Florence Easton
Encyclopedia
Florence Easton was a popular English dramatic soprano
in the early 20th century. She was one of the most versatile singers of all time. She sang more than 100 parts, covering a wide range of styles and periods, from Mozart, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Strauss
, Schreker and Krenek. In Wagner she sang virtually every soprano part, large and small from Senta onwards, with the exception of the Götterdämmerung
Brünnhilde. She described herself as "lyric dramatic soprano", which seems barely adequate in relation to the range of types of role in which she excelled. Her high international reputation, founded mainly in Germany and North America, was almost unique for a British singer of her time. She could move easily through all stages from the light coloratura
to the Hochdramatische, from girlish romanticism to powerful Wagnerian and Straussian drama. The voice could be light and airy, gently melancholic or intensely passionate. The involvement in the character of the role was total. John Steane has suggested that "This great strength of hers was also, in a strange way, a source of weakness. She sang so many roles very well that she never quite became identified with any of these". There is no connection between Florence Easton and the singer Robert Easton, born 1898 in Sunderland.
(many biographies show her birthdate incorrectly as 1884). Her parents left England when she was 5 years old and settled with Florence (then known as Flossie) and her younger brother in Toronto, Canada. Her musical talent became evident in early childhood and she had piano, organ and singing lessons with JDA Tripp and Mr Harrison. She appeared publicly as a pianist when she was 8 years old.
She said "I began as a pianist, and had no thought of singing, let alone the opera, when I began the study of music". Florence was the first woman to be made a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music
.
When her mother died in 1899, Florence returned with her father to Middlesbrough, where he joined a partnership in a wholesale fruit merchants business with William Henry Easton, his father and Fletcher Easton, his brother. A collection in Middlesbrough raised enough money for her to study for a year at the Royal Academy of Music in London - she lost the money on her first day in the capital, and her father had to find the funds. She started in May 1900 and studied singing for a year. The 1901 Census shows her as an 18-year old student at the Royal Academy of Music, living at Hendon, Middlesex
.
In 1901 she went to Paris to study singing with Elliott Haslam, a friend of her father's. "But not long after this my father died, and my grandparents (who had good old-fashioned ideas that a woman's place to sing was in the home) discouraged my efforts. They even carried paternalism far enough to select a husband for me. When this point had been reached, I quietly disappeared, and once more went back to my vocal work". Florence was determined, and her debut operatic appearance was as the Shepherd boy in Tannhäuser
at Newcastle upon Tyne
in 1903 with the touring Moody-Manners Opera Company. On the first evening of the company's season at Covent Garden
she sang Stephano in Roméo et Juliette
. Her first leading role at the Covent Garden Opera House was Arline in The Bohemian Girl
, and she was a success there in 1903, as the lead in Madama Butterfly
.
Florence married twice; in May 1904 she married Francis Maclennan (born 1873, died 1935), an American tenor with the Moody-Manners Opera Company. She made her American debut as Gilda in Rigoletto
in Baltimore
with Henry W. Savage's English Grand Opera Company in November 1905, and she sang a number of roles with this company in the U.S. and Canada over the next 2 years. In 1905 Maclennan had the title role in Henry W. Savage's Parsifal tour of America, and Florence gave up her singing career to set up home in America. They had a son in 1906 and a daughter (Wilhelmina) in 1912; they divorced in 1928. Wilhelmina died in the flu epidemic of 1919.
Her first notable success in America came in Henry Savage's 1906/7 season as Cio-Cio-San in the premiere of Madame Butterfly (in English). Her performance on 27 October 1906 was the second ever in the USA, following that of Elsa Szamosy by only twelve days. Florence held a world record of more than three hundred appearances in Madame Butterfly, her favourite role.
From 1907 to 1913 she and her husband Francis Maclennan were members of the Berlin Royal Opera, singing many roles of great variety. She had to learn the role of Marguerite in German within 10 days. She did, and followed up by learning and performing the part of Aida within 48 hours without rehearsal. She was immediately given a five-year contract. They became firm friends of Kaiser Wilhelm. Florence was coached by Richard Strauss
for the title role in the English version of his Elektra
at the London premiere at Covent Garden in 1910. After the 1912/13 season the Maclennans joined the Hamburg Opera Stadtische Opera, and she sang with Enrico Caruso in 1913.
In 1915/16 the couple toured America where Florence appeared in a single performance as Brünnhilde in Siegfried
, achieving a great popular and critical success. Because of the war it was too risky to return to Germany, so they stayed in the United States, becoming members of the Chicago Opera Association where her debut was in Siegfried. She remained with the Chicago Opera for two seasons, becoming one of the best-known Wagnerian sopranos in the USA. She sang with the Society of American Singers, New York in 1916. In 1917 she joined The Metropolitan Opera
in New York, her debut on 7 December 1917 being the role of Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana
. She remained at the Met for 12 seasons, singing 41 parts and about 295 performances.
It was her performance as the Saint Elisabeth in the staged version of Liszt
's Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth in 1918 which set her into the first rank of Metropolitan Opera stars.
Giacomo Puccini
wrote a trio of operas named Il Trittico
comprising Il Tabarro
, Suor Angelica
and Gianni Schicchi
. Florence created the role of Lauretta at the world premiere of Puccini¹s Gianni Schicchi on 14 December 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (Cast: Gianni Schicchi: Giuseppe de Luca
; Lauretta: Florence Easton); she was the first ever to sing the famous aria "O Mio Babbino Caro
" ("O My Beloved Papa"). Puccini could not get to New York for the premiere, so the Met's General Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza sent a telegram to Puccini after the performance of the Trittico:
"Most happy to announce the complete authentic success of the Trittico. At the end of each opera long very sincere demonstrations more than forty warm curtain calls altogether. In spite of public notice forbidding encores by insistence Lauretta's aria was repeated. Principal strength Moranzoni magnificent. Farrar, Muzio, Easton, De Luca, Montesanto, Didur incomparable singers and actors. Daily press confirms success expressing itself very favourably on worth of the operas enthusiastically for Schicchi".
She sang many other premiere roles including Aelfrida in Deems Taylor
's The King's Henchman on 17 February 1927 and Mother Tyl in Wolff's L'oiseau bleu
. She was also featured in many American premieres including La cena delle beffe
, Così fan tutte
and Der Rosenkavalier
. Her repertoire included more than 100 roles in 4 languages. She appeared with Chaliapin, a bass singer of great renown, and also with the famous Enrico Caruso at his last performance, on Christmas Eve 1920, when she was Rachel to his Eleazar in Halevy's La Juive
. By 1926 she was earning $800 for each performance of Turandot
. In 1929 she sang her last premiere for the Metropolitan, Otto Kahn's staging of the jazz opera Jonny spielt auf
. In May 1929 she went to Europe for several months enjoying herself on the proceeds from years of singing with only a few short breaks. However, she lost a fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929
.
In the fortnight between 3 and 17 November 1927 she sang Maddalena in Andrea Chénier
, La Gioconda
, Rachel in La Juive
, Madama Butterfly
and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier
; it was surprising that she could manage them all and in such a relatively short space of time, it was astonishing that the critical response to nearly every one was laudatory. Though unlike her in so many ways, Easton had this much in common with Lilli Lehmann
. By dint of application, intelligence, musical facility and sheer hard work, she was able to transform a lightweight lyric soprano into a dramatic instrument capable not merely of scaling the Wagnerian heights but with the stamina to stay up there season in and season out.
Florence Easton was famous for her ability to be take an unknown part at 8 in the morning and perform it flawlessly in public 12 hours later. Frequently she was called upon at the last moment to substitute for some leading soprano momentarily indisposed. She sang her first Isolde without a single rehearsal, called to do so at the zero hour. In the middle of the 1929 season however, her memory suddenly failed her, and she asked to be released from her contract. She announced she would sing in opera no more, and retired to a house in Hampstead, London. She married Stanley Roberts, a New York banker and executive of the Celanese Corporation of America and baritone
singer, in 1931.
The following year she reappeared and recorded the Siegfried
"Brünnhilde" with Lauritz Melchior
at Covent Garden
. Between 1932 and 1935 she lived in England, singing at Covent Garden, Sadler's Wells and at the Promenade Concerts under Sir Henry Wood
, with the London Philharmonic under Sir Thomas Beecham and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
in the first worldwide hook-up broadcast. Her regular accompanist was Harold Craxton. At Covent Garden in 1932 she was Isolde in Siegfried
opposite Lauritz Melchior, the only time they appeared together. She was Tosca
, an unlikely Carmen
, sang in Mendelssohn
's Elijah
and gave Lieder and song recitals. Leaving England finally in 1935, she found that she had lost the tour to the new sensation, Kirsten Flagstad
(but she remained an unstinting admirer of the great Norwegian). Easton's last appearance on the operatic stage was as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre
in New York on 28 February 1936.
In an interview in New York in 1935 she suggested the reason for her absence from the Metropolitan Opera
: "It was an accident during a performance of Carmen in England a year ago which incapacitated me for a number of months last year. Reeling in Carmen's death-throes, I happened to catch my heel in the skirt of my dress and fell, twisting my spine, directly in the path of the curtain. The audience hadn't the remotest idea that the apparently lifeless Carmen who lay there was almost lifeless - and indeed, I actually would have been two minutes later if I had not retained sufficient consciousness to edge out of the path of the descending curtain on its way to deposit about a ton of iron weighting on my head. However, all these things must be taken in one's stride".
On one occasion Florence Easton was engaged to sing the title role in Madama Butterfly
in Washington, D.C.
, a place celebrated for the strictest child labor laws of any city in the country. The child ‘Trouble’ (Butterfly's son who appears only in the last act), is always recruited locally, and a resourceful stage manager from somewhere produced a midget. Nobody told Mme. Easton, lest she be a bit squeamish. It is customary for the child playing Trouble to be introduced to the soprano at the first intermission to get him (more often her) accustomed to the Japanese costume and makeup. Mme. Easton asked the traditional three questions:
"Would you like to go to the bathroom?" - "No".
"Would you like some chocolate?" - "No".
"How old are you?" - "Forty two" the little fellow piped up.
But this was nothing to Easton¹s confusion in the last act. When she pressed him to her ample bosom he didn¹t want to let go.
Florence retired from public performance in 1939; her last appearance with orchestra was in a 1942 broadcast where she sang excerpts from Tristan und Isolde
using her own English translations. She then taught privately and at the Juilliard School of Music, and still gave occasional recitals in New York. Her final appearance was made at New York Town Hall, in a song recital in 1943. At the end of World War II she moved with her husband to Montreal
, Canada and they returned to New York in 1950. She was suffering from heart trouble and she died on 13 August 1955, in Montreal, aged 72.
, Aeolian-Vocalion and for Brunswick
, initially recording acoustically, but electrically from 1926. She embraced opera
, operetta
, sacred songs and popular ballads. She recorded six operatic items for Edison
(1927). One of her most important Wagnerian records was made for HMV
in 1932: the superb Siegfried
"Brünnhilde" opposite Lauritz Melchior
(Covent Garden
, 1932) "Heil dir Sonne! Heil dir Licht!" (the best recording in her own estimation).
In 1933, HMV
recorded six sides of Lieder and songs for RCA Victor, accompanied by Gerald Moore
.
There are two less well-known recordings, made by Brunswick
in the 1920s when she was in her absolute prime:
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
in the early 20th century. She was one of the most versatile singers of all time. She sang more than 100 parts, covering a wide range of styles and periods, from Mozart, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, Schreker and Krenek. In Wagner she sang virtually every soprano part, large and small from Senta onwards, with the exception of the Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
Brünnhilde. She described herself as "lyric dramatic soprano", which seems barely adequate in relation to the range of types of role in which she excelled. Her high international reputation, founded mainly in Germany and North America, was almost unique for a British singer of her time. She could move easily through all stages from the light coloratura
Coloratura
Coloratura has several meanings. The word is originally from Italian, literally meaning "coloring", and derives from the Latin word colorare . When used in English, the term specifically refers to elaborate melody, particularly in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and...
to the Hochdramatische, from girlish romanticism to powerful Wagnerian and Straussian drama. The voice could be light and airy, gently melancholic or intensely passionate. The involvement in the character of the role was total. John Steane has suggested that "This great strength of hers was also, in a strange way, a source of weakness. She sang so many roles very well that she never quite became identified with any of these". There is no connection between Florence Easton and the singer Robert Easton, born 1898 in Sunderland.
Biography and career
Florence Easton was the elder daughter of John Thomas Easton and Isabella Yarrow, and niece of Fletcher Easton. Known professionally as ‘the nightingale of South Bank’, she was born on 25 October 1882 at 52 Napier Street, South Bank, MiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough
Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
(many biographies show her birthdate incorrectly as 1884). Her parents left England when she was 5 years old and settled with Florence (then known as Flossie) and her younger brother in Toronto, Canada. Her musical talent became evident in early childhood and she had piano, organ and singing lessons with JDA Tripp and Mr Harrison. She appeared publicly as a pianist when she was 8 years old.
She said "I began as a pianist, and had no thought of singing, let alone the opera, when I began the study of music". Florence was the first woman to be made a fellow of 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...
.
When her mother died in 1899, Florence returned with her father to Middlesbrough, where he joined a partnership in a wholesale fruit merchants business with William Henry Easton, his father and Fletcher Easton, his brother. A collection in Middlesbrough raised enough money for her to study for a year at the Royal Academy of Music in London - she lost the money on her first day in the capital, and her father had to find the funds. She started in May 1900 and studied singing for a year. The 1901 Census shows her as an 18-year old student at the Royal Academy of Music, living at Hendon, Middlesex
Hendon
Hendon is a London suburb situated northwest of Charing Cross.-History:Hendon was historically a civil parish in the county of Middlesex. The manor is described in Domesday , but the name, 'Hendun' meaning 'at the highest hill', is earlier...
.
In 1901 she went to Paris to study singing with Elliott Haslam, a friend of her father's. "But not long after this my father died, and my grandparents (who had good old-fashioned ideas that a woman's place to sing was in the home) discouraged my efforts. They even carried paternalism far enough to select a husband for me. When this point had been reached, I quietly disappeared, and once more went back to my vocal work". Florence was determined, and her debut operatic appearance was as the Shepherd boy 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...
at Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
in 1903 with the touring Moody-Manners Opera Company. On the first evening of the company's season at 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...
she sang Stephano in Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
. Her first leading role at the Covent Garden Opera House was Arline in The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl
The Bohemian Girl is an opera composed by Michael William Balfe with a libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, La Gitanilla.The opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on November 27, 1843...
, and she was a success there in 1903, as the lead 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...
.
Florence married twice; in May 1904 she married Francis Maclennan (born 1873, died 1935), an American tenor with the Moody-Manners Opera Company. She made her American debut as Gilda in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
with Henry W. Savage's English Grand Opera Company in November 1905, and she sang a number of roles with this company in the U.S. and Canada over the next 2 years. In 1905 Maclennan had the title role in Henry W. Savage's Parsifal tour of America, and Florence gave up her singing career to set up home in America. They had a son in 1906 and a daughter (Wilhelmina) in 1912; they divorced in 1928. Wilhelmina died in the flu epidemic of 1919.
Her first notable success in America came in Henry Savage's 1906/7 season as Cio-Cio-San in the premiere of Madame Butterfly (in English). Her performance on 27 October 1906 was the second ever in the USA, following that of Elsa Szamosy by only twelve days. Florence held a world record of more than three hundred appearances in Madame Butterfly, her favourite role.
From 1907 to 1913 she and her husband Francis Maclennan were members of the Berlin Royal Opera, singing many roles of great variety. She had to learn the role of Marguerite in German within 10 days. She did, and followed up by learning and performing the part of Aida within 48 hours without rehearsal. She was immediately given a five-year contract. They became firm friends of Kaiser Wilhelm. Florence was coached by Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
for the title role in the English version of his Elektra
Elektra (opera)
Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal...
at the London premiere at Covent Garden in 1910. After the 1912/13 season the Maclennans joined the Hamburg Opera Stadtische Opera, and she sang with Enrico Caruso in 1913.
In 1915/16 the couple toured America where Florence appeared in a single performance as Brünnhilde in Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
, achieving a great popular and critical success. Because of the war it was too risky to return to Germany, so they stayed in the United States, becoming members of the Chicago Opera Association where her debut was in Siegfried. She remained with the Chicago Opera for two seasons, becoming one of the best-known Wagnerian sopranos in the USA. She sang with the Society of American Singers, New York in 1916. In 1917 she joined The Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York, her debut on 7 December 1917 being the role of 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...
. She remained at the Met for 12 seasons, singing 41 parts and about 295 performances.
It was her performance as the Saint Elisabeth in the staged version of Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth in 1918 which set her into the first rank of Metropolitan Opera stars.
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...
wrote a trio of operas named Il Trittico
Il trittico
Il trittico is the title of a collection of three one-act operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi, by Giacomo Puccini...
comprising Il Tabarro
Il tabarro
Il tabarro is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Adami, based on Didier Gold's play La houppelande. It is the first of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
, Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica
Suor Angelica is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico...
and Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
. Florence created the role of Lauretta at the world premiere of Puccini¹s Gianni Schicchi on 14 December 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York (Cast: Gianni Schicchi: Giuseppe de Luca
Giuseppe de Luca
Giuseppe De Luca , was a famous Italian baritone who achieved his greatest triumphs at the New York Metropolitan Opera...
; Lauretta: Florence Easton); she was the first ever to sing the famous aria "O Mio Babbino Caro
O mio babbino caro
"O mio babbino caro" is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi , by Giacomo Puccini, to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between her father Schicchi and the family of Rinuccio, the boy she loves, have reached a breaking point that threatens to...
" ("O My Beloved Papa"). Puccini could not get to New York for the premiere, so the Met's General Manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza sent a telegram to Puccini after the performance of the Trittico:
"Most happy to announce the complete authentic success of the Trittico. At the end of each opera long very sincere demonstrations more than forty warm curtain calls altogether. In spite of public notice forbidding encores by insistence Lauretta's aria was repeated. Principal strength Moranzoni magnificent. Farrar, Muzio, Easton, De Luca, Montesanto, Didur incomparable singers and actors. Daily press confirms success expressing itself very favourably on worth of the operas enthusiastically for Schicchi".
She sang many other premiere roles including Aelfrida in Deems Taylor
Deems Taylor
Joseph Deems Taylor was a U.S. composer, music critic, and promoter of classical music.-Career:Taylor initially planned to become an architect; however, despite minimal musical training he soon took to music composition. The result was a series of works for orchestra and/or voices...
's The King's Henchman on 17 February 1927 and Mother Tyl in Wolff's L'oiseau bleu
L'oiseau bleu
L'oiseau bleu is an opera in four acts by the French composer and conductor Albert Wolff. The libretto by Maurice Maeterlinck is based on his 1908 play of the same name.-Performance history:...
. She was also featured in many American premieres including La cena delle beffe
La cena delle beffe
La cena delle beffe is an opera in four acts composed by Umberto Giordano to an Italian libretto by Sem Benelli adapted from his play of the same name...
, Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
and Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
. Her repertoire included more than 100 roles in 4 languages. She appeared with Chaliapin, a bass singer of great renown, and also with the famous Enrico Caruso at his last performance, on Christmas Eve 1920, when she was Rachel to his Eleazar in Halevy's La Juive
La Juive
La Juive is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on February 23, 1835.-Composition history:...
. By 1926 she was earning $800 for each performance of 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...
. In 1929 she sang her last premiere for the Metropolitan, Otto Kahn's staging of the jazz opera Jonny spielt auf
Jonny spielt auf
Jonny spielt auf is an opera with words and music by Ernst Krenek about a jazz violinist. The work typified the cultural freedom of the 'golden era' of the Weimar Republic.-Performance history:...
. In May 1929 she went to Europe for several months enjoying herself on the proceeds from years of singing with only a few short breaks. However, she lost a fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
.
In the fortnight between 3 and 17 November 1927 she sang Maddalena in Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier
Andrea Chénier is a verismo opera in four acts by the composer Umberto Giordano, set to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. It is based loosely on the life of the French poet, André Chénier , who was executed during the French Revolution....
, La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
, Rachel in La Juive
La Juive
La Juive is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on February 23, 1835.-Composition history:...
, 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...
and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
; it was surprising that she could manage them all and in such a relatively short space of time, it was astonishing that the critical response to nearly every one was laudatory. Though unlike her in so many ways, Easton had this much in common with Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch was a German operatic soprano of phenomenal versatility...
. By dint of application, intelligence, musical facility and sheer hard work, she was able to transform a lightweight lyric soprano into a dramatic instrument capable not merely of scaling the Wagnerian heights but with the stamina to stay up there season in and season out.
Florence Easton was famous for her ability to be take an unknown part at 8 in the morning and perform it flawlessly in public 12 hours later. Frequently she was called upon at the last moment to substitute for some leading soprano momentarily indisposed. She sang her first Isolde without a single rehearsal, called to do so at the zero hour. In the middle of the 1929 season however, her memory suddenly failed her, and she asked to be released from her contract. She announced she would sing in opera no more, and retired to a house in Hampstead, London. She married Stanley Roberts, a New York banker and executive of the Celanese Corporation of America and 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...
singer, in 1931.
The following year she reappeared and recorded the Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
"Brünnhilde" with Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
at 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...
. Between 1932 and 1935 she lived in England, singing at Covent Garden, Sadler's Wells and at the Promenade Concerts under Sir Henry Wood
Henry Wood (conductor)
Sir Henry Joseph Wood, CH was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences...
, with the London Philharmonic under Sir Thomas Beecham and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in the first worldwide hook-up broadcast. Her regular accompanist was Harold Craxton. At Covent Garden in 1932 she was Isolde in Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
opposite Lauritz Melchior, the only time they appeared together. She was 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...
, an unlikely 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...
, sang in Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
and gave Lieder and song recitals. Leaving England finally in 1935, she found that she had lost the tour to the new sensation, Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...
(but she remained an unstinting admirer of the great Norwegian). Easton's last appearance on the operatic stage was as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
in New York on 28 February 1936.
In an interview in New York in 1935 she suggested the reason for her absence from the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
: "It was an accident during a performance of Carmen in England a year ago which incapacitated me for a number of months last year. Reeling in Carmen's death-throes, I happened to catch my heel in the skirt of my dress and fell, twisting my spine, directly in the path of the curtain. The audience hadn't the remotest idea that the apparently lifeless Carmen who lay there was almost lifeless - and indeed, I actually would have been two minutes later if I had not retained sufficient consciousness to edge out of the path of the descending curtain on its way to deposit about a ton of iron weighting on my head. However, all these things must be taken in one's stride".
On one occasion Florence Easton was engaged to sing the title role 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...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, a place celebrated for the strictest child labor laws of any city in the country. The child ‘Trouble’ (Butterfly's son who appears only in the last act), is always recruited locally, and a resourceful stage manager from somewhere produced a midget. Nobody told Mme. Easton, lest she be a bit squeamish. It is customary for the child playing Trouble to be introduced to the soprano at the first intermission to get him (more often her) accustomed to the Japanese costume and makeup. Mme. Easton asked the traditional three questions:
"Would you like to go to the bathroom?" - "No".
"Would you like some chocolate?" - "No".
"How old are you?" - "Forty two" the little fellow piped up.
But this was nothing to Easton¹s confusion in the last act. When she pressed him to her ample bosom he didn¹t want to let go.
Florence retired from public performance in 1939; her last appearance with orchestra was in a 1942 broadcast where she sang excerpts from Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
using her own English translations. She then taught privately and at the Juilliard School of Music, and still gave occasional recitals in New York. Her final appearance was made at New York Town Hall, in a song recital in 1943. At the end of World War II she moved with her husband to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada and they returned to New York in 1950. She was suffering from heart trouble and she died on 13 August 1955, in Montreal, aged 72.
Recordings
Florence Easton made more than 100 records in the 1920s and 1930s. She recorded for OdeonOdeon Records
Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....
, Aeolian-Vocalion and for Brunswick
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
, initially recording acoustically, but electrically from 1926. She embraced opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, 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:...
, sacred songs and popular ballads. She recorded six operatic items for Edison
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
(1927). One of her most important Wagnerian records was made for HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
in 1932: the superb Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
"Brünnhilde" opposite Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
(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...
, 1932) "Heil dir Sonne! Heil dir Licht!" (the best recording in her own estimation).
In 1933, HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
recorded six sides of Lieder and songs for RCA Victor, accompanied by Gerald Moore
Gerald Moore
Gerald Moore CBE was an English pianist best known for his career as one of the most in-demand accompanists of his day, accompanying many of the world's most famous musicians...
.
Partial discography
- Recital 1921-1942 (Arias and songs by Wagner, Verdi, Bizet, Gounod, Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini, Haydn, Wolf, Dvořák, Brahms, R. Strauss, Schumann. Popular American and German songs)
- Claremont - Florence Easton; Absolute Soprano (Recordings 1918-1933/1939/1940)
- Brunswick (original company, re-issued widely for example Marston & Symposum: Gianni Schicchi (Puccini) O mio babbino caro (Creator recording which though beautifully sung exhibits one of the worst Italian accents of any major singer on record).
- Marston - Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The "Potted Ring") Pearl - Lauritz MelchiorLauritz MelchiorLauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
Edition Vol. 5 - Off-air recordings include two GötterdämmerungGötterdämmerungis the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
extracts from a Lewisohn StadiumLewisohn StadiumLewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York. It opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1973.-History:...
concert and 14 items (mainly Lieder) from a recital at the Juilliard School of Music (13 July 1939) - International Record Collectors Club. - Three Tristan excerpts (two with Arthur CarronArthur CarronArthur Carron was an English operatic tenor.Carron was born in Swindon, United Kingdom. In his early career, he was also known as Arthur Cox....
plus the Liebestod) followed from the Celanese Hour broadcast (1942).
There are two less well-known recordings, made by Brunswick
Brunswick Records
Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
in the 1920s when she was in her absolute prime:
- Laisse-moi... O nuit d’amour! with Mario Chamlee (Marguerite in Gounod's FaustFaust (opera)Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
Brunswick 1927) - Parigi o cara with Mario Chamlee (Violetta in Verdi's La traviataLa traviataLa traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
Brunswick 1927)
- A compilation 2-CD set was released in 1997 by Claremont in South Africa (GSE 78-50-72/73) from original shellac discs.
External links
- YouTube - Florence Easton - Un Bel di Vedremo - 1919 - From 78 RPM - Florence Easton sings "Un Bel Di Vedremo" from Madama ButterflyMadama ButterflyMadama 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...
by Giacomo PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo 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...
with Vocalion Orchestra accompaniment in this recording from 1919 off of a 78 RPM record. - YouTube - Florence Easton - Vissi d'arte - 1921 - From 78 RPM Record - Florence Easton sings "Vissi D'arte" from ToscaToscaTosca 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...
by Giacomo PucciniGiacomo PucciniGiacomo 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...
in this recording from May 1921 that was taken off of a 78 RPM record. - YouTube - Florence Easton - Habanera - 1922 - From 78 RPM Record - Florence Easton sings "Habanera" from CarmenCarmenCarmen 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...
by Georges BizetGeorges BizetGeorges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
in this BrunswickBrunswick RecordsBrunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
recording from January 1922, which was taken off of a 78 RPM record. -->