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Craig Campbell (tenor)
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
tenor who performed in operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s across Canada and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Campbell recorded with the Columbia
Columbia Graphophone Company
The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Under EMI, as Columbia Records, it became a very successful label in the 1950s and 1960s...
, Davega, Perfect
Perfect Records
Perfect Records was a United States based record label of the 1920s and 1930s. It was a subsidiary of Pathé Records, producing standard lateral cut 78 rpm disc records for the US market....
and Pathé
Pathé Records
Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...
labels. Although a tenor, Campbell had a very rich voice and could also sing baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
, and described himself as a tenore robusto.
Childhood
Campbell was born in London, OntarioLondon, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
to Alexander and Elizibeth Campbell in 1878. While Campbell was young, the family moved several times, living in Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
and Owen Sound before settling down in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
. His first performance on stage took place in Winnipeg, when he performed for the High School Literary Society.
Career
Campbell made a formal debut in 1909 in the role of Alfred Blake in The Love Cure by Edmund EyslerEdmund Eysler
Edmund Samuel Eysler , was an Austrian composer.-Biography:Edmund Eysler was born in Vienna to a merchant family...
at the New Amsterdam Theatre
New Amsterdam Theatre
The New Amsterdam Theatre is a Broadway theater located at 214 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Theatre District of Manhattan, New York City, off of Times Square...
. He began touring the United States and Canada as a vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
tenor on the Keith-Orpheum and Loew tour circuits. In 1912, Campbell starred as Jack Travers in the first production of Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml
Rudolf Friml was a composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer...
's operetta The Firefly
The Firefly (operetta)
The Firefly is the first operetta written by composer Rudolf Friml, with a libretto by Otto Harbach. The story concerns a young girl, who is a street singer. She disguises herself and serves as a cabin boy on a ship to Bermuda, where she falls in love...
, which was performed at the Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre (New York)
The Lyric Theatre was a prominent Broadway theatre built in 1903 in Manhattan, New York City in the 42nd Street Theatre District. It had two entrances, one at 213 West 42nd Street and another at 214-26 West 43rd Street and was one of the few New York houses that had two formal entrances. In 1934,...
. The female lead was Emma Trentini
Emma Trentini
Emma Trentini was an Italian soprano opera singer who came to the United States in December 1906.-Early life:She was from Mantova, Italy . Her parents were poor and could not afford to give her money to attain an operatic career. At the age of 12 she was welcomed into the church choir of Mantova...
. This would lead to Campbell's first recording, when he recorded the song A Woman's Smile from this play for the Columbia Record Company.
Campbell became a member of the American Society of Singers in 1914. Campbell began giving performances in American opera halls and on concert stages. He appeared as a lead with Julia Claussen
Julia Claussen
Julia Claussen was a Swedish mezzo-soprano.A native of Stockholm, Claussen was educated at the Royal Academy of Music in that city; she also studied at the Royal Academy in Berlin. She made her debut in La favorita in Stockholm on January 19, 1903, and remained with the Royal Swedish Opera for...
in Faust and Helena at the New York Symphony Orchestra
New York Symphony Orchestra
The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a fierce rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie who built Carnegie Hall expressly for the...
in 1918. The next year, he sang Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
with the St. Louis Municipal Opera. In 1931, he sang the role of Dick Dauntless in Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
which was performed in Erlanger's Theater. Campbell retired from the stage sometime in the late 1930s, but continued to perform as an amateur in St. John's Episcopal Church's choir in Jersey City, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
until 1954. He died in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1965.
Recordings
- A dream by James Bartlett and Charles Cory, recorded June 1912, released 1912 as Side A on Columbia Phonograph Company #A 1249.
- A woman's smile by Rudolph Friml, Gus KahnGus KahnGustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...
and Otto HarbachOtto HarbachOtto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies...
, recorded June 1912, released 1912 as Side A on Columbia Phonograph Company #A 1274.
- Oh! That we two were maying with Grace Kerns by Alice Mary SmithAlice Mary SmithAlice Mary Smith, married name Alice Mary Meadows White was an English composer.Smith was born in London, the third child of a relatively well-to-do family. She showed aptitude for music from her early years and took lessons privately from William Sterndale Bennett and George Macfarren, publishing...
, recorded June 2, 1913, released August 1913 as Side A on Columbia Phonograph Company #A1341.
- Good-bye by Paolo Tosti, recorded October 1918, released December 1919 as Side A on Pathé Frères Phonograph Company #25024
// I mind the day by Charles Willeby, recorded September 1919 as Side B.
- Silver Threads Among the GoldSilver Threads Among the Gold"Silver Threads Among the Gold", first copyrighted in 1873, was an extremely popular song in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today it is a standard of barbershop quartet singing. The lyrics are by Eben E...
by Eben Rexford and Hart DanksHart Pease DanksHart Pease Danks was a musician who specialized in composing, singing and leading choral groups. He is best known for his 1873 composition, Silver Threads Among the Gold.-Biography:...
, recorded June 1922, released December 15, 1922 as Side A on Pathé Frères Phonograph Company #5032// We've been chums for fifty years by Thurland ChattawayThurland ChattawayThurland Chattaway was a popular music composer, active from approximately 1898 to 1912. Most famous for writing the words to the popular hit "Red Wing". Other songs include "Little Black Me" and "Can't You Take It Back and Change It For a Boy"....
, recorded June 1922.
- Who knows? by Ernest BallErnest BallErnest R. Ball was a United States singer and songwriter, most famous for composing the music for the song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" in 1912. He was not, himself, Irish....
and Paul Laurence DunbarPaul Laurence DunbarPaul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal African American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 "Ode to Ethiopia", one poem in the collection Lyrics of Lowly Life....
, recorded June 1922, released December 1922 as Side A on Pathé Frères Phonograph Company #025101.// The banks of Allan Water by Charles Edward HornCharles Edward HornCharles Edward Horn was an English composer and singer. He was born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London to Charles Frederick Horn and his wife, Diana Dupont. He was the eldest of their seven children. His father taught him music; he also took music lessons briefly in 1808 from singer Venanzio...
, as Side B
- Bonnie sweet Bessie by Arabella Root and James GilbertJames GilbertCecil James Gilbert is a Scottish-born British television producer and director. He was Head of BBC Television Comedy from 1973 until 1977. He was probably best known for his work on The Two Ronnies, Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours...
, recorded December 1922, released June 1924 as Side A on Pathé Frères Phonograph Company #11527// Believe me, if all those endearing young charms by Thomas MooreThomas MooreThomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...
and Sir John Stevenson, recorded April 1924, as Side B.