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The British-Greek mezzo-soprano, Glenys Loulis (AKA Glenys Linos), the daughter of an Englishman and a Greek woman, was born Glenys Birch in Cairo. She grew up in Great Britain, where she also attended school. She studied music at the Athens Conservatory. She initially learned to play the flute, but then switched to singing. She received singing lessons from the famous opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo in Milan; later she sought vocal advice from Dennis Hall in Bern.
Until 1974 she performed under the name Glenys Loulis. She initially sang in Germany. She had permanent engagements at the Stadttheater Mainz (1968-1969), Stadttheater Ulm (1969-1973) and the Staatstheater Wiesbaden (1973–1977). Since 1977, she has performed regularly at the Opernhaus Zürich. She was a permanent member of the ensemble there until 1982; after that, she continued to be tied to the house with a permanent guest contract.
In Zürich Glenys Loulis sang, among others, the Messagera in L'Orfeo (1978; musical direction: Nikolaus Harnoncourt, direction: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle), the Countess Geschwitz in Alban Berg's Lulu (1979; in the Swiss premiere of the version supplemented by Friedrich Cerha, direction: Götz Friedrich), the Charlotte in Werther (1979, together with Peter Dvorsky), the Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde (1980, premiere: June 1980 as part of the Internationalen Juni-Festwochen), the Giulietta in Hoffmanns Erzählungen (premiere: September 1980, direction: Hans Neugebauer, with Alfredo Kraus as partner) and the title role in Penthesilea (1984-1985). She also sang Countess Geschwitz "with a rich mezzo-soprano" in the Zürich revival of Lulu in the 1980-1981 season (from May 1981). In April 1981, she sang the "beautiful-voiced" Brangäne in Wagner's music drama Tristan und Isolde at the Opernhaus Zürich, partnering Janis Martin, who made her role debut as Isolde in this performance.
In Zürich, Glenys Loulis also appeared in several seasons as Georges Bizet's Carmen (in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's production). She sang this role over 200 times in the course of her career on various stages, including at the Opéra de Paris in a series of performances at the Palais des Sports, at the Bayerischen Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in Bern, Cardiff and at other French houses such as Toulouse (under Michel Plasson), Nancy (under Marc Soustrot), Orléans and with the ensemble of the Paris Opera (under Pierre Dervaux, with Guy Chauvet as José) in a special performance in the bullring in Bayonne.
In 1971 Glenys Loulis appeared at the Glenys Loulis in the role of Schwertleite in the opera Die Walküre. In 1978 she sang the Amme in the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Münchner Opernfestspielen. In 1979 she appeared as a guest at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden as Adriano in Richard Wagner's early work Rienzi. In the 1981-1982 season she appeared at the Stadttheater Bern as Santuzza in a new production of Cavalleria rusticana. In 1982 she appeared at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Ken Russell's production of Igor Stravinsky's Rake's Progress; in December of the same year she sang Brangäne in Wagner's music drama Tristan und Isolde in two concert performances in the Casino-Saal Bern "with considerable vocal potential". From 1984 to 1986 she sang the mother role of Storge in a staged version of the oratorio Jephtha at the Salzburger Festspielen. In the 1984-1985 season she appeared at the Opéra National de Paris as Laura in the opera Der steinerne Gast by Alexander Sergejewitsch Dargomyschski. In the 1984-1985 season she sang Lucretia in Benjamin Britten's opera The Rape of Lucretia at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In the 1984-1985 season she also sang the title heroine in Othmar Schoeck's opera Penthesilea at the Stadttheater Bern. In the 1985-1986 season she sang Dido in a new production of Dido and Aeneas at the Opernhaus Frankfurt.
In May/June 1986 Glenys Linos took over the role of Geneviève in the opera Pelléas et Mélisande at La Scala in Milan with great success. There is also a live recording of these performances under the musical direction of Claudio Abbado, which was later released on CD. In the 1987-1988 season she appeared as Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff at the Theater Basel. In the 1988-1989 season she took on the role of Auntie in a new production of B. Britten's opera Peter Grimes at the Opernhaus Zürich; she also sang this role in the revival in the 1989-1990 season (from September 1989).
Glenys Linos also performed at the Royal Opera Covent Garden in London (February 1981 as Countess Geschwitz in Lulu), at the Opera House of Monte Carlo (1981 as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, 1984 as Charlotte), at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège (1982-1983), at the Opera House of Nice (1984 as Preziosilla in Die Macht des Schicksals), at the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent and Antwerp (1984 as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana), in Lausanne (1986 as the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas), at the Rome Opera (November 1986 as Irmengarda in the Spontini opera Agnese di Hohenstaufen), at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna (1987 as Clairon in Capriccio) and at the Teatro Nuovo in Spoleto (1989 as Klytämnestra in Elektra). In the 1990-1991 season, she sang the role of the widow Leokadja Begbick in a new production of Kurt Weill's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Opernhaus Frankfurt, "with voluminous trumpeting" and "considerable mezzo substance". In 1992, she also said goodbye to the opera stage in this role.
Glenys Linos emerged as a concert singer with a wide-ranging repertoire that ranged from baroque music to Gustav Mahler (The Song of the Earth) and included contemporary music of the 20th century. In 1985, she sang the alto solo in the Symphony Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17 by Hector Berlioz at the Essen Music Association under the musical direction of Heinz Wallberg. In 1987 she sang in Robert Schumann's oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and the Beethoven-Chor Ludwigshafen. In April 1990, she sang Verdi's Requiem with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.
In 1980 Glenys Linos appeared as a singer in the television show Einer wird gewinnen. In 1990 a live recording of the opera Andrea Chénier from the Alte Oper Frankfurt, in which she stands out as the "vocally competent Madelon", was released on CD. After the end of her career, she worked intensively as a singing teacher and singing professor, in the 1990s first in Zürich and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, then in Vienna. She was married to the Austrian dramaturge and musicologist Gerhard Persché. |
