 
Department of Music
150 Powell Hall
Post Office Box 6968
Radford, Virginia 24142
Phone (540) 831-5296
FAX (540) 831-6133
cjames@radford.edu
Clarity James made her Vienna Staatsoper debut in Leonard
Bernstein's A Quiet Place
(also recording it with Maestro Bernstein on Deutsche
Grammophon) as "Mrs. Doc," the role she created in that
opera's world premiere in Houston. Her European debut
was with the Netherlands Opera as "Azucena" in
Il Trovatore (recorded on the Gala GL label).
Seattle Opera audiences have heard her performances of "Erda," both in
Das Rheingold and
Siegfried, in the François Rochaix production of
The
Ring, preceded by her first appearance with the Seattle
Opera as "Augusta" in
The Ballad Of Baby Doe, returning
later as "Kostelnicka" in Jenufa.
Her many return
engagements with The Santa Fe Opera included new
productions of the Strauss operas, Die Liebe Der Danae,
Daphne and Aegyptiche Helena as well as
The Beggar's
Opera and The Sorrows of Young Werther. She portrayed
the outrageous "Mother Goose" in
The Rake's Progress and
the "Nurse" in L'Incoronazione Di Poppea. Her "Lady Toodles" in the American premier of Henze's
The English
Cat was preceded by another American premiere there in Penderecki's
The Black Mask as well as the Nikolaus
Lehnhoff production of Der Fliegende Hollaender, an
opera she repeated in the Ponelle production with the
Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The Dallas Opera has
heard her in Peter Grimes with Jon Vickers,
Die
Walkuere, Romeo And Juliet,
Lakme and a memorable
performance of "Madame Flora" in
The Medium with Gian-Carlo
Menotti directing, which inaugurated their new spring
season in 1984. She also worked with Maestro Menotti in
his THE LAST SAVAGE at the Spoleto Festival, USA.
Her Houston Grand Opera Debut was as "Madame Flora"
in The Medium. She also has appeared there in such
varied repertoire as Aida, Falstaff,
Il Trovatore,
Peter Grimes, Andrea Chenier,
The Daughter Of The Regiment,
Tancredi, and
Hansel And Gretel.
She appeared
with the Connecticut Opera as "Ulrica" in
Un Ballo In
Maschera, a role which she also performed at the New
York City Opera, as well as the "Baroness" in
Die Junge
Lord, the "Mother" in
The Consul and "Katisha" in
The
Mikado.
She repeated her "Madame Flora" in
The
Medium with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and
returned for Gianni Schicchi,
Falstaff, and "Ruth" in
Colin Graham's highly acclaimed production of
Pirates Of
Penzance, a role she has repeated with the Edmonton
Opera, Cincinnati Opera and Augusta Opera. In another
world premiere she created the role of "Mrs. Cratchit"
in Thea Musgrave's A Christmas Carol with the Virginia
Opera Association.
Miss James' concert
appearances include Der Fliegende Hollaender with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, a
Beethoven Ninth Symphony with the Boston Symphony, "Jocasta"
in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex with the National Symphony
and the San Francisco Symphony, where she also appeared
in the world premiere of Gordon Getty's
Plump John.
In addition to Leonard Bernstein's
A Quiet Place
(Deutsche Grammophon), Miss James' other complete opera
recordings include Verdi's Il Trovatore (Gala GL), Thea
Musgrave's A Christmas Carol (MMG), and two Jack Beeson
operas, The Sweet Bye And Bye (Desto) and
Captain Jinks
of the Horse Marines (RCA).
Clarity James
received her bachelor's degree from the University of
Wyoming and her master's degree from Indiana University.
She holds an Exemplary Alum Award from the University of
Wyoming, and has been the recipient of a Martha Baird
Rockefeller grant, a Metropolitan Opera Association
grant, the Lillian Garabedian Award and a Corbett
Foundation Award. She is a biographee in the Marquis'
Who's Who, the
WHo's Who in Opera, the
Who's Who of
American Women, the Who's Who in Music, the
Who's Who in
Entertainment, the International Who's Who in Music and
the International Who's Who of Women. Since 1990 she has
been a Professor of Music and Director of Vocal Studies
& Opera Workshop at Radford University, Radford,
Virginia.
Each Spring Semester Ms. James so-hosts a
group trip to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
For more information click here.
Listen to Ms. James on public radio's With Good Reason
Watch Ms. James in Performance!
Class Syllabi
Applied Voice
Opera Workshop Ensemble,
MUSC 457/557
Travel Study MUSC366/666
Critical Acclaim
"Delicious
performance, resplendent singing; good musical sense and
sensibility."
New York Times
"Clarity James
played the Kostelnicka as a woman on the brink of mental
collapse. She took wild vocal as well as theatrical
chances and succeeded. This was an heroic performance of
emotional intensity and vocal grandeur."
Los Angeles
Times
"Clarity James as Madame Flora was riveting
not only in the power of her singing, but in the
strength of her portrayal. The impact of her acting and
her dominating presence was out of the ordinary."
Dallas Morning News
"Clarity James was
breathtaking. Seldom does one hear a soloist so capable
of making every word of text so significant. James has a
different vocal color for every syllable, and a vibrato
that colors but never interferes. Her's is a haunting
presentation."
San Francisco Examiner
"Opulent
in sound, passionate in dramatic involvement; if there
is a finer dramatic mezzo in America today, I don't know
who she is."
Boston Globe
"Clarity James as
Gaea invested her rolling platitudes with unforced
opulence worthy of an Erda and a contralto profondo that
descended to unreasonable depths with reasonable ease."
Los Angeles Times
"The contralto part is the
lowest ever written, but Clarity James made it sound
sumptuously beautiful."
Boston Sunday Globe
"The gripping performance of the evening belonged to
Clarity James. Her clear, lusty high register soared
effortlessly to the last balcony row."
Houston
Chronicle
"Clarity James as Ulrica gave that
thankless witch's role some exciting singing that mixed
sinister overtones with solid mezzo technique."
Milwaukee Journal
"Magnificent. Clarity James
revealed a thrilling voice of great range and dark
color. The sweeping lines of her phrasing were
breathtaking."
Milwaukee Sentinel
"Clarity
James showed significant Straussian stamina in her
strong, tonally well-controlled singing."
The Houston
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