Anita Darian

Who is Anita Darian?

Anita Darian is an American singer and actress who has had an active career since the 1950s. As a soprano, Darian has performed roles with the New York City Opera and been a featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic. She has also performed and recorded several roles from musicals during her career, including Julie in excerpts from Show Boat, a recording she made for Columbia Masterworks in 1962 with John Raitt, Barbara Cook, and William Warfield. She portrayed Lady Thiang in the 1960 revival of The King and I at New York City Center with Barbara Cook as Anna and Farley Granger as the King. She has also recorded a number of solo albums with Kapp Records.

She trained at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia with the goal of becoming an opera singer.

According to The Official Masterworks Broadway Site, "Darian's most widely distributed recording by far, although it was made anonymously, was The Tokens' 1961 hit single "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", on which she provided the extremely high wordless soprano vocal during the saxophone solo in counter-melody to the lead."