Carol Neblett
Glamorous blonde soprano who excelled in Puccini and made a famous nude appearance in Thaïs
CAROL NEBLETT, who has died aged 71, was an American soprano who attracted notoriety in 1973 when she briefly appeared nude while singing the title role of the seductive courtesan in Massenet’s Thaïs for New Orleans Opera; her disrobing outraged the local strippers of Bourbon Street, who complained that they were required by law to cover up with G-strings and “nipple pasties”.
Carol Neblett, a glamorous blonde, went on to sing the title role in Tosca with Luciano Pavarotti in Chicago, Minnie, the saloon bar owner in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West with Plácido Domingo at Covent Garden, and Margherita in a concert performance of Boito’s Mefistofele at the Festival Hall with José Carreras. Critics praised her “warm and rich sound … accurate intonation [and] ability to sing touchingly and with charm”.
She had already attracted attention for a sensuous performance of Monteverdi’s seductress in L’incoronazione di Poppea for New York City Opera when Bliss Herbert, the director in New Orleans, asked if she would stay true to the part of Thaïs; hitherto singers had worn a body stocking. “After reading the novel by Anatole France and studying the libretto and music, it was clear to me that one must have a nude scene in the first act to follow the story faithfully,” Carol Neblett told Opera magazine.
By modern standards the scene was relatively modest. Towards the end of the first act, while attempting to seduce a monk, she opened the top of her costume before turning away and allowing her robe to fall. Nevertheless, the press had a field day, with the Los Angeles Times calling her “the thinking man’s sex symbol”. Yet she declined a photoshoot for Playboy, saying: “I will only appear nude if it is valid for the opera.”
Carol Neblett was born in the appropriately named Modesto, California, on February 1 1946. Her father was a technician with Yamaha Pianos and her mother was Jascha Heifetz’s personal secretary. Her grandmother had played chamber music with the great violinist and the family’s circle included musicians such as Gregor Piatigorsky, Artur Rubinstein and Isaac Stern.
Young Carol started on the violin at the age of two and studied it “for 13 miserable years”. She discovered her potential as a singer after joining a madrigal group in high school. By 19 she was appearing as a soloist with the Roger Wagner Chorale in Los Angeles and studying singing with William Vennard, who had been Marilyn Horne’s teacher. She also took lessons with Esther Andreas and masterclasses with Lotte Lehmann.
At first Carol Neblett had little interest in opera, but that changed when she replaced Galina Vishnevskaya in a concert that included the Lacrimosa from Britten’s War Requiem. Sol Hurok, the celebrated impresario, was in the audience and offered her exclusive representation. “I told him I didn’t want to sing any opera,” she said. “But Hurok convinced me I should audition for the New York City Opera.”
She made her debut with the company as Musetta in La bohème in 1969 and went on to sing more than 80 roles in opera houses around the world. She appeared at Covent Garden as Puccini’s warm-hearted saloon bar owner in 1977, conducted by Zubin Mehta, returning to the role in 1978 and 1982.
In 1979, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Senta in The Flying Dutchman, opposite José van Dam.
Once, when singing Mimi in La bohème in Philadelphia, Carol Neblett persuaded a nervous Franco Corelli to go on stage, even though he was adamant that he would cancel minutes before the curtain rose. She arranged with the conductor that she would ask him to show her on stage how he would take her hand in the duet Che gelida manina. He agreed and while they were thus engaged the music began. “I ran off immediately and it was too late for Franco to leave the stage,” she recalled.
After retiring, Carol Neblett, who was described as a “compulsive, high-pitched giggler and non-stop breathy chatterer”, joined Chapman University in California. Asked in later life about her infamous moment in Thaïs, she said: “If I had been smarter, I would have controlled the publicity. Photographers were hanging from everywhere and got funny angles and things that the audience never saw – like pubic hair.”
Her first marriage was to the cellist Douglas Davis. That was dissolved and in 1973 she married the conductor Kenneth Schermerhorn; they had a son who survives her. That marriage was also dissolved and in 1981 she married thirdly Philip Akre, a cardiologist. He survives her with a daughter; another daughter died in a car accident in 2001.
Carol Neblett, born February 1 1946, died November 23 2017