Patricia Neway (September 30, 1919 – January 24, 2012) was an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. One of the few performers of her day to enjoy equal success on both the opera and musical theatre stages, she was a regular performer on both Broadway and at the New York City Opera during the 1950s and 1960s.
Critic Emily Langer of The Washington Post wrote that, "Neway was a rare type of singer — one with the classical training and raw vocal strength to meet the demands of opera as well as the acting talent and appeal required to succeed in musical theater." She is particularly remembered for creating roles in the world premieres of several contemporary American operas, most notably Magda Sorel in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul. On Broadway she won a Tony Award for her portrayal of the Mother Abbess in the original production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music.
Biography
Born on Ditmas Avenue in Kensington, Brooklyn to Irish-American parents, Neway grew up in Rosebank, Staten Island. Her father was a printing plant foreman who had briefly worked in vaudeville as the high tenor in a vocal quartet. She attended the Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island and then Notre Dame College, where she earned a degree in the sciences with a minor in mathematics. Although she had studied piano briefly as a child, her interest in music and singing awakened in her years at Notre Dame College after she began singing through a book of Neapolitan songs that her uncle had given to her father as a present. What began as a hobby turned into a passion and following her graduation from Notre Dame she entered the Mannes College of Music, where she earned a degree in vocal performance. She later studied singing with tenor Morris Gesell, whom she eventually married.
While still a student, Neway made her Broadway debut as a member of the chorus in a 1942 production of Jacques Offenbach's La Vie parisienne. In April 1944 she was the soprano soloist in the world premiere of Norman Dello Joio's The Mystic Trumpeter with conductor Robert Shaw and the Collegiate Chorale at Town Hall. She made her first opera appearance in a leading role in 1946, as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, at Chautauqua Opera. In 1948, she returned to Broadway to portray the Female Chorus in the United States premiere of Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, at the Ziegfeld Theatre.
In 1950, Neway made opera history when she starred as Magda Sorel in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's critically acclaimed Cold War-era opera The Consul at the Shubert Theatre in Philadelphia, with Cornell MacNeil as John Sorel, Gloria Lane as the secretary of the consulate, and Marie Powers as the Mother. Later that year, she went with the production to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, where it ran for 269 performances. Neway (alternating with Yul Brynner's sister, Vera Brynner) also led the Broadway cast, this time with Rosemary Kuhlmann as the secretary of the consulate. She later recorded the role for Decca Records, and performed the role for the premieres in London, Paris, and other European cities. Neway, Kuhlmann, and Powers also performed these roles in the UK at the Cambridge Theatre in February 1951, with Norman Kelley playing the role of the magician Nika. For her work in the Broadway production she won the Donaldson Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1950.
In 1951, Neway made her debut with the New York City Opera (NYCO), where she returned often through 1966. Her first appearance with the company was as Leah in the world premiere of David Tamkin's The Dybbuk on April 10, 1951, with Robert Rounseville as Channon. She also notably sang in the world premiere of Hugo Weisgall's Six Characters in Search of an Author in 1959, with Beverly Sills. Among the many other productions she appeared in with the NYCO were: Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana (as Santuzza, conducted by Julius Rudel), Alban Berg's Wozzeck (as Marie, directed by Theodore Komisarjevsky), Menotti's The Consul (as Magda), Amahl and the Night Visitors (as the Mother), and The Medium (as Mme Flora), Bucci's Tale for a Deaf Ear (as Laura Gates), Carlisle Floyd's Wuthering Heights (as Nellie, opposite Phyllis Curtin as Catherine); Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw (as the Governess, with Richard Cassilly as Peter Quint), and Richard Strauss's Salome (as Herodias), among others.