Gloria Lane Krachmalnick (June 6, 1925 – November 22, 2016)[1] was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international performance career from 1949 to 1976.
In 1949 she won a scholarship to the Tanglewood Music Center where she made her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing the title role in scenes from Bizet's Carmen under director Boris Goldovsky.
[2] In 1954 Lane returned to Broadway to appear in another Menotti world premiere, creating the role of Desideria in the Pulitzer Prize winning The Saint of Bleecker Street.
She sang several more roles with the NYCO from 1952 to 1960, including Amneris in Aida, Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, Antonia's mother in The Tales of Hoffmann, Evadne in Troilus and Cressida, Maddalena in Rigoletto, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Salud in La vida breve, and the title role Carmen.
In 1957 she created the role of the Countess in the world premiere of Stanley Hollingsworth's La Grande Breteche which was commissioned for television by the NBC Opera Theatre (NBCOT).
For other NBCOT television broadcasts she also portrayed Helene in War and Peace(1957), Maddalena in Rigoletto (1958), and Marina Mniszech in Boris Godunov (1961).
She attempted to revitalize her career by switching her fach to that of a dramatic soprano; beginning with Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana with the Vancouver Opera in 1971.
Her final notable project was a 1976 recording of Katerina Ismailova in Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District for RAI.