Jean Madeira

Jean Madeira, born Jean Browning in Centralia, Illinois, in 1918 and died in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1972, was an American contralto whose career combined the operatic repertoire of the United States with intensive activity on European stages. Her maiden name was Browning, and she made her debut under that name in her youth.

She trained at the Juilliard School of Music and, as Jean Browning, made her debut in 1943 at the Chautauqua Summer Opera, singing the role of Nancy in Martha. In 1947 Menotti chose her to alternate with Marie Powers in the European tour of The Medium. A year later she joined the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut as the first Norna. From 1955 onwards she sang mainly in Europe, with roles such as Clytemnestra in Salzburg (1956), Carmen in Vienna and Aix-en-Provence, and Erda at Covent Garden, Bayreuth and Munich.

In 1968 she created the role of Circe in Dallapiccola's Ulisse, premiered in Berlin, and she continued singing until 1971. Her legacy rests above all on her dark, rich voice and her stage presence, which can be heard in her recordings of Erda with Solti in Das Rheingold and of Clytemnestra with Böhm in Elektra.