Troyanos, Tatiana (1938–1993)

US opera singer. Her repertoire was wide but she was especially noted for her singing of trouser roles, particularly as the composer in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Náxos and Octavian in his Der Rosenkavalier.

Training Troyanos was born in New York. She studied Lieder and oratorio, though not opera, at the Juilliard School, New York.

Roles She made her operatic debut in 1963 with the New York City Opera, singing Hippolyta in Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and stayed with them for two years. She then went to Germany and sang for the Hamburg State Opera for ten years, during which time she sang Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan Tutti, several Verdi roles, and Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, which the company brought to the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1967. Troyanos also sang in Munich, Vienna, and Salzburg. From 1971 she appeared frequently in the USA, where her performances included the title role in Handel's Ariodante in Washington and Charlotte in Massenet's Werther in Chicago. In Boston 1971 she sang Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti ed i Montecci (based on Romeo and Juliet); some years later she sang this role at Covent Garden, London.

Her debut with the Metropolitan Opera was in 1976, when she sang Octavian, staying with the Opera for 16 years. Her roles there included Hansel in Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel, Orlovsky in Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus, Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma (which she also sang at La Scala), and Queen Isabella in Philip Glass's 1992 commemorative opera about Christopher Columbus, The Voyage.