Frances Bible; Mezzo-Soprano Created Key Roles in American Operas

Frances Bible, a mainstay for three decades at New York City Opera and the creator of important roles in American operas, has died.

Bible, a mezzo-soprano, died Jan. 29 in Hemet, Calif. She was 82.

A native of Sackets Harbor, N.Y., Bible was trained at the Juilliard School in New York City. She made her debut as the Shepherd in “Tosca” in 1948 with New York City Opera and subsequently became one of the company’s distinguished members.

Over a long and acclaimed career, she sang a variety of contrasting parts but was praised in particular for the warmth of her singing and acting in trouser roles: Cherubino in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” Octavian in “Der Rosenkavalier,” Hansel in Humperdinck’s opera, Siebel in “Faust” and Nicklausee in “Tales of Hoffmann.”

Bible created two important roles in American opera, that of Augusta Tabor in Douglas Moore’s “The Ballad of Baby Doe” in 1956 at Central City Opera in Colorado (later at New York City Opera), and Elizabeth Proctor in Robert Ward’s “The Crucible,” given its premiere at City Opera in 1961.

She also sang in the premiere of David Tamkin’s “Dybbuk” in New York and in the U.S. premiere of William Walton’s “Troilus and Cressida” at San Francisco Opera.

After nearly 30 years at NYCO, Bible spent a few years as an artist in residence at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston. As she told an interviewer in 1999, teaching could be more difficult than performing, mostly because of all the paperwork. Still, she enjoyed it. “When you’re doing what you love, it doesn’t seem like hard work,” she said.