Soprano Evelyn Lear Dies

The soprano passed away on Sunday (01Jul12) at a nursing home in Sandy Spring, Maryland, months after she suffered a mild stroke.

The New York native began her career in the late 1950s after inheriting her former opera singer mother's love of music.

She performed in over 40 big productions and was known for her starring roles in Marc Blitzstein's Reuben, Reuben and Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra, but she will perhaps best be remembered for her work with German composer Richard Strauss and for performing all three major female roles in Der Rosenkavalier.

Lear, who was married to celebrated bass-baritone singer Thomas Stewart, won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 1966 for her vocals in Wozzeck, the first opera by Austrian Alban Berg.

Stewart died in 2006.