Jayne West is an American

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

tic

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

, who was born in

White Plains, New York (Always Faithful) , image_seal = WhitePlainsSeal.png , seal_link = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State , su ...

, and was raised in

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popu ...

. After graduation from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

, she moved to Boston, where she studied at the

Boston Conservatory Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founded ...

. West has appeared with the Austin Lyric Opera (Pamina in ''

Die Zauberflöte ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that includ ...

''), Berkshire Opera Company (Donna Elvira in ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanis ...

'', and Anne Trulove in ''

The Rake's Progress ''The Rake's Progress'' is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings '' A Rake's Prog ...

''), Boston Baroque ('' Acis and Galatea''), Boston Landmarks Orchestra (

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many critics and musi ...

),“Beethoven’s 9th, A Great Performance!”
/ref> Houston Grand Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Opera/Omaha (world premiere of Weisgall's ''The Gardens of Adonis''),

Opera Quotannis Opera Quotannis (OQ) was a New York-based opera company which was founded in 1990, with conductor Bart Folse as music director and stage director Brian Morgan (formerly of The New Opera Theatre) serving as artistic director. It specialized in experi ...

, and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. She was also in the 1985 world-premiere of the Glass/Moran '' The Juniper Tree''. West also sang in the Mark Morris Dance Group's productions of ''L'allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato'', ''

Dido and Æneas ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was ...

'', and ''

Four Saints in Three Acts ''Four Saints in Three Acts'' is an opera composed in 1928 by Virgil Thomson, setting a libretto written in 1927 by Gertrude Stein. It contains about 20 saints and is in at least four acts. It was groundbreaking in form, content, and for its all-b ...

''. The soprano has been heard with the orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Pensacola, Philadelphia, Seattle, Utah and Washington DC; and has sung at the festivals of Bethlehem Bach, Saito Kinen, San Antonio and Tanglewood. She portrayed Contessa Almaviva in

Peter Sellars Peter Sellars (born September 27, 1957) is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays. Sellars is professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where ...

' production of ''

Le nozze di Figaro ''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...

'', which was seen in Barcelona, Boston, New York, Paris and Vienna. It was made into a film (1989), as well. West also sings in

Robert Craft Robert Lawson Craft (October 20, 1923 – November 10, 2015) was an American conductor and writer. He is best known for his intimate professional relationship with Igor Stravinsky, on which Craft drew in producing numerous recordings and books. ...

's important recording of ''The Rake's Progress'' (with Jon Garrison, 1993). She can be heard in two excerpts from Handel's ''Hercules'' (1999), on the recording entitled "Lorraine at Emmanuel," opposite

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (March 1, 1954 – July 3, 2006) was an American mezzo-soprano. She was noted for her performances of both Baroque era and contemporary works. Her career path to becoming a singer was unconventional – formerly a pro ...

, which was published in 2008, and is a soloist in Craig Smith's recording of Bach's "St John Passion" (with Frank Kelley as the Evangelist, 1999). In 2009, a "live" recording of the premiere of ''The Juniper Tree'' was released on Compact Disc. The soprano also sang cameo roles in two historic recordings, the original version of Cherubini's ''Médée'' (as A Lady of Dircé, 1987) and Gluck's ''Iphigénie en Tauride'' (as the Second Priestess and the goddess Diane, 1999). In 2009, West appeared with the Boston Secession in the world-premiere performance of

Ruth Lomon Ruth Lomon (7 November 1930 – 26 September 2017) was a Canadian classical composer. A native of Montreal, Canada, she was born in Montreal and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She attended le Conservatoire de Quebec and McGill University. Sh ...

's ''Testimony of Witnesses'', a concert-length oratorio based on the poetry and writings of survivors and victims of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, under the direction of Jane Ring Frank. Earlier, she had recorded the same composer's "Songs of Remembrance," for CRI. As of 2011, the soprano lives in

Amesbury, Massachusetts Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the left bank of the Merrimack River near its mouth, upstream from Salisbury and across the river from Newburyport and West Newbury. The population was 17,366 at the 2020 ...

, and is on the voice faculty at the

Longy School of Music Longy School of Music of Bard College is a private music school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915 as the Longy School of Music, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New En ...

References

* Liner notes for MusicMasters recording of ''The Rake's Progress'', 1994. * ''Stagebill'', March 1997.
Boston Secession 2008/2009 Season

External links

Jayne West in a duet from ''Le nozze di Figaro'', with Jeanne Ommerlé.
{{DEFAULTSORT:West, Jayne American operatic sopranos Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Oberlin College alumni Boston Conservatory at Berklee alumni People from White Plains, New York People from Framingham, Massachusetts Singers from New York (state) Singers from Massachusetts Classical musicians from New York (state) Classical musicians from Massachusetts 20th-century American women opera singers 21st-century American women opera singers Longy School of Music of Bard College faculty American women academics