"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.