"Housewife" Josephine Wiper Returns to the San Francisco Opera Stage

The Art, Music and Recreation Center presents the Exhibit "Bring The Opera to The People and The People to The Opera" from September 10, 2022 through January 12, 2023

Previous blog entries:

"Josephine Tumminia and the San Francisco Opera" (December 12, 2022)
"Josephine Tumminia's Famed Goes National, then International" (December 19, 2022)
"Armando Agnini and The San Francisco Opera Stage" (November 16, 2022)
"Merola Organizes San Franciscans To Present Outdoor Opera on The Peninsula" (October 31, 2022)
"The Big Game, North Beach and The San Francisco Opera" (October 13, 2022)
"Bring The Opera to The People and The People to The Opera" (September 12, 2022)

Returning from Europe and South America in 1940, Josephine Tumminia made brief appearances with the Cincinnati and Chicago companies before her debut with the Metropolitan Opera on February 8, 1941.  She starred in the familiar role of Gilda in Rigoletto, replacing Lily Pons in the cast and playing opposite Lawrence Tibbett.

Upon returning to America, she dropped an "m" from her last name and became Josephine Tuminia. This New York Times review of her Metropolitan Opera debut plays up her birthplace, Saint Louis, but makes no mention of her musical training in San Francisco nor that she first appeared onstage with the San Francisco Opera Company.

The review starts out praiseful - "Miss Tuminia's singing was musical, sympathetic and technically secure." The second paragraph is less so - "Despite the fine qualities of her singing, Miss Tuminia's tones proved so tenuous that they often failed to make themselves audible in ensembles." The reviewer finds some consolation in the end:

Miss Tuminia never made the mistake of forcing her tones, and they were invariably firm and clear, if rather white. Her vocalism was so sensitive and expressive that it was a pity she was handicapped by the insufficient volume of voice at her command.

We find Josephine Tumminia's Metropolitan Opera career summarized in four lines in the Annals of the Metropolitan Opera.

The abbreviation SO denotes that she performed as a soprano. 2s/2w/2r/12p means 2 seasons, 2 works, 2 roles, 12 performances. MOH were performances at the Metropolitan Opera House; E were performances elsewhere. That is followed by the inclusive dates when she performed - February 8, 1941 to March 1, 1941. It was a rather short tenure, but in every performance she was cast in a lead role. 

The life of an opera diva is itinerant, and Tumminia's career was no different. During 1942 she was a regular on the Mutual Broadcasting System's "Treasure Hour of Song" with Alfred Antonini's Orchestra broadcast from WGN, Chicago on Saturday nights.

Publicity poster for the Columbia All Star Opera Quartet performing at the Oakland Auditorium Theatre on November 12, 1943

In 1943-1944 she joined mezzo-Soprano Helen Olheim, tenor Nino Martini and baritone Igor Gorin in the touring Columbia All-Star Opera Quartet. Some of their publicity also named them as the Metropolitan Opera Quartet.  This vocal ensemble apparently brought opera to all corners of the United States. That included a November 12, 1943 concert in Oakland and a November 14, 1943 concert at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House.

Josephine Tuminia

Coloratura Soprano

Young American coloratura, and a member of the Metropolitan, scored a sensation at the Chicago Opera this season in three leading roles; "Rigoletto," "Barber of Seville" and "Lucia."

She met her future husband, Charles Wiper, Jr., when they shared a voyage on the Chicago to New York train on December 13, 1942. A year after meeting, they wed in the middle of her tour with the Metropolitan Quartet in Beaumont, Texas on December 1, 1943.

The wedding of Lieutenant Charles Wiper and Josephine Tumminia (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

In 1944 she joined the National Grand Opera Company in Los Angeles led by Georgio D'Andria and made a strong impression in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor.  There was even talk of her being offered a contract by MGM to perform in short operatic films.

After the war they settled down in San Mateo where she became a mother and they opened a children’s clothing store. On October 17, 1947 she was suddenly called upon by Gaetano Merola to fill in for an ailing Lily Pons in the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. The “housewife” reprised the role when the San Francisco Opera repeated the performing Los Angeles.

Mrs. Wiper had been up since before dawn with her little girl Clarene [Charlene], also home with the flu. Then just before noon yesterday [Gaetano] Merola phoned.

"He said to drop everything and come right up to San Francisco. He wanted to see if I could still sing 'Lucia'."

She and her husband, an ex-army major, drove to San Francisco in "nothing flat."

She had no chance to rehearse with the cast. A two-hour workout with piano accompaniment was her only rush-hp for the role, famed as one of the most gruelling and difficult in all opera. ("S.M. Wife Win Ovation in Opera")

Josephine Tumminia's name hand-written and tipped into the program for Lucia di Lammermoor 

POSTSCRIPT

Herb Caen's column often printed notices of San Franciscans of past celebrity.

WHERE THEY are now dept.: Josephine Tumminia, the S.F. barber's daughter who was discovered by Gaetano Merola and went on to stardom at the Met (she was a coloratura), is now working as a salesgirl at Dixson's, a ladies' shop in Hillsdale Mall. She is divorced, has a grown daughter, and sounds not at all unhappy to be far from the spotlight... Josephine's biggest hit, oddly enough, was a recording of a coloratura tour de force called "The Wren," with the late Jimmy Dorsey's band wailing in the background--one of the first jazz-classical efforts and a million-seller. A collector's item, as is Josephine, selling dresses down there in Hillsdale. (San Francisco Examiner February 1, 1970)

CAENICLE WANT ADS get results: A few months ago, while doodling around in one of those "Where Are They Now?" space-fillers, I noted that Josephine Tumminia, the S.F. barber's daughter who rose to stardom as a Metropolitan Opera coloratura, is now working as a saleslady in a Hillsdale women's store. Well! This column may be crummy but it gets around--and the afore-mentioned item came to the attention of Jack Sharpe of Hollywood, who wrote (with Jerry Herst) the 1937 hit song, "So Rare." Flash: It turns out that Jack wrote that song for Josephine, who first love he was! Superflash: "It Happened in Monterey" a short time ago that Jack married Josephine, and they are now living in San Mateo. "So rare" murmurs Josephine happily. (San Francisco Chronicle January 13, 1971)

Josephine Tumminia passed away on January 19, 1997 in La Selva Beach, California.

Bibliography:

Annals of The Metropolitan Opera: The Complete Chronicle of Performances and Artists (Metropolitan Opera Guild; G.K. Hall, 1989).

Dunning, John. On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio (Oxford University Press, 1998).

Dutton, June, "Sketch of Opera Star," San Mateo Times November 3, 1948.

Frankenstein, Alfred, "Operatic Sensation," San Francisco Chronicle October 19, 1947

Fried, Alexander, "New Career Won by Soprano," San Francisco Examiner January 10, 1943.

Fried, Alexander, "Show Talk," San Francisco Examiner July 3, 1944.

Fried, Alexander, "Show Talk," San Francisco Examiner February 16, 1945.

"Guide to This Week's Fine Music Programs," Movie-Radio Guide March 14-20, 1942.

"Josephine Tumminia Makes Debut in N.Y. This Week," San Francisco Chronicle December 26, 1940.

"Opera Star Weds  Flyer in Texas," San Francisco Examiner December 2, 1943.

"S.F. Soprano Will Sing at Opera House," San Francisco Chronicle November 13, 1943.

San Francisco Opera Association. Annual Season. (The Association, 1947).

"Tuminia in Debut in 'Rigoletto' Here," New York Times February 9, 1941.

"S.M. Wife Wins Ovation in Opera," San Mateo Times October 18, 1947.

"Tuminia 'Lucia" Star," Los Angeles Times July 26, 1944.

Josephine Tumminia's Fame Goes National, Then International

Four years ago a little girl from North Beach, who had never set foot on a stage or a concert platform sang an audition for Maestro Gaetano Merola of the San Francisco Opera Company. This week that same little girl, whose name is Josephine Tumminia, will make her debut in New York as the latest star to be added to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera Company. (San Francisco Chronicle 1940)

Opera to Symphony: Josephine Tumminia, colorature soprano of the San Francisco Opera, who will be soloist with the San Francisco Symphony at the Civic Auditorium Tuesday night (source: San Francisco Chronicle February 2, 1936

After her San Francisco Opera debut, Josephine Tumminia became a local celebrity. On February 6, 1936 she sang as a soloist at Municipal Concert of the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Pierre Monteux. She was soon thrust further into the limelight appearing on operetta composer Sigmund Romberg's nationally syndicated radio program on the NBC's Red Network on March 16, 1936 along side the famed star of the stage and screen, Lionel Barrymore. This led to rumors that Paramount film studios was considering her for a long term contract.

JOSEPHINE TUMMINIA, San Francisco girl, who was at Galileo High School not so long ago, has since found fame via radio and now sings as famed Sigmund Romberg wields the baton. They will be on KPO tonight, with the child film star, Cora Sue Collins, acting as master of ceremonies. The times is 5:30 (San Francisco Chronicle May 25, 1936)

She continued with Romberg through the early summer when she appear on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hour broadcast from Los Angeles on August 13, 1936, sharing the program with Louis Armstrong.  In the fall of 1936 she returned to the San Francisco Opera Company where she shined in the role of Gilda in Rigoletto. The Chronicle's music critic, Alfred Frankenstein, singled her out for praise:

Miss Tumminia made the big hit of her brief career as Gilda. This for a lovely and fragile impersonation, and for a "Caro Nome" of unique and special quality... Miss Tumminia was Gilda. As she sang, the florid song took on such warmth of dramatic meaning as it is possible for it take on and, without losing any of its brilliance, remained and essential link in a lyric tragedy. The purity of her small, light voice has been remarked before. Likewise he unfailing musicianship. Her lyric Gilda is in its own way no less and achievement than her comic Rosina.

Josephine Tumminia and Bing Crosby (image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

The following summer she was back on the airwaves, singing on Bing Crosby's program. She remained an occasional guest on Crosby's Kraft Music Hall even as she reprised her role of Gilda in San Francisco in the Fall. 

Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra were the house band on Crosby's show which lead to a unique crossover recording. On February 27, 1937 she went into Decca Records Los Angeles recording studio with Dorsey's orchestra to record a swing arrangement of "La capinera" (The Wren), a late 19th century light-classical showpiece for soprano voice composed by Julius Benedict.  Robert L. Stockdale remarked that this was "one of the most unusual recordings ever produced by Jimmy [Dorsey]."

On March 17, 1937 she rejoined the orchestra to sing her unique version of the "Blue Danube Waltz" by Johann Strauss. One interesting sidelight - Tumminia shared her recording session with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra's recording of songs from the Fred Astaire / Ginger Roger movie Shall We Dance where they appeared on the soundtrack. Her recordings were released as both sides of the 12" double-faced 78 rpm recording Decca 29009.

Reviewers of that time were not sure what to make of this recording. Irving Kolodin found no fault with the "straight job" that Tumminia achieved in her performance but found fault with the arrangement. "What results is some of the aptest satire on coloratura that has yet to appear." Richard Gilbert also faulted the "screwy arrangement." The New Yorker noted that "Miss Tumminia retains her intonation and her bright, somewhat determined vocalizing through the goings-on," but goes on to dismissed the result as "a slick stunt and goes on the list of the best curios." Only Billboard magazine put in the good word: "a collector's classic for those who take their conservatory music toasted with jam... prima donna pipes according to Hoyle while the gang goes bucketing."

In 1947, John Ball, Jr. published this appreciation:

This unique record is strictly a novelty, but an exceptionally good one. Miss Tumminia, who has been heard at the Metropolitan Opera, sings the Blue Danube, not too well, but acceptably. Jimmy Dorsey and his lively crew provide the accompaniment. Strangely enough it all fits together. What comes out of the loudspeaker is a little hard to define, but we find it quite entertaining listening just the same.

Corinne Koshland (Mrs. Marcus Koshland) presented Josephine Tumminia in a recital on February 3, 1938 at her Presidio Heights mansion to help raise money support her studies in Europe. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Koshland were important patrons of the arts in San Francisco who also helped fund Yehudi Menuhin's studies abroad. Gary Gidden's biography of Bing Crosby also notes the crooner's "investment" in Josephine Tumminia.  

She travelled to Milan to study with Mario Cordona. During these two and a half years she performed in Bologna, Lugano and in Palermo, her father's hometown. A 1938 article in the Examiner rumored that she was being filmed in her role of Gilda at Cinema City in Rome. She also sang at the Royal Opera in Belgrade where she was awarded Yugoslavia's Order of San Caba.  Leaving Italy in 1940 she continued performing in Caracas and then Puerto Rico before returning the United States.

She was on her way to the Metropolitan Opera...

Previous Entry: "Josephine Tumminia and the San Francisco Opera," December 12, 2022.

Bibliography:

Ball, John, Jr., Records for Pleasure. (Rutgers University Press, 1947).

Caen, Herb, "Four Guests with Bings; Jepson on 'Showboat'; Hamilton's Talk Aired," San Francisco Chronicle August 13, 1936.

Caen, Herb, "Odds and Ends in Radio; Vallee's London Finale; Four Guests With Bing," San Francisco Chronicle May 13, 1937.

Donnell, Darrell, "Josephine Tumminia to Be on Crosby Program," San Francisco Examiner May 13, 1937.

Doyle, J.E. (Dinty), "Joan Bennett, Cary Grant Many Other Celebrities in Loud Speaker Tonight," San Francisco Chronicle April 24, 1936.

Frankenstein, Alfred, "Tibbett, Fine Cast Score in 'Rigoletto'," San Francisco Chronicle November 7, 1936.

Frankenstein, Alfred, "Young Singer Praised for Rosina Aria," San Francisco Chronicle February 5, 1936.

Gidden, Gary. Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years 1903-1940. (Little Brown & Co., 2001).

Gilbert, Richard, "Music and Records," Scribner's Magazine July 1937.

"Josephine Tumminia Makes Debut in N.Y. This Week," San Francisco Chronicle December 26, 1940

Kolodin, Irving, "Recorded Music," American Mercury July 1937.

Needham, Howard, "Lionel Barrymore Will Be Star in New Romberg Series Starting Tonight," San Francisco Chronicle March 16, 1936.

"A New Gilda Rises from The West," Opera News February 3, 1941.

Orodenker, M. H., "Reviews of Records," Billboard April 24, 1937.

Pakenham, Compton, "Alexander Kipnis and Marian Anderson in Song Releases--Other Items," New York Times May 23, 1937.

"Popular Records: Instrumental Singing," The New Yorker May 29, 1937.

Ruppli, Michael. Decca Labels: A Discography, Volume 1: The California Sessions. (Greenwood Press, 1996).

"A Schedule of Music for The Coming Week," San Francisco Chronicle January 30, 1938.

Stockdale, Robert L. Jimmy Dorsey: A Study in Contrasts. (Scarecrow Press, 1999).

Josephine Tumminia and the San Francisco Opera

Autographed portrait  inscribed "To Jessica Fredricks, in sincere appreciation of your interest in my career, Josephine Tumminia." Fredricks was head of the Music Department at the San Francisco Public Library (image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

Each season General Director Gaetano Merola found places for resident artists in important roles. Several have come up from the chorus. Others have been drawn from the ranks of professional singers. A few have reached the rank of principal artist without previous experience. Some have gone on to stardom.

 
This season will find one among the few who have reached principal place without operatic or other professional experience. She is Josephine Tumminia youthful coloratura soprano, for whom Merola predicts quick and brilliant ascension to operatic heights (San Francisco Chronicle 1935).

Josephine Tumminia was a San Francisco Cinderella story. Her father Salvatore Tumminia had immigrated from Palermo, Sicily in 1906 and moved to Saint Louis, Missouri where she was born on July 9, 1913. Her family moved to San Francisco in 1923 where he worked as a barber and she attended Yerba Buena School. Always longing to be singer, she dropped out of Galileo High School to study opera during very hard economic times. In a 1935 interview she recounted:

Father was out of work and this depression—well, you know,” said Miss Tumminia, rolling her enormous eyes in a gesture of dismay. “But my teachers insisted that I study with them for nothing at all. We had no money. Now I sing before Maestro Merola every day.

Josephine Tumminia as Rosina in the Barber of Seville (image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

The road to the top was more difficult than she would tell.  Josephine Tumminia was listed in the City Directories of 1930 and 1935 as being employed as a clerk. In 1931 and 1932 she was listed as a musician. At this time she began studying with Alberto Terrasi, a well-travelled baritone who took up residence in the Bay Area from 1929-1931 and who sang locally with the California Opera Company. She joined him in recitals and opera performances.

Her operatic debut came at age 18 in the role of Gilda in a production of Rigoletto staged by the California Opera Company at the Scottish Rite Hall. A review in the San Francisco Examiner described her performance as a "great success." She also performed for San Francisco's Italian-American community with organizations like the Vittoria Colonna Club and Il Cenacolo.

Her financial relationship with Terrasi was rather severe.  It required her to give half of her salary to her teacher in exchange for three lessons a week for six years. Since Terrasi left San Francisco by 1932, well short of six years, perhaps this agreement was rendered moot. Tumminia benefitted from further instruction from Nino Cormel and Elsie Bachrach.

Josephine Tumminia debuted with the San Francisco Opera Company on November 25, 1935 playing the lead role of Rosina in The Barber of Seville opposite Tito Schipa. The aptness of a Sicilian barber’s daughter ascending into this role brought her into the national spotlight with an article in Time Magazine. 

Alfred Frankenstein in the San Francisco Chronicle described her as "a part, pretty, youthful Rosina with a pert, agile coloratura." He was impressed with her stage poise and mastery of the difficulties of Rossini's music. He only lamented "a certain nasal twang from her tone" that he predicted would disappear with more training.

In his San Francisco Examiner review, Alexander Fried remarked:

A debutante, Josephine Tumminia, deserves first comment, both because she is news and because she is an exception talent.

He went on to note how well cast she was for the role; she brought a youthfulness to a youthful character. While he also had reservations about her tone he was impressed with the "agility" of her voice and predicted great success.

Salvatore Tumminia, Tito Schipa & Josephine Tumminia

For her, a successful début; for her father, a business pickup.

(source: Time)

She repeated this role in 1936 and later played Micaëla in their 1936 production of Carmen. She also reprised her role of Gilda in the 1936 and 1937 San Francisco Opera productions of Rigoletto.

Her auspicious start with the San Francisco Opera propelled her into even greater adventures that will be recounted in a later entry.

Bibliography

"Alberto Terrasi," San Francisco Examiner May 25, 1930.

"Barber of San Francisco," Time December 9, 1935.

"Barber of Seville Sings for Fun; Daughter Sings the Barber of Seville," Newsweek February 14, 1938.

"California Company to Stage 'Rigoletto'," San Francisco Chronicle June 14, 1931.

"California Opera Group Will Repeat Rigoletto," San Francisco Chronicle October 11, 1931.

Frankenstein, Alfred, "Ezio Pinza 'Barber of Seville' Star," San Francisco Chronicle November 26, 1935

Fried, Alexander, "Local 'Rosina' Win Applause in Opera Debut," San Francisco Examiner November 26, 1935

"Girl Singer to Sign Away Half of Salary," San Francisco Chronicle May 6, 1930.

"Italian Groups Lists Saturday Musical," San Francisco Chronicle December 7, 1930.

"Musicale Held by Italian Club" San Francisco Chronicle October 1, 1933

"A New Gilda Rises from The West," Opera News February 3, 1941.

"Public Recital Given by Alberto Terrasi," Berkeley Daily Gazette October 29, 1930.

"Rigoletto," San Francisco Examiner October 18, 1931.

"S.F. Girl Will Make Debut in Opera Here," San Francisco Chronicle September 30, 1935.

"San Franciscans to Be Heard in Operas," San Francisco Examiner October 6, 1935.

"Seeks Operatic Fame," Colusa Herald May 27, 1930.

Weick, Louise, "San Francisco Girl Reaches Opera Stardom Without Spending Cent on Music Education," San Francisco News August 28, 1935.

Armando Agnini and The San Francisco Opera Stage

source: San Francisco Opera Company. 

Scenery and décor are essential elements for staging grand opera and the San Francisco Opera benefited greatly from Merola’s recruiting of his nephew, Armando Agnini, to fill that role here. Agnini, who also worked with the Metropolitan Opera, was the first stage and technical director for the San Francisco Opera Company. He designed most of the productions from 1922-1953 and the Opera continued to draw upon his stage designs for many years afterward. He trained performers and technical staff and also played a role in the acoustic design of the War Memorial Opera House that opened in 1933.


Armando Agnini at the Lighting Controls in the new San Francisco War Memorial Opera House (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection).

Born in Naples, Italy in 1884, he came to the United States aboard the  at the age of 18. (Ancestry.com notes his arrival aboard the SS Augusta Victory on April 5, 1902). He had studied the cello and electrical engineering in Italy. In America he first worked in a piano factory, then his uncle Gaetano Merola employed him as a baggage master with a touring opera company.  One day the stage manager disappeared on tour and Merola pressed him into duty as the stage manager.  His first appointments as an operatic stage director were in Montreal (1911-1913) and Boston (1913-1917). While in Boston he joined a group of artists who travelled to Paris in 1914. Parisian newspapers note his participation in a performance of Manon Lescaut at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, but this adventure ended with the outbreak of the First World War.

He went to work at the Metropolitan Opera in 1917 where he was stage manager, but also occasionally appeared in as an actor or in the dance ensemble. He later served as a guest director in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, London, Paris, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Armando Agnini with a Wagnerian dragon (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

A 1927 San Francisco Chronicle review of Turandot described Armando Agnini’s labors in staging grand opera in the San Francisco Civic Auditorium:

Not only was Agnini responsible for the training of the principals and chorus and the preparation of the mass action but he spent part of his leisure this summer designing the scenery

The audience at the opera sees only the outcome of infinite labor and may not realize the immense detail to be taken care of in production, especially under Auditorium conditions.
Sets have to be designed and prepared and made ready on the day of each performance for their quick arrangement on the stage. It doesn't help Mr. Agnini a bit to have to work in a theater practically without facilities for storing props...

The company is as yet too young to own all the materials it has need of in its elaborate seasons. These must be built, begged and borrowed each summer and fall. Meantime the amateur chorus is being trained in its entrances and stage business, and ensembles of the individual singers have to be hammered into shape.

And then there are lights, which have to be chosen and mixed for best effect and regulated and changed throughout intricate performance. And there are the ballet, the choice of individual choristers for special small group actions and the supervision of costuming and makeup of the entire ensemble.

All these problems are tackled by Armando Agnini. His work begins the moment he arrives in San Francisco, long before the season opens, and it continues day and night until the packing of the props and the demolition of the improvised theater at the end.

Although Agnini was often on the move working on opera sets and direction all over North America, he was listed San Francisco City Directories between 1937 and 1943, residing first on Nob Hill and later in the Marina.  The 1943 directory shows him employed as the director of the Opera Academy of San Francisco.  Agnini also did a little work in Hollywood working as the opera technical director in the Bing Crosby film Going My Way 1944, and the Ray Milland, Jane Wyman film The Lost Weekend in 1945. He finished his career as the Stage Director for the New Orleans Opera Association where he worked from 1954 until his death in 1960. 

Agnini At Work At a Preparatory Diorama (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

Bibliography

AFI Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in The United States (R.R. Bowker Co., 1999).

"Armando Agnini Dies," New York Times March 28, 1960.

"Armando Agnini Narrates Episodes of Operatic Career," San Francisco Chronicle November 19, 1933.

“Armando Agnini, Opera Aide, Dies,” San Francisco Chronicle March 29, 1960

Fried, Alexander, “Agnini, Opera Veteran, Dies,” San Francisco Examiner March 29, 1960.

"'Manon Lescaut' Musique de Giacomo Puccini," Comoedia May 4, 1914.

"Opera Director Urged to Give 'Turandot' Again," San Francisco Chronicle September 22, 1927.

  San Francisco Opera Company. [programs].  [The Company, 1925-1928]. 

Variety Obituaries (Garland Pub., 1988).

Merola Organizes San Franciscans To Present Outdoor Opera on The Peninsula

Visit our exhibit Bringing The Opera To The People and The People To The Opera on display in the Steve Silver Beach Blanket Babylon Music Center on the 4th floor of the Main Library through January 15, 2023.

Merola's advertisement in the Pacific Coast Musical Review, April 1, 1922

Once he received financial backing and the space to present outdoor opera in 1922, Gaetano Merola had to marshal the a variety of forces to stage his festival.  Opera is far more than the great artists singing and acting on the stage -- it requires an army of supporting participants. Transporting the forces necessary for this undertaking required a charter train to carry 500 people including a chorus consisted of 150 members, the orchestra numbering 110 musicians. There was an additional ballet corps of 50 dancers.  These numbers do not account for the necessary stage hands and ticket takers. Additional trains were also added to bring the audience to Palo Alto from San Francisco and back again.

Merola was assisted by the Baker & Taylor engineering firm who had helped construct Stanford Stadium. Contractors from the University built the stage, 80 feet wide, 40 feet deep and elevated four feet off of the ground that gave every seat a clear view of the performance. Experts also worked out acoustical issues of performing outdoors constructing a sounding board at the back of the stage to assist the voices and instruments in projecting toward the audience. Ramps were placed at the rear to bring horses on stage during some scenes in Carmen.

Ray Coyle was one of the earliest of the first participants in Merola's project. Well known locally as a muralist, illustrator and interior decorator, he also had experience created scenery for the Bohemian Club's "Lo-Jinks" performed in their redwood grove. Marjory Fisher noted "The scenery in all of the productions was of necessity simple but highly artistic and adequate ... lighting, setting and orchestral effects helped to make the performance conspicuously outstanding."  

Illustration of the open-air setting for Merola's 1922 performance of Pagliacci (source: Musical America June 17, 1922)

Jeanne Lane, writing for the Chicago-based Musical Leader, gives a vivid description of the scene:

The night panorama of opera in the stadium is pure magic. The stage built at one end of the great bowl is more than 80 feet in width. The drapery of midnight blue which masks the outer circle melted into the blue of the night where the moon and the stars completed the picture. The stage sets were built especially for this outdoor need and the furniture as well. There has been no makeshift. By a clever arrangement of lights the audience was illuminated and shut out while changes of the sets were being made.

Merola boasted of "the largest picked chorus of local singers ever assembled on the Pacific coast." He recruited the 75 member Stanford University Chorus, the A Capella Choir of the College of the Pacific (then located in San Jose) and a third chorus that he trained in San Francisco. The chorus of 150 voices rehearsed at Frank Carroll Giffen's house (also called the Humphrey-Giffen house) at the corner of Chestnut and Hyde. 

image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

Arthur Bloomfield tells of a gripman hearing these rehearsals from the passing Hyde Street cable car line calling out the Chestnut Street stop as the "Rue de l'Opera." An editorial in the Chronicle noted with civic pride the appreciation of the opera stars who marveled at the assembled chorus.

"Where could you find such a chorus?" asked [Giovanni] Martinelli, amazed.

"Even the Metropolitan cannot excel in this," exclaimed [Vicente] Ballester.

Walter Oesterreicher, the orchestral manager of the San Francisco Symphony, assembled an instrumental ensemble of 100 musicians. Armando Agnini of the Metropolitan Opera, who would collaborate with Merola for many years, directed stage action. Luigi Raybaut was also a stage manager. The ballet was directed and choreographed by Natale Carossio.

The Chronicle's music critic, Ray Brown, summed up the effect of the first evening:

The setting in the great bowl of the stadium was one of beauty, under the blue-black canopy of night. The sky was cloudless, save for a few filmy veils floating slowly beneath a half-moon in the zenith. A silvery wave of fog reared its crest on the summit of the far western hills and stayed its motion there. The winds were still, and there was no intrusion of the out world upon the fairy land of make-believe, except an interrupting whistle or two from a passing locomotive.

Gaetano Merola conducted with admirable authority and control of the large orchestra and the choral cohort. When he appeared on the stage at the close of the opera, the embrace that he exchanged with Martinelli was a symbol of congratulation to which the audience shouted approval.

source: San Francisco Examiner June 15, 1922

Bibliography:

Brown, Ray C.B., "600 Witness Opera In Open At Stanford," San Francisco Chronicle June 4, 1922

Bloomfield, Arthur, The San Francisco Opera, 1922-1978 (Comstock Editions, 1978).

Brown, Ray C.B., "600 Witness Opera In Opera At Stanford," San Francisco Chronicle June 4, 1922

Fisher, Marjory M., "Open-Air Opera A Far West Magnet," Musical America June 24, 1922.

"The Golden Gate of Music: Our San Francisco Chorus Amazes the Great Stars of the Opera World," San Francisco Chronicle June 9, 1922.

"Great Chorus To Sing in Stanford Event," San Francisco Chronicle May 13, 1922.

Hughes, Edan Milton, Artists in California, 1786-1940, 3rd ed. (Crocker Art Museum, 2002).

Lane, Jeanne, "San Francisco's Open Air Opera A Triumph," The Musical Leader June 15, 1922.

"Merola To Conduct Open Air Opera," Pacific Coast Musical Review April 15, 1922.

"Open-Air Opera Fete Arousing Interest," Pacific Coast Musical Review May 29, 1922.

"Open-Air Opera Performances Planned for Stanford University," Musical America May 13, 1922.

"Opera Master Tests Stadium for Accoustics [sic]," San Francisco Chronicle April 23, 1922

"'Pagliacci' Begins Open-Air Opera Series at Stanford University," Musical America June 17, 1922.

The Big Game, North Beach and The San Francisco Opera

The earliest seeds of the San Francisco Opera Company were planted in two places: the City's North Beach neighborhood and in Palo Alto at the "Big Game" between Stanford and California on November 19, 1921 – the inaugural football match at the newly constructed Stanford Stadium.

Several sources state that Gaetano Merola first visited San Francisco before the earthquake in 1906 as the accompanist for Signora Eugenia Mantelli. The 1906 date given seems unlikely since Signora Mantelli gave her final recitals in San Francisco in June 1903. Merola's presence cannot be verified since no pianist is credited in the advertisements for these performances.  

He later returned as a conductor with the International Grand Opera Company while on tour in San Francisco during the summer of 1909.  He made a strong impression in his presentation of Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz; the Chronicle noted that "Merola, made the evening not only the most memorable of the present season, but also eloquently expressed the fact that the composer's lyric work has met with unmistakable favor." It was with this troupe that Merola began his long collaboration with stage director Armando Agnini.

 

Merola as one of the touring conductors with the San Carlo Opera during their annual visits to San Francisco between 1918 and 1921. In the summer of 1921 he decided to remain behind in San Francisco. According to Arthur Bloomfield he earned a living giving lessons. He also began making friends in social circles to further his aim of creating an opera company for the City.

"Opera Stars Raise Their Voices to the Open Sky" shows photographs of opera stars Bianca Saroya and Giovanni Martelli, image source: San Francisco Chronicle June 4, 1922

One of his new opera-loving acquaintances, lawyer Horace Clifton, invited Merola to Palo Alto to experience a college football match. But, as Bloomfield put it, the conductor had "tenors more on his mind than quarterbacks." Clifton's wife, Olga, recalled many years later:

My husband and I took Maestro and his wife, Rosa, to the Big Game in November of 1921," she recalled. "While we were in the grandstand the Stanford Band came out. 'My God,' Merola said, 'I've never heard such acoustics in an open air stadium. This is magnificent I've got to give opera here!

Contemporaneously, the San Francisco Examiner's music critic Redfern Mason remarked: "The artist in him was impressed by the great spectacle. It made him think of the games in the ancient Roman amphitheaters." Merola was also impressed with acoustics. Very aware of the San Francisco fog, Merola also remarked "The nights are wonderful... There is no mist to chill you to the bone. It is as delightful as a night in Naples."

Merola turned to his friends in Italian-American community for support in his venture. A later account in Etude magazine described:

The tall, wiry, gentle-mannered young Italian spoke English very well, but always with the mellifluous accent that is heard in the laughter around the Bay of Naples. This stood him in good stead, because it was to his countrymen he went first with his plan to present a season of outdoor opera, to members of the San Francisco Fisherman's Association with whom he played cards of an evening and ate pizza. These were they who gave him the first $10,000, and on the strength of which he managed to borrow $13,000 more from a bank.

Redfern Mason gave the lion's share of the credit for the stage of Merola's extravaganza at Stanford Stadium to the conductor and to the generosity of his Italian-American friends.

source: San Francisco Examiner June 22, 1922

They have set an example to San Franciscans generally which, if followed up, will make California what by genius and temperament it seems intended to be--the Hellas of the Western world.

So I will set down the names of these gentlemen in enduring type that folks may know to whom they owe a debt of gratitude. They are Gaetano Merola, A. Farina, G. Torchia, G. Napolitano, A. Napolitano, G. Milani, V. Frevola, A. Paoni, G. Brucia and G. Stradi.

Antonio Farina, manager of the Crab and Salmon Fisherman's Association, hosted the card games where Merola and company hatched the idea. Guglielmo Torchia, also known as William Torchia, ran the Agenzia Torchia and was railroad and shipping agent. He was also the publisher of newspapers like Era Democratica and L'Italia. He also organized the Federation of Italian Societies.

Giuseppe Brucia (who sometimes went by Joseph Brucia), who was an olive grower and purveyor of dried fruit, secured the loan from Amadeo Giannini and the Bank of Italy.  Giulio Stradi was successful in the produce business.  At the age of 16, Stradi's daughter Louise became Merola's secretary.

The 1922 City Directory shows that brothers Alfonso and Amedeo Napolitano worked as a foreman and a clerk respectively (the initial G. Napolitano must have been a mistake?). Redfern Mason's list includes an A. Paoni, but later account list three men with that surname - Amedeo, Amalio and Anacleto Paoni appear to have been cousins (Amelio is usually listed with the surname Paone). They variously worked a produce clerk and machinist, grocer, and fitter.

Mason lists a G. Milani among Merola's benefactors (there was a clerk named Guido Milano living in North Beach at that time). However, later accounts give the name of Milano Milani who appears as actor in the Italian language press of the 1910s. Later City Directories show him working as a bookkeeper and clerk. V. Frevola is actually James V. Frevola who also worked as a bookkeeper.

Opera at Stanford Stadium was a tremendous success -- artistically.  It, however, was a failure financially.  Merola's friends were never paid back. Merola had to work off the remaining debt by conducting in Mexico City for a spell.

The San Francisco Opera formally acknowledged the contribution of Merola's Italian-American friends with a plaque dedicated in 2003. Although they were not among the 45 sponsors for the San Francisco Opera's inaugural season, Gaetano Merola could not have stage his Stanford Stadium success and garnered wider community support.

Bibliography

"Appointed General Agent for Cunard and Anchor Lines," Weekly Commercial News August 7, 1920

Bishop, Cardell, The San Carlo Opera Company, 1913-1955: Grand Opera for Profit. (Bishop, CA, 1978).

Bloomfield, Arthur, The San Francisco Opera, 1922-1978 (Comstock Editions, 1978).

"Cook, John Douglas, "'Mr. Opera' Takes a Curtain," Etude May 1954.

"Cook, John Douglas, "Twenty Five Years of Opera," Opera and Concert September 1947.

Crocker-Langley San Francisco City Directory (H. S. Crocker Co. 1922).

Fichera, Sebastian, Italy on The Pacific: San Francisco's Italian Americans. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

"G. Brucia, 90, Olive Grower," San Francisco Examiner April 16, 1974.

Hunt, Grace Rollins, "George Hamlin Will Sing Here," San Francisco Chronicle November 28, 1909.

Jones, Idwal, "Out With The Fishers," San Francisco Examiner January 8, 1925

"Many Curtain Calls Demanded," San Francisco Chronicle July 7, 1909.

Mason, Redfern, "Al Fresco Opera at Palo Alto Will Be Done On Magnificent Scale. Great Artists to Sing," San Francisco Examiner May 21, 1922.

Mason, Redfern, "Stanford Opera Is An Ideal Expression of Latin Culture," San Francisco Examiner June 18, 1922

Rando, Maria Gloria, "The Italian Connection With The San Francisco Opera House," L'Italo Americano October 12, 2021. [webpage].

"S.F. Opera Honors Founders in Program," San Francisco Chronicle February 26, 2003.

Venturini, Donald Joseph, "La Vittoria del'Opera nel San Francisco," San Francisco Quarterly Winter-Spring 1951-1952.

Wiegand, David, "S.F. Opera honors founders in program Merola, other 'angels' on new plaque." San Francisco Chronicle 26 Feb. 2003

Presentation: James Brown

A talk and slideshow by Richie Unterberger

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Virtual Library - ZOOM

Author and music historian Richie Unterberger presents a program celebrating the music of James Brown, one of the all-time great soul singers and charismatic live performers. The event will focus on his prime from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, including performances of classics like “Out of Sight,” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Feel Good,” “Cold Sweat,” and “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.”

Richie Unterberger is the author of numerous rock history books, including volumes on the Beatles, the Who, the Velvet Underground, Bob Marley and 1960s folk-rock. He teaches courses on rock and soul music history at several Bay Area colleges. His newest book, San Francisco: Portrait of a City, was published this year by Taschen.

This virtual program is offered as a one-time event only by agreement with the presenter. THIS PROGRAM WILL NOT BE RECORDED. Presented by the Art, Music & Recreation Center of the San Francisco Public Library.

Register HERE

This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library

BOOKS AVAILABLE @ SFPL:

I feel good : a memoir of a life of soul / James Brown
780.2 B813a2 

James Brown, the godfather of soul / James Brown

780.2 B813a 2002 

Cold sweat : my father James Brown and me / Yamma Brown

780.2 B813br  

Presence and pleasure : the funk grooves of James Brown and Parliament / Anne Danielsen

784.5 ZD2286p 

 
The James Brown reader : 50 years of writing about the godfather of soul / edited by Nelson George and Alan Leeds

780.2 B813ge 

There was a time : James Brown, the Chitlin' Circuit, and me / Alan Leeds 

780.2 B813L  

Kill 'em and leave : searching for James Brown and the American soul / James McBride 

780.2 B813m 

Say it loud! : the life of James Brown, soul brother no. 1 / Don Rhodes 

780.2 B813rh 2014 

Living in America : the soul saga of James Brown / Cynthia Rose 

780.2 B813r 

 
The hardest working man : how James Brown saved the soul of America / James Sullivan

780.2 B813su 

 
The one : the life and music of James Brown / R.J. Smith

780.2 B813sm 

Live at the Apollo / Douglas Wolk 

780.2 B813w 

Working for the man, playing in the band : my years with James Brown / Damon Wood  
780.2 W8502a  

Bringing the Opera to the People and the People to the Opera - An Exhibit

image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

The San Francisco Opera Company is currently celebrating its Centennial 2022-2023 season.  The Art, Music and Recreation and the San Francisco History Center have joined forces to join in the festivities with the exhibit "Bringing the Opera to the People and the People to the Opera" that runs from September 10, 2022 through January 12, 2023.

Opera is an enterprise that requires considerable resources. While the glamour of the opera often rests on imported star power, companies like the San Francisco Opera draw upon the community to realize its performances and to create a dynamic social scene that nourishes the opera company. This display exhibition shows the ways that the San Francisco Opera plays a role in the community beyond the opera house walls. 

The exhibit highlights local talent that can be who tend to be overshadowed by the great divas and divos of opera stage. It also spotlights a mid-century view of a night at the San Francisco Opera including fashion, balls, Opera Guild’s Fol-de-Rol. 

Bringing the Opera to the People and the People to the Opera features photographs and ephemera from the collections of San Francisco Public Library’s Art, Music & Recreation Center and San Francisco History Center.

image source: San Francisco Programs. Music [scrapbook].

School age children attending the opera in 1948.

The Fakebook Index

Do you know about the Fakebooks page on the Art, Music and Recreation Center home page? 

It features a database for the Library's extensive collection of Fake books. The Harvard Dictionary of Music provides a snooty but fairly accurate definition of a fake book:

A collection of popular and jazz melodies with chord symbols (often rudimentary or simply incorrect) and sometimes words, used especially by musicians in restaurants, nightclubs, and the like as a basis from which to improvise or "fake" their own arrangements.

Faking often has a negative connotation implying a false or counterfeit action.  Musicians from the jazz age onward viewed it positively. Faking meant the skill to be able to play by ear and improvise.  Some created Fake Books as a guide, the fakebook being a collection of minimal arrangements usually just stripped down to the melody, chord changes and words. 

A classic jazz combo often uses a melody as the "head" or introduction to their improvisation over the chord structure of the melody. Fake books played a role in enshrining certain melodies as "standards," often popular melodies or show tunes.  (If you are interested in learning more, check out Ted Gioia's The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire).

The earliest fake books were created without copyright clearance and did contain inaccuracies. By the 1970s music publishers were creating their own "legal" or "legitimate" fake books to meet musicians' demands.

Here are examples using the standard "I Get A Kick Out Of You."

The Book (an unauthorized fake book) opens with the chorus of the familiar Cole Porter tune. Chord names are circled and no words are given. 

An "official" version of the song in the Just Standards Real Book (published by Warner Bros.) opens with the song's introduction (as sung in the show Anything Goes).

The familiar chorus appears half-way down the page and includes the words as well.

"I Get A Kick Out of You" takes up 5 pages in a songbook. The Just Standards Real Book presents it in 2 pages while in The Book it fills up only two thirds of a page.

Although both fake books present the song in the same key, a discerning musician will see small differences in the melody and the chord changes.  These variations demonstrate why it's important to have a variety of fake books in our collection.

Fake books are in no way limited to jazz. There are folk, gospel, country, blues, Broadway, classical, and many other kinds of fake books. They are often used by musicians who busk, who play at receptions, in hotel lobbies, at restaurants or in any background capacity. And, of course, by any musicians who just want to "jam." They allow a musician to carry a great deal of notated musical information in a condensed form.

A standard fake book is considered to be in "C" – in non-transposed keys playable by "C" instruments like piano, guitar, violin and flute. There are also "Bb" fake books used by trumpet and tenor sax players, "Eb" fake books used by alto and baritone sax players, and bass clef fake books used by trombonists and string bass players.

Our Fakebook Index is built on an Access database where we include the title, the last name of the composer (often both songwriter and lyricist), and the title of the corresponding fakebook. It does not follow a keyword standard but instead searches for continuous strings of text of any length. You could look up the song above with "Porter" as a last name or with the full title or part of the title. You can also look up the name of a collection to view its contents.

We own reference copies of all of the fakebooks, but we also have circulating copies of many of them.

Fakebooks are often used by sophisticated musicians and sometimes sophisticated musicians have sophisticated needs. Please contact us in the Art, Music & Recreation Center if you need additional help.