Over the past 50 years, St. James Press has published dozens of excellent reference encyclopedias and dictionaries. Several of these heavy tomes are biographical encyclopedias of figures in the arts from the late twentieth century.
The Contemporary Arts Series includes a resume-like biography, exhibition history, list of works, list of publications (bibliography), and an introductory essay or personal statement. Because newer editions add and subtract entries on different artists, the earlier editions continue to have value for the researcher.
Contemporary Masterworks is unique in focusing on individual works of visual art from the 20th century (including art, architecture, photography and design. It devotes one page to a black and white reproduction of the artwork and another page to a descriptive essay and bibliography.
The International Dictionaries published by St. James Press focus on a wider span of history and also provide listings of creative works and a bibliography. The dictionaries for ballet, modern dance intersperse entries about performers, choreographers and works for the dance. Likewise the International Dictionary of Opera includes entries on individual operas, opera singers and composers.
The more recently published St. James Guide to Black Artists shares the same format as the Contemporary Arts Series volumes listed above, but is focused upon artists of Africa and of the African diaspora. Similarly the St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists profiles artists from Latin America or were active there. The St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture is unlike the other reference works discussed here in that it also discusses style and genre in addition to notable performing artists and producers.
Amerigo Frediani (image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)
Amerigo Frediani was another local artist who performed many smaller roles during the San Francisco Opera's early years. Born on January 2, 1898 in Lucca, Italy, his family emigrated to the United States in 1907 and settled in Sonoma County. He graduated from Healdsburg High School in 1914 and UC Berkeley in 1918. He also became a naturalized American citizen that year.
In 1918 and 1919, during World War I, he served as a private in the 144th Machine Gun Battalion. After the war he went to work as a bank clerk, first in Berkeley and later in San Francisco. He showed a passion for opera and song performing frequently in recitals and operas in the Bay Area. Frediani starred as the “lyrical tenor” André Ferrier’s Gaîté Française theater from 1922 to 1924.
image source: San Francisco Opera Programs, Season 1925
He performed frequently with the Opera in its first seasons as a chorus member and in small credited roles in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (1923, 1924), Il Tabarro (1923), Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (1923), Vittadini's Anima Allegra (1925), Massenet's Manon (1925, 1934), Saint-Saëns' Samson and Dalila (1925, 1926), Puccini's Manon Lescaut (1926), Giordano's Fedora (1928), Montemezzi's L'Amore dei Tre Re (1928), Verdi's La Traviata (1933, 1934), Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or (1933), Leoncavallo's Pagliacci (1933), Puccini's La Rondine (1934), Delibes' Lakmé (1934), and Verdi's Otello (1934).
At this time he also sang with the newly formed Los Angeles Grand Opera Association. In 1927 Frediani received a scholarship to study with Giulio Silva at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He continued to participate in recitals and frequently performed live on Bay Area radio stations KPO (today’s KNBR) and KLX (today’s KNEW). From 1928 to 1933 he moved to New York where he studied with Claude Wanford and was coached by Antonio dell'Orefice. Little is known of his performance activity there except occasional listings in the New York Times of his performing as a soloist on WGBS (today's WINS).
Amerigo Frediani (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)
He was known more for his musicality than for an excellent voice. A notice in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1927 described:
Frediani sings always with intelligent style. His diction is clear in English, French, Spanish and Italian, and there is a nice lyric flow to his readings. His voice is not broad of range or luscious in quality--the tone is inclined to be pallid and husky--but he handles it with musical finesse.
Alfred Metzger praised his voice for “its quality rather than its quantity.” A 1933 San Francisco Chronicle article remarked that: "Although his voice is not a lustrous virtuoso instrument, it is capable of fine expression. Frediani has sensibility and intelligence."
When he returned to San Francisco he returned to the radio, singing on KTAB (today's KSFO). He was recitalist and sang at local Bastille Day celebrations. In the late 1930s he also sang in concerts given by the Federal Music Project. By 1940, Frediani had moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a sales representative for a perfume company. Toward the end of his life he returned to the Bay Area and died on December 25, 1982 in Sonoma County.
Bibliography
"Amerigo Frediani," Music West December 1927.
"Amerigo Frediani is Scholarship Winner," San Francisco Chronicle November 13, 1927.
Like Flossita Badger, Albert Gillette (Albert J. Gillette, Jr.) was a local vocalist who helped fill out the cast during the early days of the San Francisco Opera, performing in a dozen roles during their first two seasons. Born in Salem, Oregon in 1896, he grew up in nearby Eugene. According to the 1913 Eugene High School yearbook (in Ancestry.com), he was a vocal standout in the school's operetta production. He later went on to the University of Oregon where he sang with the men's glee club.
According to his 1917 WWI draft card (also in Ancestry.com) at the age of 21 he worked in Portland, Oregon at the Traffic Department for the Southern Pacific Railroad. By 1920 he sang in musical theater sketches at Portland's Liberty Theater. In 1921 he transferred to work for the Southern Pacific in Merced, California where he quickly became a major figure in the musical life there.
"Albert Gillette: Available for Concerts and Entertainments" (ad. in the Merced Sun-Star March 11, 1923)
A 1923 article announced that Gillette had been appointed to the Sherwood School of Music in Modesto. It also gave him an impressive resume claiming that he had been "brought to the Coast" by the legendary Sid Grauman who intended to engage him at this movie theaters. This article also highlighted Gillette's forthcoming appearances with the San Francisco Opera company. It also noted that he began his training under Hugo Reisenfeld and had appeared at the Rialto and Rivoli theaters in New York.
In 1924 he was listed as the director of the Modesto Conservatory of Music, but his professional focus had already moved substantially to the San Francisco Bay Area. In February 1923, he was a finalist in operatic singing contest judged by baritone Titta Ruffo that was held by the San Francisco Examiner's short-lived radio station KUO. Between September 1923 and September 1924 he performed in the San Francisco Opera company's performances of Andrea Chénier,Gianni Schicchi, Rigoletto, Roméo et Juliette, Madama Butterfly and Tosca.
In the following years he performed extensively with the Pacific Coast Grand Opera troupe led by Arturo Casiglia. He also sang at many churches in San Francisco and Oakland and was active at Oakland's Athens Club. But Gillette was probably best known for his work on local radio where he was a frequent on-air recitalist on KGO, KPO, KFRC and KYA in San Francisco and KLX and KTAB in Oakland.
Albert Gillette, baritone, plays "Camille" in Lehar's "Merry Widow" the comic opera on KGO's Sat. eve. Dec. 5 program (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)
As radio began to more toward more network programming, Gillette's vocal talents were broadcast across the airwaves of more West Coast stations. He perform and directed with Paul Steindorff's Radio Light Opera Company, broadcast from KGO but heard across NBC's Orange Network. In 1930 he transferred to Portland, Oregon where he continued working for NBC as the program director at station KGW.
Albert Gillette, former star of KPO is now Director of Programs for KGW, Portland. Word from the north indicates that the KPO favorite of several years ago is enjoying unrivalled success as the helmsman of KGW's programs. (Source: Broadcast Weekly December 6, 1931)
Luther F. Sies' Encyclopedia of American Radio 1920-1960 lists a few of the broadcast programs where Gillette was featured. He was a member of California Mixed Quartet on KGO in 1925, the Francisco Mixed Quartet on KPO in 1926 and the KTAB Quartet on KTAB in 1926. He also performed on the National Carbon Company Program on KGO in 1925 and on the Hour of Musical Gems on the NBC-Pacific Coast Network (Orange Network) originating from KYA, with Pacific Salon Orchestra conducted by Liborius Hauptmann. Gillette continued to sing opera in Southern California returned to the Bay Area in the late 1930s and resumed his appearances on Bay Area radio stations and stages.
While Albert Gillette was ubiquitous on the Bay Area stage and airwaves for many years there are few accounts of his performance style. A reviewer in the Pacific Coast Musical Review was "impressed with his histrionic ability. Gillette has the knack of making even the smallest sort of a role a thing of distinction." Another review in the Music Leader noted his "splendid acting, powerful baritone voice and fine diction."
Albert Jay Gillette died in San Francisco on January 5, 1956. His death notice in the Chronicle of January 6, 1956 did not mention his musical career but did note his membership in The Family, a local men's social club that actively presented concerts and plays. He also kept a connection to his railway work -- the notice also stated that he was a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks Local 854. He was buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma.
source: San Francisco Opera Company. Annual season, 1925-1926
During the early seasons of the San Francisco Opera, the company hired internationally known stars for lead parts. Smaller, yet important, roles were handled by Bay Area talent. Flossita Badger sang in a handful of these parts between 1923 and 1934.
Born in Vermont in 1899, Flossita Badger grew up in California’s Central Valley. She moved to San Jose to attend the Conservatory of Music at the College of the Pacific where she graduated in Public School Music. Howard Hanson, then on the composition faculty, dedicated his opus 10 song "Exaltation" to her.
After graduation she became a high school teacher, teaching music in Chowchilla and San Luis Obispo before being appointed head of the Music Department at Lowell High School in San Francisco. She took leave during this time to study opera in France and Italy. During that time she performed with the San Carlo Opera Company in Naples.
Badger played one of the two lay-sisters ("due converse") in Puccini's Suor Angelica in the San Francisco Opera’s inaugural 1923 season. In 1925 she appeared in von Flotow’s Martha and later also played roles in Gounod’s Faust and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor during the 1926 season.
Alfred Metzger wrote favorably of the latter performance in the Pacific Coast Musical Review: "as Alice [Badger] revealed a very delightful voice and interpreted her role in a manner decidedly satisfactory."
During these years she was a regular in the Opera Chorus. She also sang as a member of the San Francisco Opera on the airwaves of KPO. At the same time, Flossita Badger was also a frequent vocal recitalist in the Bay Area. She married her piano accompanist Lincoln Batchelder in 1931.
Flossita Badger (image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)
In 1935 she was selected to head the Music Department at the newly established San Francisco Junior College (today known as the City College of San Francisco). There she directed the A Cappella Choir and organized many opera workshops. The Examiner's Alexander Fried described her as the "skilled, lively director" of the opera program. While on the faculty of City College she took a six month sabbatical to continue her studies at Columbia University and Julliard. Throughout her performance career, Flossita Badger appeared on the radio, gave solo recitals, and performed with other opera troupes. She died in San Francisco in 1961, one year after retiring from City College.
Bibliography:
"Choir Director Returns in Spring from Sabbatical Leave in NY," The Guardsman January 20, 1948.
Directory of Secondary and Normal Schools for The School Year 1919-1920 (California. State Board of Education, 1919).
"Flossita Badger," San Francisco Examiner September 22, 1929.
"Flossita Badger Dies Here," San Francisco Chronicle March 28, 1961
"Flossita Badger, Musician," [obituary] San Francisco Examiner March 28, 1961.
Fried, Alexander, "Opera Excerpts Bring Campion Festival to End," San Francisco Examiner August 30, 1952.
George Stinson and his family returned to New York on May 25, 1939 aboard the ocean liner Conte Di Savoia. After nearly a year and a half of operatic lessons in Italy he was back in San Francisco in early June where he began preparing for his San Francisco Opera debut. Merola had assigned four operas for him to learn in Italy, Verdi's Aida, La Forza del Destino and Il Trovatore plus Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci. It was fitting that he would sing the latter; often compared to Enrico Caruso he would sing the legend's signature role of the clown, Canio.
He sang his premier San Francisco Opera performance on October 21, 1939 with thirty of his friends from the California Highway patrol to root for him. Stinson noted how his real world experience had prepared him for that moment.
I'm going to sing it the way it really is. I've seen life as a cop. I've seen people attempt suicide and commit murder. I've eaten at those those dumps along skid row when I worked the Bridge.
George Stinson as Caneo (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)
The audience loved Stinson in his debut bringing him back for several curtain calls. San Francisco's music critics were also unanimous in their praise of his debut. Alfred Frankenstein of the Chronicle wrote:
His voice is extremely large and powerful, fresh and youthful in its clarion ring, and a splendid vehicle for the passionate unrestraint of Canio's woes, lamentations, and vengeful resolutions. He lacks stage experience, and no man on peaceful earth had better reason to be nervous, but he carried his assignment through to an ovation richly deserved.
Alexander Fried of the Examiner opined that this was the:
...most resounding success a new local artist has ever won with the San Francisco Opera Company... Nature has endowed Stinson with the sort of dramatic tenor voice that impresarios dream of dream of. It is powerful, brilliant, broad of range. It has thrilling top tones. It is a voice with intrinsic emotional content.
Marie Hicks Davidson of the San Francisco Call proclaimed that Stinson was "the vocal find of the season" adding that:
Stinson appears to be on his way up to the heights. He is gifted with a robust tenor voice of golden quality which Merola says has more the Caruso timber [sic] than any who has ever aspired to the Caruso mantle. It has a Martinellian clarity and a lower range of barytone [sic] brilliance.
He reprised this role in a second performance on October 31, 1939.
In the mean time he found steady work performing in the community, notably a dozen appearances at the Golden Gate International Exposition. He later revealed that he made pretty good money performing--500 dollars for each opera performance (equivalent to over $10,000 today) and 200 dollars for each appearance at the Exposition. Now fondly known as "San Francisco's famous singing cop" he also performed at a number of wartime benefits. He even sang at baseball legend Joe DiMaggio's first wedding.
George Stinson as Radames (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)
The following season the San Francisco Opera announced that George Stinson would star as Radames, the captain of the Egyptian guard, in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida during their 1940 season. However, it was announced at performance time that he would bow out of the first October 31 performance due to illness. As Herb Caen first reported:
Over-rehearsed George Stinson, "the singing cop," came up with a sore throat Wed. night and couldn't sing the lead in "Aida"--so short, bespeckled Frederick Jagel was imported by plane from the East to fill the gap.
He later updated his reporting. Jagel was actually already performing in California, which Caen suspected was more than coincidence. He emphasized that Stinson did not have a sore throat, nor was he over-rehearsed.
The reason for the whole mixup--and this is very much on the inside-- reportedly was Mme. [Elisabeth] Rethberg, who didn't feel up to the chore of singing "Aida" opposite a "new" singer. This despite the fact that in dress rehearsal, only Stinson had given a perfect performance.
Another notable detail is that Gennaro Papi conduct the opera, not Stinson's mentor and supporter Gaetano Merola. George Stinson did star opposite Rethberg in the second and final performance of Aida on November 1, 1940. Alexander Fried's review was again favorable, remarking that Stinson "did himself great credit" in the role. Alfred Frankenstein's review was mixed. While praising Stinson's "splendid tone, power and vigor," he also perceived "moments of difficulty and insecurity" in his performance.
That was, in effect, the end of George Stinson's operatic career. Although he carried on as a professional singer for a while afterward, by late Spring of 1941 he had returned to his old job at the highway patrol. He remarked that "It has been a grand experience and a successful one, but I'm happier here with the people I know, doing the work I like and have always done."
The Chronicle also reported him saying that "I guess I am just a cop at heart ... a cop and an American and I don't go much for these kissing foreigners." Stinson would maintain that he was misquoted. He wrote a letter to Herb Caen.
Dear Herb: I've noticed articles in the paper regarding my return to the Highway Patrol, which are O.K. except for the quote attributed to me, that 'I don't go much for these kissing foreigners.' Can you help me correct this story? I am sure I don't know what is meant by kissing foreigners, and I certainly did not make such a statement. I have many friends who were not born in this country but who, I'm sure, would think badly of me and Americans if this mistake were left uncorrected.
However, Stinson after his return from his studies in Europe was quoted by an Orange County newspaper as remarking that "In Italy... men think nothing of kissing one another on the mouth." His outlook reflects more culture shock than actual xenophobia. The glamorous world of the stage was very different from other workplaces that Stinson had known like the military and the highway patrol. Years later, he also remarked that the operatic world was too cutthroat for him.
When you're out on a job with some other cops, you know you can count on them to be behind you. But when you're out there on the opera stage, some of them other stars are hoping you'll croak.
But at heart, he may have left opera simply, as Herb Caen later put it, because "he wasn't of major league operatic caliber, and nobody knew better than he (an honest guy)."
With World War II on, Stinson enlisted with the Navy with the rank of chief specialist where he assisted Military Police in maintaining order in the transport of personnel aboard troop trains. The Navy allowed him to entertained sailors at military hospitals. He also participated in the dedication of ships launched at Marinship or of military housing at Hunters Point. He left the service with the rank of lieutenant.
After the war he returned to the California Highway Patrol to work for his pension. He was stationed in the Sacramento area and gave occasional performances. The last newspaper notice is for a singing appearance in Placerville in 1952.
Even though George Stinson's operatic career did not amount to a great deal, it is clear that he was blessed with a beautiful, strong voice. He also showed great perseverance and a love of opera to advance as far as he did. More than a decade after giving up opera he confided with journalist Bernard Taper that:
I'm singing better than ever now. I don't know what's happening to me. The voice is getting smoother, but it's still got its old robust quality, too. I'm singing them high C's like never done before, without any effort. My breath control is better now, too. Like I said, I've been meditating. And all of a sudden one evening, it came on me what my teacher in Italy meant when he kept telling me to breath for singing like you do for speaking, the same naturalness.
George Stinson died in Yountville, California on April 2, 1973.
Bibliography:
Caen, Herb, "I'll Always Remember," San Francisco Examiner April 9, 1950
Caen, Herb, "Memos to Myself," San Francisco Chronicle November 14, 1940.
Caen, Herb, "Monday Medley," San Francisco Chronicle May 5, 1941.
Caen, Herb, "Pocket of Notes," San Francisco Chronicle November 1, 1940.
"County's Erstwhile Singing Cop Back in S.F. from Italy," Santa Ana Register June 6, 1939.
Davidson, Marie Hicks, "Opera Season Has Scored a Triumph," San Francisco Call November 4, 1939
Davidson, Marie Hicks, "'Singing Cop' Is on Road to Fame Now," San Francisco Call October 23, 1939
"Early Days of State to Live Again Tonight" San Francisco Examiner January 25, 1940
"14 Operas Listed for Performance This Fall," San Francisco Examiner May 10, 1940.
Frankenstein, Alfred, "International Cast Sings French Opera Beautifully," San Francisco Chronicle November 2, 1940.
Frankenstein, Alfred, "Singing Patrolman Makes Good in Famous Role of 'Pagliacci," San Francisco Chronicle October 23, 1939.
Fried, Alexander, "San Francisco Prepares for Gala Opera Opening," San Francisco Examiner October 6, 1940
Fried, Alexander, "'Singing Cop' Out of Aida: Tenor Ill, But Sings Tomorrow," San Francisco Examiner October 31, 1940.
Fried, Alexander, "'Singing Cop' Wins Triumph in 'Pagliacci'," San Francisco Examiner October 22, 1939
"Hunters Point Project Dedication Sunday," San Francisco Chronicle October 20, 1943.
Lang, Harry, "10,000 Watch DiMaggio and Actress Wed," San Francisco Examiner November 20, 1939
"Memorial Day Launching at Marinship," Sausalito News June 3, 1943
"Perennial Twins Hold Opera Stage Tonight," San Francisco Call-Bulletin October 21, 1939
Fried, Alexander, "Sayao, Schipa Win Acclaim with 'Manon'," San Francisco Examiner November 2, 1940
O'Brien, Robert, "San Francisco," San Francisco Chronicle January 18, 1943
"Placerville Rotary Aids Charter Day for Jackson Club," Placerville Mountain Democrat May 15, 1952.
"Singing Cop Back to Start Career," San Francisco Examiner May 26, 1939
"The Singing Cop: He'll Make Debut Saturday in Opera That Made Caruso," San Francisco Chronicle October 19, 1939.
"Singing Cop Triumphs in 'I Pagliacci'," San Francisco Chronicle October 22, 1939
"Stinson Welcomed after Study in Italy," San Francisco Examiner June 5, 1939.
Taper, Bernard, "Since Then: Ex-Singing Cop Is Still a Cop--But with Fewer Worries," San Francisco Chronicle January 14, 1951.
"Tenor Stinson Leaves Stage for Patrol Job," San Francisco Chronicle April 29, 1941
"Verdi's 'Aida' to Be Sung Tonight," San Francisco Examiner October 30, 1940.
The sensationalist October 1, 1937 frontpage headline in William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner read: "Span Traffic Officer Held Operatic Fine: Tenor May Write Own Ticket to Fame." In 1935, Gaetano Merola discovered a local barber's daughter, Josephine Tumminia, who he helped to train and cast in leading roles. A few years later his new discovery was George Stinson, an officer with the California Highway Patrol.
George Stinson and Gaetano Merola (source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)
The Examiner article claimed that "Merola heard Stinson singing through the midst [sic] one foggy night, stopped, marveled, then asked what was his training, whether he would like to sing in opera." Even though George Stinson was presented as a Merola discovery, he, like Josephine Tumminia, had a considerable amount of professional experience behind him when he arrived in San Francisco,
George Washington Stinson must have had a difficult childhood. All sources give his birthdate as March 15, but different articles and genealogical sources disagree about his birth year, giving it alternately as 1898, 1900, or 1903. Born in rural Vienna, Missouri, he and his siblings lost both of their parents at a young age and ended up in a Saint Louis orphanage. He was adopted by a family in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood at 12 and at age 17 he entered the armed services in the aviation corps in Lake Charles, LA. He then worked for a short time as a deputy marshal in Longville, LA before re-enlisting the artillery corps where he was stationed in Vladivostok, Russia and the Philippines. Other accounts noted that he played football and was a wrestler and a boxer.
He came to California in 1922, working as a fireman in Huntington Beach, CA and then joining the California Highway Patrol in 1926. Alongside news reports of him stopping derelict drivers there were articles remarking on his natural vocal ability. An article in the Santa Ana Register quotes Los Angeles Examiner music critic, Otheman Stevens, who enthused:
It is a rare blessing to meet an artist in the making. There are quite a lot of us who believe we have experienced that by hearing Motor Cop George Stinson sing several arias. Stinson some time ago interested his fellows, and Chief Snook of the State Motor vehicle department in his voice. This gives good promise of being a dramatic tenor of rare sweetness and great power.
It was around this time that Stinson had his fateful encounter with famed operatic contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink. His opportunity for opera success began when he stopped her chauffeured car in San Juan Capistrano for speeding. When he pulled the car over, he recognized her and expressed how much he admired her asked whether he might sing for her. When he finally gathered up his nerve she declared "In this moment I have found a great tenor." She asked him to join her and perform a benefit recital together in Anaheim.
June 4, 1930 concert announcement
source: Santa Ana Daily Register in the Newspaper Archive California Edition database
She also funded his musical education to the tune of $1,500. From that time he studied with Los Angeles-based Italian-American vocal coach Guido Caselotti who presented him in recitals and on the air on station KECA. The California Highway Patrol realized what a public relations asset they had in a "singing cop" and dispatched him to all 58 counties as a safety ambassador talking about the dangers of speeding and drunk driving and breaking into song. During this time he also appeared on screen in the 1936 Universal Productions picture Crash Donovan.
OPERATIC FINE--George Stinson, State Highway patrolman, station on the Bay Bridge, is a real operatic find, says Gaetano Merola. He is now studying voice. (San Francisco Examiner October 1, 1937)
In 1936 he was transferred to work at the newly-finished San Francisco Bay Bridge and to bring him into the proximity of the San Francisco Opera company. An impressed Gaetano Merola proclaimed Stinson's voice as "startlingly like that of Caruso." But the director cautioned: "He is not ready this year, but by next year I expect his voice, which is really remarkable, will be ready for a place in the company. It is already beautiful now."
Merola trained Stinson for seven months while trying to arrange for him to study opera in Italy. Local opera-lovers as well as opera stars like Giovanni Martinelli, Gina Cigna and Kirsten Flagstad took up a subscription to allow Stinson to take a leave of absence to study voice in Europe. Chinese-American Doctor Henry Wong Him, listed in City Directories as a "physician and surgeon, specialist in Chinese system of diagnosis and treatment" was a principal contributor to this fund.
The highway patrol grant him leave to study in Italy. Seen off by Gaetano Merola and Atilla Lamponi of the Metropolitan Opera Company he departed from New York City aboard the Italian ocean liner Saturnia with his wife and teenage son in January 1938. The Examiner reported that he thrilled his fellow passengers with his singing.
Singing Cop On His Way. En Route--to Italy, then--opera? George Stinson, Golden Gate bridge traffic officer, sails on Liner Saturnia for voice study (San Francisco Examiner January 10, 1938)
He studied opera with Vittorio Moratti in Milan. The October 1938 issue of the magazine California Highway Patrol printed excerpts of letters from Stinson and wife wrote home describing their experiencse in Italy. He reported that he had a contract to sing in a production of Il Trovatore, but noted that all performers in Italy had to audition for a commission to obtain permission to sing on stage. In another article he expressed surprise at seeing himself in Crash Donovan with the rest of the cast dubbed into Italian while his singing was in English.
To be continued....
'Singing Cop' Puts Uniform in Mothballs
George Stinson, San Francisco motorcycle policeman, whose voice landed him a free trip to Europe to study with the best German and Italian teachers, puts away his uniform for good, with the aid of his wife. World-known musical stars are paying their expenses.--(Associated Press photo.) [source: International Herald Tribune January 10, 1938]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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