Geraldine Farrar

Alice Geraldine Farrar^[1] (February 28, 1882 – March 11, 1967) was an American lyric soprano who could also sing dramatic roles. She was noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice."^[2] In the 1910s, she also found success as an actress in silent films. She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".^[3][4]

Biography

Farrar was born in

After three years with the

Farrar recorded extensively for the

"Unlike most of the famous bel canto singers of the past who sacrificed dramatic action to tonal perfection, she was more interested in the emotional than in the purely lyrical aspects of her roles. According to Miss Farrar, until prime donne can combine the arts of Sarah Bernhardt and Nellie Melba, dramatic ability is more essential than perfect singing in opera."

— Elizabeth Nash^[11]

In 1960, Farrar was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the music and film categories, located at 1620 and 1709 Vine Street.

Personal life

Beginning in 1908, Farrar had a seven-year love affair with the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini. Her ultimatum, that he leave his wife and children and marry her, resulted in Toscanini's abrupt resignation as principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in 1915. Farrar was a close friend to the Met's star tenor Enrico Caruso and there has been speculation that they too had a love affair. It is said that Caruso coined her motto: Farrar farà ("Farrar will do it").^[12]

Her marriage to actor Lou Tellegen on February 8, 1916, was the source of considerable scandal. The marriage ended, as a result of her husband's numerous affairs, in a very public divorce in 1923. The circumstances of the divorce were brought again to public recollection by Tellegen's bizarre 1934 suicide in Hollywood. Farrar reportedly said "Why should that interest me?" when told of Tellegen's death.^{[citation needed]}

Farrar retired from opera in 1922 at the age of 40. Her final performance was as Leoncavallo's Zazà. By this stage, her voice was in premature decline due to overwork. According to the American music critic Henry Pleasants, the author of The Great Singers from the Dawn of Opera to Our Own Time (first published 1967), she gave between 25 and 35 performances each season at the Met alone. They included 95 appearances as Madama Butterfly and 58 as Carmen in 16 seasons. The title role in Puccini's Tosca, which she had added to her repertoire in 1909, was another one of her favourite Met parts.

Farrar quickly transitioned into concert recitals, and was signed (within several weeks of announcing her opera retirement) to an appearance at Hershey Park on Memorial Day 1922.^[13] She continued to make recordings and give recitals throughout the 1920s and was briefly the intermission commentator for the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts during the 1934–35 season. Her unusual autobiography, Such Sweet Compulsion, published in 1938, was written in alternating chapters purporting to be her own words and those of her deceased mother, with Mrs. Farrar rather floridly recounting her daughter's many accomplishments.

In 1967, Farrar died in Ridgefield, Connecticut of heart disease aged 85, and was buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. She had no children.

Filmography

Media

Manon! avez-vous peur...On l'appelle Manon

Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar in a scene from Act II of Massenet's Manon.

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In popular culture

The American author Barbara Paul has written several murder mystery novels featuring Geraldine Farrar, Enrico Caruso, and the Metropolitan Opera.

References

Citations

General sources

• Farrar, Geraldine (1916). Geraldine Farrar, the story of an American singer. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin.
  OCLC 263028569, 747740995
  . Retrieved January 30, 2014.
• Farrar, Geraldine (1938). The Autobiography of Geraldine Farrar: Such Sweet Compulsion (First ed.). New York: The Greystone Press.
  OCLC 639623267
  . Retrieved January 30, 2014.
• Nash, Elizabeth (1981). Always First Class: The Career of Geraldine Farrar. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.
  OCLC 7812696
  .
• Rosenthal, H. and Warrack, J., "Farrar, Geraldine", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 1979, p. 161.
  ISBN 0-19-311321-X
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Geraldine Farrar.

• Works by Geraldine Farrar at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Geraldine Farrar at Internet Archive
• Geraldine Farrar at
  IMDb
• Enrico Caruso & Geraldine Farrar – Vogliatemi Bene on
  Vogliatemi bene from Madama Butterfly
• Geraldine Farrar recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
• Geraldine Farrar Collection, 1895-1943 at the Library of Congress
• Geraldine Farrar Memorabilia Archived August 7, 2020, at the
  the Newberry Library
• Geraldine Farrar at Virtual History
• Geraldine Farrar photo gallery (Univ. of Washington/Sayre Collection)
• The Story of My Life (Chapter 1) published in Photoplay, February 1919
• The Story of My Life (Chapter 2) published in Photoplay, March 1919
• The Story of My Life (Chapter 3) published in Photoplay, April 1919
• Motion Picture Magazine Feb 1917 page 99,"Geraldine Farrar: Gives Some Good Advice to Stage and Screen Aspirants" by Helen Batchelder Shute