Eva Turner
Encyclopedia
Dame Eva Turner DBE
(10 March 189216 June 1990) was an English dramatic soprano
with an international reputation. Her strong, steady and well-trained voice was renowned for its clarion power in Italian and German operatic roles.
, Oldham
, Lancashire, England. Her first formal singing lessons were with Dan Rootham, the teacher of the famous contralto
Clara Butt
. From 1911 to 1914 she studied at the Royal Academy of Music
in London.
She began her career as a chorister with the Carl Rosa Opera Company
and steadily took on larger roles such as Kate Pinkerton and the lead role of Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly
, Micaela in Carmen
, Musetta in Puccini
's La bohème
, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana
, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser
, Freia in Das Rheingold
, Elsa in Lohengrin
, Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen
, Leonora in La forza del destino
, Leonora in Fidelio
, Eva in Die Meistersinger
, and the title roles in Aida
, Tosca
and Thaïs
.
In 1924 after an audition for the La Scala
company in Milan, she was engaged by its principal conductor Arturo Toscanini
as Freia and Sieglinde for the La Scala Ring Cycle
of 1924–25.
The role for which she was, and remains, most famous, was the title role in Turandot
. She was in the audience for the 1926 premiere at La Scala
and first sang it in December that year at the Teatro Grande in Brescia
seven months after its premiere. In 1928 she performed it at the Covent Garden
(also playing Aida and Santuzza during the season), and in 1929 she took the part at La Scala. Recordings of her Turandot recorded live at Covent Garden in 1937 with Giovanni Martinelli
as Calaf and John Barbirolli
conducting remained unissued at the time but were released in the 1980s.
When Ralph Vaughan Williams
composed his Serenade to Music
for 16 leading singers of the day he included lines for Eva Turner, but separated them from those for the other three sopranos so that her mighty voice rose instead from among the mezzos. A 1938 recording of the work, conducted by Sir Henry Wood and made immediately after the premiere, captures Turner's voice in the lines Vaughan Williams wrote for her.
In 1948, she retired from the stage. The following year she was offered the position of Visiting Professor of Voice at the University of Oklahoma
, and a one-year contract was extended for nine years. She returned to London in 1959 where she was appointed Professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music
, a position she held until aged well into her 80s. Her style of teaching was too forthright for some (Rita Hunter
found it too demanding), but it produced such successful students as Amy Shuard
, Roberta Knie
, Janet Coster
, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
. Shuard and later Dame Gwyneth Jones, both of whom had success in the role of Turandot, studied this part with her.
In retirement she was closely involved with the International Association of Wagner Societies in the UK and elsewhere. Unlike some retired singers she enjoyed attending performances and she was frequently present in the audience at Covent Garden
, up to the time of her death. Evidencing a genial sense of humour about her craft, she was a regular patron of Hinge and Bracket
concert and gala performances, often seen enjoying their affectionate tribute to the operatic and performance style of an earlier age.
She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(DBE) in 1962. Most of her recordings from the 1920s and 1930s are now available on CD reissues.
Biography Dame Eva Turner – http://www.dameevaturner.com/
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(10 March 189216 June 1990) was an English dramatic soprano
Dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound. Usually this voice has a lower tessitura than...
with an international reputation. Her strong, steady and well-trained voice was renowned for its clarion power in Italian and German operatic roles.
Career
Eva Turner was born in WernethWerneth, Greater Manchester
Werneth is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is west-southwest of Oldham's commercial centre and one of Oldham's most ancient localities.-History:...
, Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
, Lancashire, England. Her first formal singing lessons were with Dan Rootham, the teacher of the famous contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
Clara Butt
Clara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE , sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.-Early life and career:Clara Butt was born in Southwick,...
. From 1911 to 1914 she studied at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in London.
She began her career as a chorister with the Carl Rosa Opera Company
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
and steadily took on larger roles such as Kate Pinkerton and the lead role of Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
, Micaela in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, Musetta in Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, Freia in Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
, Elsa in Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
, Leonora in La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
, Leonora in Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
, Eva in Die Meistersinger
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
, and the title roles in Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
and Thaïs
Thaïs (opera)
Thaïs is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet based on the novel Thaïs by Anatole France. It was first performed at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on 16 March 1894, starring the American soprano Sybil Sanderson, for whom Massenet had written the title role...
.
In 1924 after an audition for the La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
company in Milan, she was engaged by its principal conductor Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
as Freia and Sieglinde for the La Scala Ring Cycle
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
of 1924–25.
The role for which she was, and remains, most famous, was the title role in Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
. She was in the audience for the 1926 premiere at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
and first sang it in December that year at the Teatro Grande in Brescia
Brescia
Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, between the Mella and the Naviglio, with a population of around 197,000. It is the second largest city in Lombardy, after the capital, Milan...
seven months after its premiere. In 1928 she performed it at the Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
(also playing Aida and Santuzza during the season), and in 1929 she took the part at La Scala. Recordings of her Turandot recorded live at Covent Garden in 1937 with Giovanni Martinelli
Giovanni Martinelli
Giovanni Martinelli was a celebrated Italian operatic tenor. He was particularly associated with the Italian lyric-dramatic repertory, although he performed French operatic roles to great acclaim as well...
as Calaf and John Barbirolli
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
conducting remained unissued at the time but were released in the 1980s.
When Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
composed his Serenade to Music
Serenade to Music
Serenade to Music is a work by Ralph Vaughan Williams for 16 vocal soloists and orchestra, composed in 1938. The text is an adaptation of the discussion about music and the music of the spheres in Act V, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Vaughan Williams later arranged...
for 16 leading singers of the day he included lines for Eva Turner, but separated them from those for the other three sopranos so that her mighty voice rose instead from among the mezzos. A 1938 recording of the work, conducted by Sir Henry Wood and made immediately after the premiere, captures Turner's voice in the lines Vaughan Williams wrote for her.
In 1948, she retired from the stage. The following year she was offered the position of Visiting Professor of Voice at the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
, and a one-year contract was extended for nine years. She returned to London in 1959 where she was appointed Professor of Singing at the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
, a position she held until aged well into her 80s. Her style of teaching was too forthright for some (Rita Hunter
Rita Hunter
Rita Hunter CBE was a British operatic dramatic soprano.Rita Hunter was born in Wallasey, Merseyside. She studied singing in Liverpool with Edwin Francis and later in London with Redvers Llewellyn and Clive Carey...
found it too demanding), but it produced such successful students as Amy Shuard
Amy Shuard
Amy Shuard CBE was an English operatic soprano renowned in such dramatic roles as Elektra, Turandot and Brünnhilde. She created both title roles in Janáček's Káťa Kabanová and Jenůfa in their respective British premieres. She has been described as "the best English dramatic soprano since Eva...
, Roberta Knie
Roberta Knie
Roberta Knie is an American dramatic soprano who had a prominent opera career in the United States and Europe that spanned from the mid 1960s through the early 1980s...
, Janet Coster
Janet Coster
Janet Coster is an English operatic mezzo-soprano.Born in London, the daughter of a London Transport employee, Coster studied at the Guildhall School of Music and privately with Eva Turner...
, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...
. Shuard and later Dame Gwyneth Jones, both of whom had success in the role of Turandot, studied this part with her.
In retirement she was closely involved with the International Association of Wagner Societies in the UK and elsewhere. Unlike some retired singers she enjoyed attending performances and she was frequently present in the audience at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, up to the time of her death. Evidencing a genial sense of humour about her craft, she was a regular patron of Hinge and Bracket
Hinge and Bracket
Dr. Evadne Hinge and Dame Hilda Bracket were the stage personae of the musical performance and female impersonation artists George Logan and Patrick Fyffe...
concert and gala performances, often seen enjoying their affectionate tribute to the operatic and performance style of an earlier age.
She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(DBE) in 1962. Most of her recordings from the 1920s and 1930s are now available on CD reissues.
External links
Biography Dame Eva Turner – http://www.dameevaturner.com/
External sources
- Dame Eva Turner Detailed Biography of Dame Eva