame Quickly in the 1964 Met production of Falstaff (framed with Leonard Bernstein's baton), sketches of Resnik by unidentified artists, and sketches by Resnik.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 56.13 linear feet (48 boxes, 37 volumes, 2 oversized folders, 6 tubes) ; 368.3 mb (267 computer files)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Identifiers
- Other local Identifier: JPB 15-65
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b20828645
- MSS Unit ID: 22969
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 734bce60-cbea-013b-815c-0242ac110003
