Concerts and Opera
I studied my music very seriously, passed my exams, and was accepted as a full-time student at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam for Music. Walt Disney’s Snow White film was released in America, and the company was looking for a Dutch Snow White to sing the role for the Dutch version of the movie. Madame Schoenberg was to hold one of her famous pupil concerts again, and I was to perform the famous “Bell Song” from the opera Lakme by Delibes. When the performance came to an end, a gentleman by the name of Max Tak approached me. He invited me to meet with him and Kurt Gerron, the famous filmmaker in Germany, who had been contracted to make the European versions of the Disney film. I was hired for the part of Snow White in the Dutch version, which is still being played today for the children during their summer vacation time. It was voted the best musical version in Europe.
Other highlights in those early days were: a performance of Verdi’s Requiem (of which I sang the soprano part) for the Dutch royal family; winning the Grande Diplome at the World Contest in Geneva; an engagement to sing the role of Waldvogel in Wagner’s Siegfried, performed in Amsterdam by the Bayreuth Festspielhaus Opera Company and conducted by the late, world-famous conductor, Erich Kleiber, in a guest performance under the auspices of the Wagner Society in Amsterdam; and performances in the role of the Queen of the Night, in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, also for the Wagner Society.
There were many radio broadcast concerts with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and other symphony orchestras, as well as a lieder recital with piano accompaniment in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw (the equivalent of New York’s Carnegie Hall), as a prize for winning the Music Performance Contest of Holland.
Other highlights in those early days were: a performance of Verdi’s Requiem (of which I sang the soprano part) for the Dutch royal family; winning the Grande Diplome at the World Contest in Geneva; an engagement to sing the role of Waldvogel in Wagner’s Siegfried, performed in Amsterdam by the Bayreuth Festspielhaus Opera Company and conducted by the late, world-famous conductor, Erich Kleiber, in a guest performance under the auspices of the Wagner Society in Amsterdam; and performances in the role of the Queen of the Night, in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, also for the Wagner Society.
There were many radio broadcast concerts with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and other symphony orchestras, as well as a lieder recital with piano accompaniment in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw (the equivalent of New York’s Carnegie Hall), as a prize for winning the Music Performance Contest of Holland.