Mary Garden
Mary Garden | |
---|---|
Born | Aberdeen, Scotland | 20 February 1874
Died | 3 January 1967 House of Daviot, Inverurie, Scotland | (aged 92)
Citizenship | British American |
Education | St Margaret's School for Girls, Aberdeen |
Occupation(s) | opera singer actress |
Known for | creating the leading role in Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902) and for her collaboration with the composer |
Mary Garden (20 February 1874 – 3 January 1967) was a Scottish-American operatic lyric soprano, then mezzo-soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century. She spent the latter part of her childhood and youth in the United States and eventually became an American citizen, although she lived in France for many years and eventually retired to Scotland, where she spent the last 30 years of her life and died.[1]
Described as "the Sarah Bernhardt of opera", Garden was an exceptional actress as well as a talented singer. She was particularly admired for her nuanced performances which employed interesting uses of vocal color. Possessing a beautiful lyric voice that had a wide vocal range and considerable amount of flexibility, Garden first arose to success in Paris during the first decade of the 20th century. She became the leading soprano at the Opéra-Comique; notably portraying roles in several world premieres, including Mélisande in Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902). She worked closely with Jules Massenet, in whose operas she excelled. Massenet notably wrote the title role in his opera Chérubin (1905) for her.[2]
In 1907,
Additionally, Garden appeared in two silent films made by Samuel Goldwyn.[3]
After retiring from the opera stage in 1934, Garden worked as a talent scout for
Her voice is preserved on a number of recordings made for the Gramophone Company (including some with Debussy at the piano), Edison Records, Pathé, Columbia Records and the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1903 and 1929.[4]
Biography
Early life and rise to stardom in Europe
Early years
Mary Garden was born on 20 February 1874 at 35 Charlotte Street, Aberdeen, Scotland, the oldest of the four daughters of Robert Davidson Garden (b. 1851), a cashier at the Blaikie ironworks, and his wife Mary (née Joss) (1852–1948).[5][6] Her parents married a little over a month before her birth. Two of her sisters were born in Scotland while another was born in the United States.[6]
The family moved to Chicopee, Massachusetts, United States when she was nine years old. They then moved to Hartford, Connecticut a few years later, and then to Chicago in 1888 when Mary was 14.[4]
Voice student
She showed promise as a young singer, and studied with Sarah Robinson-Duff in Chicago under the financial support of wealthy patrons David and Florence Mayer. In 1896 she pursued further studies in Paris, chiefly with Ange-Pierre de Trabadelo and Lucien Fugère, still under the support of the Mayers. She also studied some under Jacques Bouhy, Jules Chevalier (singer), and Mathilde Marchesi. In 1899 Garden lost the backing of her benefactors, and she began to study singing with the American soprano Sibyl Sanderson. Sanderson introduced her to Jules Massenet and Albert Carré, the director of the Opéra-Comique.
Operatic debut
Impressed with her voice, Carré invited her to join the roster at the Opéra-Comique in 1900. Garden made her professional opera debut with the company on 10 April 1900 in the title role of Gustave Charpentier's Louise, which had received its world premiere only two months before. Although Garden had been preparing the role, her debut, at the eighth performance of the work, was unscheduled as she was a last minute replacement for Marthe Rioton who had become ill.[3] From 1901 for two years, she carried on an affair with André Messager, who conducted her in Louise. She claimed that when the Opéra-Comique director Albert Carré asked her to marry him, she replied that she had someone else in her life – Messager. Her description is of a tempestuous relationship, but they remained friends until his death.[7]
After her debut, Garden quickly became one of the leading sopranos at the Opéra-Comique. In 1901 she starred in two world premieres, Marie in Lucien Lambert's La Marseillaise and Diane in Gabriel Pierné's La fille de Tabarin. That same year she sang the title role in Massenet's Thaïs at Aix-les-Bains, and sang both the title roles in Massenet's Manon and Messager's Madame Chrysanthème at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo; all under the coaching of Sanderson. In 1902, Claude Debussy selected her to play the female lead at the Opéra-Comique debut of his Pelléas et Mélisande. Garden's performances met with considerable critical acclaim. She also created a sensation as Salomé in the French version of Richard Strauss's opera of that name.[2]
Following the success of Pelléas et Mélisande, Garden periodically went to London to sing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden while still appearing in performances in Paris. At Covent Garden she sang Manon, Juliette in Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and Marguerite in Gounod's Faust during the 1902 and 1903 seasons. Garden, however, did not care for London and decided to not take any more engagements in that city. Her performances at the Opéra-Comique during this time included the title role in Massenet's Grisélidis (1902), Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata (1903), the title role in the world premiere of Xavier Leroux's La reine Fiammette (1903), and the title role in Saint-Saëns's Hélène (1905). In 1905 she sang at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in the world premiere of Massenet's Chérubin, a role which the composer wrote specifically for her. The following year she returned to the Opéra-Comique to sing Chrysis in the world premiere of Camille Erlanger's Aphrodite.[3]
Departure from the Opéra-Comique and later career in the United States
Persuaded by
In 1908 she returned to Paris to join the roster at the
By 1910, Garden had become a household name within America. She left the Manhattan Opera House to join the Chicago Grand Opera Company where she sang from 1910 to 1913 in such roles as Mélisande, Fanny in Massenet's Sapho, Dulcinée in Massenet's Don Quichotte, the Prince in Massenet's Cendrillon, the title role in Georges Bizet's Carmen, and the title role in Giacomo Puccini's Tosca. During this time she also sang in other American cities, notably appearing in the world premiere of Victor Herbert's Natoma in Philadelphia on 25 February 1911 and in the title role Février's Monna Vanna in its United States premiere in Boston.[4] In late April 1912 Garden along with Caruso and the Metropolitan Opera Company gave special concerts in which they raised $12,000(over quarter of a million in 2017) dollars for aid to survivors of the Titanic tragedy.
Garden next sang with the
Although serving as director for only one year, she was responsible for producing the world première of
In 1922 Garden became the director of the newly formed
Garden retired from the opera stage in 1934, after making her last appearance as Katyusha in Franco Alfano's Risurrezione at the Opéra-Comique. After retiring, Garden worked as a talent scout for
Personal life
As portrayed in both her autobiography and
Her autobiography, Mary Garden's Story (1951), is marred by inaccuracies[citation needed]. Always prone to embellish and exaggerate, Garden was already succumbing to dementia when the manuscript was being prepared.[2]
It was in recognition of her personal history that Scottish Opera chose to present in their inaugural 1962 season Pelléas et Mélisande. That year marked the centenary of Debussy's birth and the diamond jubilee of the opera. By the time of the first performance Mary Garden was unable to accept her invitation to attend, being in hospital after a fall, and with her health in decline.[13]
Mary Garden died in Inverurie, close to Aberdeen, where she spent the last 30 years of her life. An award for opera singing at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival is made in her name.[14] There is a small memorial garden dedicated to her in the west-end of Aberdeen, with a small inscribed stone and a bench.[2][15]
Recordings and films
Mary Garden made about 40
She made two silent films,
Literary references
Garden is cited with other artistic figures of the period in Hugh MacDiarmid's poem A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (ll.30–2):
Whaur's Isadora Duncan dancin nou,
Is Mary Garden in Chicago still
And Duncan Grant in Paris – and me fou?
Allen Ginsberg contrasts the relative silence surrounding Garden's death with the uproar caused by the death of Jack Ruby in "Bayonne Turnpike to Tuscarora," from the 1973 award-winning collection The Fall of America:
Mary Garden dead in Aberdeen,
Jack Ruby dead in Dallas -
Sweet green incense in car cabin
...
New Years' 1967 come,
Mary Garden, 92, sleeping tonite in Aberdeen
Garden and Ruby both died on January 3, 1967.
References
Notes
- ^ Garden is sometimes referred to as solely 'American', as she had lived in America since the age of 6, however she did not even apply for American citizenship until 8 April 1924 (Turnbull, Michael TRB: Mary Garden, p. 159) and lived in Europe thereafter.
- ^ ISBN 0-8019-5516-5.
- ^ Grove Music Onlineed. L. Macy (Accessed 9 February 2009) (subscription access)
- ^ a b c Biography of Mary Garden, operissimo.com (in German)
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48910. Retrieved 1 December 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ a b "Mary Garden, 92, Opera Star, Dead", The New York Times, 5 January 1967
- ^ Opstad G. Debussy's Mélisande – the lives of Georgette Leblanc, Mary Garden and Maggie Teyte. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 2009.
- JSTOR 48569305.
- ^ "Scenes at KYW." Lebanon (PA) Daily News, July 20, 1922 p. 6.
- IMDb
- ISBN 9781555536350.
- ^ Dedication page, "Mary Garden's Story"
- ^ Webster, Jack (13 July 1992). "Time to sing praises of Scottish Opera". The Herald. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- ^ "Mary Garden". Opera Scotland. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- ^ "Soprano Won Distinction in Wide Variety of Roles Mary Garden, Opera Soprano, Dies in Scotland at 92". The New York Times. 5 January 1967. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
- ^ Discography by Jim McPherson and William R Moran in Turnbull, Michael TRB: Mary Garden (Portland, Oregon, 1997), Appendix 2.
- ^ Jeanette MacDonald on the Radio Archived 17 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine, a list of Lux Radio Theater programs in the mid-1930s
Sources
- Fletcher, J. B.: Garden, Mary in ISBN 0-333-73432-7
- Garden, M. and Biancolli, L.: Mary Garden's Story (New York, 1951)
- Turnbull, Michael TRB: Mary Garden (Portland, Oregon, 1997)
External links
- Mary Garden at IMDb
- Mary Garden at Flickr
- Mary Garden, Scottish-American Soprano with many photos
- Victor Discography Catalog of Mary Garden
- Mary Garden sings "Depuis le jour" from Gustave Charpentier's Louise, recorded Dec. 24, 1926. (4 min 34 sec) from Britannica Online for Kids
- Garden with William S. Hart