The San Francisco Opera Chorus — featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary In the Shadow of the Stars — has lost one of its prominent veterans.
Alexandra Nehra, a member of the chorus for three decades, was diagnosed earlier this year with a rapidly progressing form of stomach cancer. She spent the last two months visiting friends and family in Hungary, saying goodbyes, and she died on Monday at Dignitas Clinic near Zürich, Switzerland.
S.F. Opera Chorus Director Ian Robertson said:
We lost Alexandra this week. She was a much loved and talented member of the Opera Chorus for many years. She was so proud of her Hungarian origin and her warm personality affected everyone who knew her. She will be missed a great deal.
Nehra's husband of 32 years, Joseph Bencharsky, relayed much of the story of her life.
Shortly after she was born (keeping the year a secret all her life), Nehra's upbringing was divided between her mother and foster parents. As a teen, she ran away and was sheltered by Gypsies for a time, but returned home to protect them from the risk of criminal charges for harboring a minor or kidnapping.
The Communist government had blacklisted her family and she had difficulties entering high school, and would not have been allowed to attend college had she stayed in the country.
As a young teen she performed with the Hungarian National Girls Chorus and National Folk Theater. Before she turned 20, she married her first husband, with whom she fled to Austria where they were detained in an internment camp until given the status of political refugee. She worked in Vienna at Reichert Optical as a lens technician and optical quality inspector, and learned to speak German over a two-year period.
The couple transferred to American Optical in Buffalo, NY, and she learned English in six months, mostly by watching I Love Lucy. In the early 1970s she was accepted into the experimental theater repertory company American Contemporary Theater at Studio Arena in Buffalo, where she received acclaim both as an actress and director for live stage and Public Television rebroadcasts of her performances of original works, Joe Orton plays, and other modern works. It was there that she began to study voice for stage productions that required singing.
In 1977, she moved to San Diego, and attended Mesa College studying fine art, astronomy, and philosophy, and performed in concert productions of operas at local colleges.
Later she received a scholarship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with acclaimed tenor Leopold Simoneau and music department head Herman LeRoux. In 1980, she met and married Bencharsky, and the next year she graduated from the Conservatory.
In 1981, when Richard Bradshaw directed the San Francisco Opera Chorus, Nehra was first accepted as a part-time chorister, and later became a full-time chorus member.
Nehra also participated in a singing program in Graz, Austria, was a finalist in vocal competitions, performed solo roles with Berkeley Opera, Sacramento Opera, concerts at the Goethe Institute, as well as roles with several local opera companies.
She appeared as Azucena in Il trovatore; Antonia’s mother in The Tales of Hoffmann; Frugula in Il tabarro, Amneris in Aida, and Judit in Bluebeard’s Castle.
In 2002, she had a prominent role in the campaign against the fake fog then used by the Opera, claiming that she — and several other singers — suffered respiratory problems from the glycol-based mist. Pamela Rosenberg, then general director, agreed to change to DF 50, based on mineral oil, in productions of Arshak II and Samson et Dalila, and thereafter.
Nehra received praise for her work as a stage director with Berkeley Opera and comprimario roles with the San Francisco Opera in The Ballad of Baby Doe, Death in Venice, Die Walküre, and Manon Lescaut. She was among the singers featured in the documentary In the Shadow of the Stars. She occasionally worked as a Hungarian language coach for several local choral groups including Chanticleer.
She also created handmade jewelry, which was sold in exclusive boutiques in San Francisco and Marin County under the brand Femme Fatale. Her close friends also knew her as a zealous fan of the Twilight movie franchise.
She is survived by her husband, a second-generation native San Franciscan who lives in Mill Valley and works as an internet and social media marketing consultant. Her close friend and companion of over 40 years, Sharlene LaRusch, uncle Denes Hitzinger, godson Andras Hitzinger; and long-time friends Francisco Sanchez-Martinez and Sean Brennan were all at her bedside on Monday.
Says Bencharsky: "She was a true performer and never let on how ill she was, even to the very end, entertaining friends and family from her bed in a Zürich hotel. She never wanted people to feel uncomfortable and just wanted them to enjoy themselves."