Opera star Marilyn Horne donated her portrait to Smithsonian

November 10, 5:03 PMDC Art Travel ExaminerMarsha Dubrow

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Marilyn Horne as Adalgisa in Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma” by John Foote. Oil on canvas, 1971

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Marilyn Horne

Famed mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne presented her portrait by artist John Foote to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

Foote painted Horne’s portrait in 1971 to honor her Metropolitan Opera debut the previous year as Adalgisa in Bellini’s “Norma,” one of Horne's signature bel canto roles. The painting was first displayed in “Portraits of the American Stage, 1771–1971,” a National Portrait Gallery (NPG) exhibition in honor of Kennedy Center’s opening in 1971.

Horne was in Washington to receive a National Endowment for the Arts NEA Opera Honor on November 14. Other 2009 honorees are composer John Adams "Doctor Atomic", "Nixon in China"; stage director and librettist Frank Corsaro; Lotfi Mansouri who created supertitles; and former New York City Opera conductor Julius Rudel, Kennedy Center's first artistic director.

Horne, one of America’s greatest opera stars, began her seven-decade career at the age of four when she sang at a rally for President Franklin Roosevelt.

She is also a philanthropist and active mentor. The Marilyn Horne Foundation is dedicated to “encouraging, supporting, and preserving the art of the vocal recital.” The foundation is a major supporter of Washington’s Vocal Arts Society, among others.

Her portrait is in the NPG's first-floor exhibition “New Arrivals”.
 

For more info: National Portrait Gallery, www.npg.si.edu, Eighth and F Streets, NW, Washington, DC. 202-633-1000. Visitor info, www.npg.si.edu/inform/visit.html.