Roberta Peters, American coloratura soprano, Died at 86

  Music

Roberta Peters was born on May 4, 1930, and died on January 18, 2017.

She was an American coloratura soprano.

Roberta was one of the most prominent American singers to achieve lasting fame and success in opera.

She has been noted for her 35-year association with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York, among the longest such associations between a singer and a company in opera.

Peters was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1998.

She was briefly married to baritone Robert Merrill in 1952, later admitting she had fallen in love with the voice and not the man.

Her two divorced ended amicably, remained friends and continued to perform together in opera and recitals. She remarried in 1955, to Bertram Fields, with whom she had two sons.

Bert had died in 2010.

Roberta Peters died of Parkinson’s disease.

Roberta Peters passed away at 86 years old.