Reri Grist

Opera singer Reri Grist was born on February 29, 1932 in New York City to Ena Grist and Arthur Grist. After studying voice at New York City’s High School of Music & Art, graduating in 1950, Grist went on to attend Queens College in New York City, where she earned her B.A. degree in music in 1954.

Grist made her theatrical debut in 1946 in the play Jeb with Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee in New York City. She continued to act and began singing in high school, performing in Jan Meyerowitz’s opera The Barrier in 1950 and Oscar Hammerstein’s Carmen Jones in 1956. In 1957, Grist was cast as Consuelo in the original Broadway production of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, introducing the song “Somewhere.” In 1959, while working as a social worker in New York City, Grist won a singing competition that propelled her to her operatic debut as a coloratura soprano in Santa Fe, New Mexico as Adele in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. While in Santa Fe, she met the composer Igor Stravinsky, who invited her to play the title character in his opera Le Rossignol, later performed in Washington D.C. Grist worked again with Leonard Bernstein in 1960, performing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, which was broadcast as part of the Young People’s Concerts. On a trip to Europe later that year, she auditioned for the Cologne Opera, where she soon had her first European appearance as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Grist then joined the Zurich Opera and went on to sing at the Glyndebourne Festival, Royal Opera House, Vienna State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Salzburg Festival, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1966, beginning twelve seasons of appearances. Grist was known for her renditions of Mozart and Richard Strauss, especially in the role of Zerbinetta in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. In 1991, she made her final stage appearance, performing in Neither, a one-woman opera by Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett. Grist also held professorships at the Indiana University Bloomington School of Music and Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. She taught master classes at the Santa Fe Opera, the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, the International Opera Studio Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Ravinia Summer Festival, and the USA Summer Festival.

Grist holds honorary degrees from Queens College and the Juilliard School. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Licia Albanese Foundation, the Legacy Award by the National Opera Association, and was inducted into OperaAmerica’s Opera Hall of Fame. In Germany, she was honored with the Opus Klassik award and the prestigious Bayerische Kammersängerin title by the state of Bavaria.

Grist lives in Hamburg, Germany with her husband, Ulf Thomson. They have one daughter, Mareka Thomson.

Reri Grist was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 20, 2022.