Rosemary Kuhlmann (January 30, 1922 – August 17, 2019) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano and Broadway musical actress best known for originating the role of the Mother in Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera commissioned for television.
She also performed on radio programs promoting the WAVES and soon had her own weekly show, Navy Serenade, on WNEW where she would sing popular songs of the day.
"[2] In 1951, Kuhlmann originated the role of Sadie in William Roos, Jack Lawrence and Don Walker's Broadway musical Courtin' Time at the Nederlander Theatre (then known as the National Theatre) with her co-stars including Billie Worth, Joe E. Brown, Carmen Mathews, and Joseph Sweeney.
During this production, Kuhlmann was invited by Chandler Cowles, who had produced The Consul, to audition for Menotti for the part of the Mother in his new opera Amahl and the Night Visitors at the Mark Hellinger Theatre.
"[2] Kuhlmann went directly from the closing of Music in the Air to rehearsals of Amahl and the Night Visitors in late November 1951.
Rehearsals lasted approximately one month with Menotti, television director Kirk Browning, and conductor Thomas Schippers.
The forty-five-minute work became an annual tradition, airing live for twelve consecutive Christmases with the same adult cast members—Kuhlmann as the Mother and David Aiken, Leon Lishner and Andrew McKinley as the Three Kings.
In 1952, a few weeks after the premiere and the LP studio recording, Kuhlmann toured Europe with Menotti, once again playing the Secretary in The Consul.
That same year, Kuhlmann made her debut with the New York City Opera in a stage production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.
[2] She returned to the New York City Opera several more times during the 1950s for other productions, including the roles of Magda in The Consul,[5] the title role in Bizet's Carmen,[6] Meg Page in Verdi's Falstaff,[7] Angelina in Gioacchino Rossini's La Cenerentola,[8] Nicklausse in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann and the Tsarina in The Golden Slippers.
[9] During the 1950s and early 1960s, Kuhlmann was a frequent guest artist with symphony orchestras and played Giorgetta on a CBC telecast of Puccini's Il Tabarro.
That same year, Kuhlmann performed two more operas with NBC: Desideria in Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street and the devout Mother Marie in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, with Elaine Malbin as Blanche, Patricia Neway as the Old Prioress and Leontyne Price as Mme.
[2] In 1961, Kuhlmann made her last original NBC Opera telecast in Leonard Kastle's Deseret as Brigham Young's eldest wife, Sarah.