Helen Vanni, Renown American Mezzo Helen Vanni
Longtime Santa Fe resident, Helen Vanni, the American mezzosoprano whose career extended from the opera stage to concert halls, recordings and teaching, has died at age 99 in Albuquerque. Vanni, born Helen Spaeth, the seventh of eleven children of GermanAmerican parents in Davenport, Iowa, started music lessons with the piano at age seven and began studying voice at twelve. Her Metropolitan Opera career encompassed more than four hundred performances over 17 years, from 1956-1973. “It is always gratifying to hear an opera singer who is as good in an intimate art song as she is in a big aria,” wrote New York Times critic Howard Klein.
In addition to the Met, where she appeared regularly from 1956 to 1970, Vanni was heard at the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and England’s Glyndebourne Festival. In 1960, she began appearing at the Santa Fe Opera, and became a regular at the summer festival, singing eighteen separate roles over 14 seasons from 1960 through 1977.
After retiring from the stage, Vanni taught voice at both the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. Vanni’s husband of 65 years, Mario, who predeceased her in 2015, was a devoted opera lover who enthusiastically supported his wife’s career. Vanni and her husband moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico from the New York Metropolitan area in 1983; she moved to Albuquerque in 2019.
Vanni is survived by three children: daughters Josephine (John) Anderson, Lee, Massachusetts, and Angela (Philip) Bozza, Albuquerque, New Mexico; and son, Peter (Trish) Vanni, Eden Prairie, Minnesota; grandchildren, John (Elizabeth) Anderson, and Katharine Anderson (John) Feery, Hanorah (Henry)Donnay, Justin and Mairead Vanni; and, four great-grandchildren, John Edward Anderson IV and Eleanor Jane Anderson, John Henry Feery III and Colin Anderson Feery.
Recitation of the Holy Rosary at 1PM, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 2PM, will be held Tuesday, March 21, at Saint John XXIII Catholic Community, 4831 Tramway Ridge Dr NE, Albuquerque.
Memorials preferred to the Spaeth Family Scholarship at St..Catherine University, Institutional Advancement, Mail F-12, 2004 Randolph Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105-1789