A Boston Globe review published Dec. 18 found that Boston University College of Fine Arts Opera Institute and Opera Programs Director Sharon Daniels’ biography on the CFA website contained embellishments.
Until Wednesday, Daniels’s bio cited her performances in starring roles with prominent companies around the world. The bio was changed, however, after The Globe found that four institutions have no record of Daniels or of casting her in any major parts.
Now heading BU’s Opera Institute and Opera Programs, Daniels first came to the university as an artist-in-residence in 1989.
A Nov. 23 version of the CFA website bio states that Daniels sang principal soprano in both the Edinburgh Festival and the Netherlands Opera. But The Globe reported Netherlands Opera representatives said they found no record of performances by Daniels after checking their archives.
Daniels’ original biography said she had a principal role as former first lady Pat Nixon in ‘Nixon in China’ at the Edinburgh Festival in 1988. After The Globe’s review, she clarified that this was actually an understudy role for which she never sang overseas.
The references to the Edinburgh Festival and Netherlands Opera from Daniels’s biography on the CFA website have also since been deleted.
CFA spokeswoman Jean Connaughton said the bio that was posted online was a result of a miscommunication.
‘Professor Daniels’ curriculum vitae were updated this summer when she was up for reappointment,’ she said. ‘There was really no intention of making it misleading.’
A principal soprano role with the San Francisco Opera remains the newly revised bio, though Daniels’ involvement with the Opera and the San Francisco Symphony is still being disputed by the two companies, according to the Globe.
‘These things are very old,’ Daniels told The Globe. ‘They’re very unimportant to me now.’
Daniels could not be reached for comment at press time.
CFA Dean ad interim Walt Meissner said in an email that Daniels has produced exemplary work throughout her 21 years at BU.
‘We are confident that Professor Daniels’ credentials were not intentionally embellished in her CFA website biography, and regret that we didn’t immediately correct the misleading information that was discovered earlier this year,’ Meissner said. ‘We stand behind Professor Daniels as an educator, an artist, and an advocate for opera.’
School of Music Director Robert Dodson said CFA’s Opera Institute is the envy of many other music schools thanks in part to Daniels’ ‘tireless efforts to advance the program over the last [12] years.’
‘Professor Daniels is a celebrated opera singer and teacher and I am proud to have her on the faculty of the BU School of Music,’ Dodson said.
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