Deborah Cook (July 6, 1938 – April 22, 2019) was an American operatic soprano who had a prolific international opera career during the 1970s and 1980s. Her career was primarily focused in Germany where she lived from 1972 through 1985. However, she did travel extensively throughout Europe and in the United States, performing in operas, concerts, recitals, and recording for radio productions. A gifted coloratura soprano, Cook sang a wide repertoire that encompassed English, German, French, and Italian opera from a variety of musical periods. She notably sang in a number of world premieres including Hans Werner Henze's We Come to the River at the Royal Opera, London in 1976. Career Cook was born in Philadelphia, where she studied singing privately with Irene Williams, soprano. She sang in a number of student opera productions at Temple University during the early 1960s, beginning with the role of Adele in Die Fledermaus in 1963. She married Philadelphia psychiatrist, Robert L. Kashoff, who died December 29, 1964, shortly after the couple had married. Cook made her professional opera debut on October 31, 1965, at the Academy of Music with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company singing the title role in a concert version of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with Frank Guarrera as Enrico. However, this performance did not excite the attention that Cook was hoping for and she was forced to take work outside of music for the next several years while continuing with further studies with Williams, and Nicola Palumbo in New York City. She appeared in many concerts and performances in the Philadelphia area during the late 1960s including portraying Galatea in Handel's Acis and Galatea with John Darrenkamp as Damon at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1967 and returning there in 1968 to sing Vespina in Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa, both with the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. It wasn't until the early 1970s when Cook won a prize in an important singing competition in Chicago, that she drew the attentiont of the opera world. She made her international opera debut in 1971 singing Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos touring with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In 1972 she joined the roster at the Theater Bremen as one of their principal sopranos, where she remained until 1975 and continued to perform as a guest until 1980. She appeared there and in other German opera houses in roles such as