Born in November 1934 in
Rochester, New York, Sarfaty grew up in
Brooklyn, New York. She won the Margaret McGill Scholarship to
The Juilliard School, Sarfaty made her professional opera debut in 1957 as Suzuki in
Madama Butterfly at the
Santa Fe Opera under conductor
John Crosby. It was the very first production of that opera company, and Sarfaty was the very first singer to appear on the stage of the Santa Fe Opera. She scored her first major success with that company that same season as Rosina in
The Barber of Seville. In 1958 Sarfaty made her debut with the
New York City Opera as the Widow Zimmerlein in Strauss's
Die schweigsame Frau. She sang regularly with the NYCO through 1962, in roles like Angelina in
La cenerentola, Cherubino in
The Marriage of Figaro, the title role in
Maria Golovin, and Jocasta in
Oedipus Rex. and in
Douglas Moore's
The Wings of the Dove. In 1960 she starred as the Secretary in the third
New York City Center revival of
Gian Carlo Menotti's
The Consul alongside fellow artists
Patricia Neway as Magda,
Chester Ludgin as John, and
Werner Torkanowsky conducting. This production which recorded and broadcast on the
Telemeter network in March 1961. In 1959, the mezzo-soprano sang Adele in Bellini's
Il pirata, opposite
Maria Callas, for the
American Opera Society, at
Carnegie Hall, a performance that was much later issued by
EMI on Compact Discs. In 1960, she portrayed The Secretary in a film of Menotti's
The Consul, with
Patricia Neway and
Chester Ludgin, conducted by
Werner Torkanowsky. The film was not seen until 2004, when it was published on DVD by VAI. On the concert stage she performed with the
New York Philharmonic as the alto soloist in Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 in 1964 under conductor
Leonard Bernstein; sharing the stage with fellow soloists
Martina Arroyo,
Nicholas di Virgilio, and
Norman Scott. The performance was recorded and released by
Columbia Records in 1969. Sarfaty made her European debut as Octavian in
Der Rosenkavalier in 1960 at the
Glyndebourne Festival, returning there twenty four years later to portray Adelaide in
Arabella. She sang Carmen for her debut with the
Frankfurt Opera in 1963, also singing Octavian with the company that season. Appearances at other major
opera houses soon followed, including the
Bavarian State Opera and the
Vienna State Opera. In 1969 she sang Carmen at the
Opéra National de Paris. Sarfaty joined the roster of principal singers at
Zurich Opera in the early 1960s and remained active there up through the late 1970s. In Zurich she was particularly admired for her portrayal of Countess Geschwitz in
Alban Berg's
Lulu. She also appeared in the world premiere of
Rudolf Kelterborn's
Die Befreiung Thebens in Zurich in 1963. Sarfaty continued to appear in operas into the mid-1980s. In 1981 she sang Mrs Herring in
Albert Herring at the
Grand Théâtre de Genève. One of her last appearances was at the
Baltimore Opera in 1984 as Madame Croissy in
Dialogues of the Carmelites. ==Sources==