Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica | |
---|---|
New England Conservatory | |
Died | May 10, 1914 Jakarta, Java | (aged 56)
Genres | classical |
Occupations | Singer |
Years active | 1876–1914 |
Labels | Edison |
Lillian Nordica (December 12, 1857 – May 10, 1914) was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country.
Nordica established herself as one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She had a powerful yet flexible voice and the ability to perform an unusually wide range of roles in the German, French and Italian operatic repertoires.
Early life and education
Lillian Allen Norton was born in 1857 in a small Cape Cod style farmhouse built by her grandfather on a hill in Farmington, Maine.
In her youth, Norton is said to have possessed an inherent fondness for music and the sounds of singing birds and running brooks. When she was eight her family moved to
Career
Norton made her public debut at the conservatory as a soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society.
Convinced that she could forge a successful career as a professional performer, Norton travelled to Italy and put a final bel canto polish on her vocalism through study in Milan. "Nordica", a stage name, was bestowed by an Italian maestro at the beginning of her operatic career. He convinced her that European opera-goers would not tolerate a diva with a plain sounding, Anglo-American name. The adopted name, Giglia Nordica, meant "Lily of the North", but she soon became known as "Madame Nordica" or simply as "Nordica".
As Madame Nordica, she made her operatic debut at
By all accounts Nordica possessed an extremely big, agile and pure-toned soprano voice which she was prepared to use unstintingly. (See, for instance, Michael Scott, The Record of Singing, Volume One, pp. 38–40.) An adventurous artist, she embraced an enormously varied repertoire which included, among many other works,
Nordica wrote a treatise called Hints to Singers. A copy is appended to her Yankee Diva biography.[1]
By 1913, Nordica's voice and health were in decline. This did not prevent her from embarking misguidedly on a strenuous tour to Australia, [2] which proved to be her last.
Recordings
Nordica made a number of acoustic discs for
Personal life
Nordica's successful operatic career contrasted with her disastrous personal life. Nordica wed three times.[1]
In 1882, she retired from the stage to marry Frederick A. Gower, whom she sued for divorce in 1885, but who disappeared at about the time of the suit, probably having been killed in a balloon accident.
Women's suffrage
Nordica was also a vocal supporter of women’s rights. She spoke out against the pay gap between male and female singers. Nordica raised funds for the women’s suffrage movement by giving concerts. She spoke from an open streetcar in San Francisco, encouraging women to vote, one day before the vote for the women’s right in California.
In 1910, Nordica wrote a full page article for the New York Times. In this, she championed the Women's Suffrage cause.[5]
Death
Nordica nearly missed the ship departing Sydney after her 1913 Australian concert tour, but wired the captain asking him to wait for her. It would prove to be a fatal mistake. The Tasman hit a
Legacy
Her birthplace in Farmington, Maine, is today the Nordica Homestead, a museum and historic site. Nordica Auditorium in Merrill Hall at the University of Maine at Farmington is named after her.[8]
References
- ^ a b c (Glackens 1963)[page needed]
- ^ Western Mail, 22 August 1913. Retrieved 9 December 2013
- ^ a b c Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). Encyclopedia Americana. .
- ^ Ludwig Eisenberg: Großes biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Bühne im XIX. Jahrhundert. published by Paul List, Leipzig 1903, p. 731 (german)
- ^ New York Times, June 26, 1910, Section MAGAZINE, Page 13
- ^ postscripts, Sunday, January 13, 2013, Lillian Nordica, 2: Unlucky in Love: CHRONICLES OF CROTON'S BOHEMIA; Retrieved 11 August 2013
- ^ National Library of Australia, Theatre of darkness : Lillian Nordica as opera; Retrieved 11 August 2013
- ^ "Nordica Auditorium". University of Maine at Farmington. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-09-15.
Bibliography
- Glackens, Ira (1963). Yankee Diva. OCLC 469383881.
Attribution
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nordica, Lilian". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920). Encyclopedia Americana.
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(help) - New International Encyclopedia(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
Further reading
- Kennebec Maine Journal, Music, Augusta, Maine, Historical Series, VI of VI, October 23, 1976, Page 7.
- Syracuse Herald, Lillian Nordica's Voice is Stilled by Death on Other Side of the Globe, Far From Her Friends, Monday Evening, May 11, 1914, Page 5.
- The Great Singers, by Henry Pleasants, fourth edition (Macmillan Publishing, London, 1983).
- The Record of Singing, Volume One, by Michael Scott (Duckworth, London, 1977).
External links
- Nordica Memorial Association and Nordica Homestead Museum, Farmington, Maine
- Marston Records has reissued all the known Lillian Nordica recordings on a CD set.
- Slide show of images related to Lillian Nordica from the Maine Memory Network
- Lillian Nordica, North American Theater Online, Bio and photos
- Haunt in The University of Maine at Farmington 116 South St Farmington, Me 04938 Farmington, MAINE Franklin Haunt