Edward Quade Winter (April 8, 1951 – October 8, 2019) was an American composer, musical restorer and translator, specializing in the light operas of Victor Herbert. He began his career as a performer, singing opera for over two decades.

Early years and singing career

Winter was born in Pendleton, Oregon, one of five children, including four sons, of Melvin Winter, a car dealer and former Pendleton mayor, and Margaret Winter, a housewife.[1][2] As a child, Winter was enchanted by the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan and by science. He graduated from Pendleton High School in 1970 and the University of Oregon (1978) with degrees in theater and music.[2][3]

He began a musical theatre career but soon turned to classical music.[4] He graduated from the Merola Opera Program in 1980.[5] While there, he sang with San Francisco Opera.[3] He then began a career as an operatic tenor, singing roles in opera and oratorio, during the next 23 years, in Germany (where he lived in the 1980s), Austria, the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.[6][2] For example, in 1993, Winter sang Calaf in Turandot with New York City Opera.[7] In 1994, he sang Herod in Richard Strauss's Salome with Virginia Opera,[8] a role he repeated in 1999 at Bellas Artes Opera in Mexico City, and in 2000 with Opera de las Americas in the Dominican Republic.[9] He played Aegistheus in Strauss's Elektra with the Canadian Opera Company in 1996,[10] repeating the role with the Hawaii Opera Theatre in 1999.[11] He was proud of his appearances at Carnegie Hall and La Scala in Milan.[3]

Composing, translating and orchestrating

In 1996, Winter's first opera score, replacing Arthur Sullivan's lost score to Thespis, was given its world premiere by the Ohio Light Opera, where Winter then became the composer-in-residence.[2][12] His second score, The Carp, replacing Alfred Cellier's lost score, was requested in 1998 by The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive for its Web Opera series. It was orchestrated and performed by the Ohio Light Opera in 1999.[13]

From 1997 to 2004, Winter was Composer-in-Residence at the Ohio Light Opera, and oversaw productions of many of his opera translations, including Boccaccio (von Suppé), The Gypsy Baron (Strauss), The Merry Widow (Lehàr) and Die Fledermaus (Strauss). The OLO commissioned a number of critical editions of seldom performed operettas, starting with Victor Herbert's Eileen (1997), utilizing Herbert's original manuscripts in the collection of the Library of Congress.[14] Similar reconstructions followed: Herbert's The Red Mill (2001)[15] and Sweethearts (2002),[16] and Reginald De Koven's Robin Hood (2004). These works were issued as CDs on the Newport and Albany labels.

In 2009, Winter restored Victor Herbert's The Magic Knight. He has performed similar services for various organizations, including the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization's new engraving of Hammerstein's Carmen Jones. In later years, he sang with the Pendleton Men’s Chorus for whom he translated and arranged music, also arranging music for the Oregon East Symphony.[3][2]

Winter died of cardiac arrest on October 8, 2019.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Rootsweb listing accessed 17 March 2010
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Aney, Kathy. "Singer lived life on the opera stage", East Oregonian, October 26, 2019
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Obit: Edward Quade Winter", East Oregonian, October 30, 2019
  4. ↑ Crafts, Fred. "Fat Chance This Guy Had". Eugene Register-Guard, February 2, 1978, p. 3D, accessed March 22, 2010
  5. ↑ "Alumni by Year". Merola Opera Program website, accessed March 22, 2010
  6. ↑ "Quade Winter, Composer". Main Line Opera, accessed March 22, 2010; and Kozinn, Allan. "In Performance; Music". The New York Times, May 16, 1995, accessed March 22, 2010
  7. ↑ Ross, Alex. "New Cast in City's Turandot". The New York Times, September 30, 1993, accessed March 22, 2010
  8. ↑ Nicholson, David. "Macabre, Music Mingle". Daily Press (Norfolk, Virginia), November 20, 1994, p. 2, accessed March 22, 2010
  9. ↑ Opera Watch. Opera News, November 2000, accessed March 22, 2010
  10. ↑ Schabas Ezra, Morey, Carl. "Opera viva: Canadian Opera Company: the first fifty years". Dundurn, 2000, p. 291. ISBN 1-55002-346-2
  11. ↑ Bingham, Ruth O. "HOT sacrifices nothing for electrifying Elektra. Honolulu Star-Bulletin, February 15, 1999, accessed March 22, 2010
  12. ↑ Winter, Quade. Winter's Thespis score, The Gilbert and Sullivan Discography, accessed 17 March 2010
  13. ↑ "The Carp Web Opera", The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive, accessed 28 October 2019
  14. ↑ Walker, Raymond. "Victor Herbert: Eileen". Musicweb International, 2 July 2002, accessed 17 March 2010
  15. ↑ Suskin, Steven. "On the Record: Victor Herbert, a Smattering of Sondheim, and The Shuberts" Archived June 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Playbill, January 27, 2002, accessed March 17, 2010
  16. ↑ Sweethearts at the Albany Records website, accessed 17 March 2010
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