Betty Allen

Betty Allen was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had an active international singing career during the 1950s through the 1970s. In the latter part of her career her voice acquired a contralto-like darkening, which can be heard on her recording of Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with conductor Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. She was known for her collaborations with American composers, such as Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, David Diamond, Ned Rorem, and Virgil Thomson among others.

17 March 1927

Born on the same birth day (17 March): Adam Wade (singer) • Emperor Shijō • Floyd B. Barnum • Gene Ween • Ida Kleijnen • Max Stafford-Clark • Sayed Darwish • Test (wrestler)

Born in the same month (March 1927): Bud MacPherson • Chuck Share • Claude Laydu • Gabriel García Márquez • Halton Arp • Hans-Dietrich Genscher • Harold Chapman (photographer) • John McLaughlin (host) • Martin Fleischmann • Marty Blake • Olga San Juan • P. Shanmugam • Robert Lindsay, 29th Earl of Crawford • William J. Bell