Helen Traubel
Encyclopedia
Helen Francesca Traubel (June 16, 1899July 28, 1972) was an American opera
and concert singer. A dramatic soprano
, she was best known for her Wagnerian
roles, especially those of Brünnhilde
and Isolde
. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri
, she began her career as a concert singer and went on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera
from 1937 to 1953. Starting in the 1950s, she also developed a career as a nightclub and cabaret singer as well as appearing in television, films and musical theatre
. Traubel spent her later years in Santa Monica, California
, where she died at the age of 73.
to a prosperous family of German descent. She was the daughter of Otto Ferdinand Traubel, a pharmacist, and Clara Traubel (née Stuhr). She studied singing in her native city with Louise Vetta-Karst and later in New York City with Giuseppe Boghetti
among other teachers. She made her debut as a concert singer with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
in 1923, and in 1926 she got a first offer to join the Metropolitan Opera
company after performing the aria Liebestod
at the Lewisohn Stadium
under conductor Rudolph Ganz
. She turned down the offer in order to continue with her studies and career as a concert singer.
Traubel made her first appearance on the opera stage on May 12, 1937, when the composer Walter Damrosch asked her to portray the role of Mary Rutledge in the world premiere of his opera The Man Without a Country
at the Met. Later that year she made her debut with the Chicago City Opera Company
with whom she was active until the company went bankrupt in 1939. In 1940 she joined the roster of the Chicago Opera Company
, remaining active with that company until it too went bankrupt in 1946. She sang in several performances with the San Francisco Opera
in 1945 and 1947; making her debut with the company as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre
on October 9, 1945 with Lauritz Melchior
as Siegmund, Margaret Harshaw
as Fricka, and William Steinberg
conducting.
Since the Met already had two first-class Wagnerian sopranos, Kirsten Flagstad
and Marjorie Lawrence
, Traubel at first had difficulty finding her niche. Her debut as a regular company member was as Sieglinde in Die Walküre in 1939, the only standard role which she had previously sung, at the Chicago Opera. Flagstad left the US in 1941 to visit her homeland of Norway and could not return for political reasons. The same year, Lawrence was stricken with polio and her career was curtailed. On February 22, 1941, Traubel sang with tenor Lauritz Melchior
in excerpts from Wagnerian operas on the live broadcast concert of the NBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Arturo Toscanini
. The broadcast originated from Carnegie Hall
at a time when the NBC Symphony usually performed in NBC Studio 8-H. RCA Victor later released some of the music from the concert. Traubel later triumphed in Tannhäuser
and in Tristan und Isolde
. She was renowned for her strong voice, which was often described as a "gleaming sword"; her endurance and purity of tone were unsurpassed, especially as Brünnhilde and Isolde. Although she longed to sing Italian opera, she never did in a complete performance, although she often included Italian arias in her recital repertoire. Towards the end of her Met career, she did add the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier
briefly to her repertoire.
In 1948, while her Met career was its height, US President Harry S. Truman
contracted her to act as an "advisor" to his daughter, Margaret
, who was hoping to launch a career as a classical singer. Traubel's 1959 autobiography, St. Louis Woman, contains an account of the three years she spent in the role, and how in the end she felt it had adversely affected her stature in the music world to have her name associated with "such a musical aspirant". Traubel's contract at the Metropolitan Opera was not renewed in 1953 when its General Manager, Rudolf Bing, expressed disapproval of her radio and TV appearances alongside the likes of Jimmy Durante
and her expressed desire to expand her lucrative career in major supper and night clubs. Traubel went on to appear at the Copacabana
, as well as in many cameo
television roles. After her Met career, she appeared on Broadway in the Rodgers and Hammerstein
failure, Pipe Dream
, playing a bordello madame with a heart of gold and the voice of Isolde. Additionally, she appeared in the films Deep in My Heart, Gunn
and The Ladies Man
. She also appeared opposite Groucho Marx
as Katisha in a Bell Telephone presentation (abridged) of Gilbert and Sullivan
's The Mikado
. Traubel's last night club appearance was with Jimmy Durante at Harrah's Lake Tahoe
in 1964.
A baseball
fan, Traubel was once the part owner of her hometown team, the St. Louis Browns. She also wrote two murder mysteries, The Ptomaine Canary (serialized in US newspapers via Associated Press
) in 1950 and The Metropolitan Opera Murders (1951), which feature a soprano heroine, Elsa Vaughan, who helps solve the mystery, as well as being a thinly-disguised portrait of Traubel herself. Her later years were devoted to caring for her second husband and former business manager, William L. Blass, whom she had married in 1938. (Her first husband, was Louis Franklin Carpenter, a St. Louis car salesman. The couple married in 1922 but soon separated.) Helen Traubel died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California
, aged 73, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
in Los Angeles.
For her contribution to the recording industry, Helen Traubel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6422 Hollywood Blvd. In 1994 she was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame
.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and concert singer. A dramatic soprano
Dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound. Usually this voice has a lower tessitura than...
, she was best known for her Wagnerian
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
roles, especially those of Brünnhilde
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
and Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, she began her career as a concert singer and went on to sing at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
from 1937 to 1953. Starting in the 1950s, she also developed a career as a nightclub and cabaret singer as well as appearing in television, films and musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. Traubel spent her later years in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, where she died at the age of 73.
Biography
Traubel was born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
to a prosperous family of German descent. She was the daughter of Otto Ferdinand Traubel, a pharmacist, and Clara Traubel (née Stuhr). She studied singing in her native city with Louise Vetta-Karst and later in New York City with Giuseppe Boghetti
Giuseppe Boghetti
Giuseppe Boghetti was an American voice teacher and tenor. He was the teacher of several famous American opera singers, including Marian Anderson, Jan Peerce, Blanche Thebom, and Helen Traubel.-Life and career:...
among other teachers. She made her debut as a concert singer with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1880 by Joseph Otten as the St. Louis Choral Society, the SLSO is the second-oldest symphony orchestra in the United States as it is preceded by the New York Philharmonic.-History:The St...
in 1923, and in 1926 she got a first offer to join the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
company after performing the aria Liebestod
Liebestod
Liebestod is the title of the final, dramatic aria from the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner. When used as a literary term, liebestod refers to the theme of erotic death or "love death" meaning the two lovers' consummation of their love in death or after death...
at the Lewisohn Stadium
Lewisohn Stadium
Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York. It opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1973.-History:...
under conductor Rudolph Ganz
Rudolph Ganz
Rudolph Ganz was a Swiss pianist, conductor and composer. He claimed direct descent from Charlemagne.-Biography:...
. She turned down the offer in order to continue with her studies and career as a concert singer.
Traubel made her first appearance on the opera stage on May 12, 1937, when the composer Walter Damrosch asked her to portray the role of Mary Rutledge in the world premiere of his opera The Man Without a Country
The Man Without a Country (opera)
The Man Without a Country is an opera in 2 acts by composer Walter Damrosch. Arthur Guiterman wrote the English language libretto which was based on Edward Everett Hale's 1863 short story of the same name. The work premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on May 12, 1937.-Roles:...
at the Met. Later that year she made her debut with the Chicago City Opera Company
Chicago City Opera Company
The Chicago City Opera Company was a grand opera company in Chicago, organized from the remaining assets of the bankrupt Chicago Grand Opera Company, that produced four seasons of opera at the Civic Opera House from 1935 to 1939 before it too succumbed to financial difficulties...
with whom she was active until the company went bankrupt in 1939. In 1940 she joined the roster of the Chicago Opera Company
Chicago Opera Company
The Chicago Opera Company was a grand opera company in Chicago, organized from the remaining assets of the bankrupt Chicago City Opera Company, that produced six seasons of opera at the Civic Opera House from 1940 to 1946 . Fausto Cleva was artistic director 1944-1946, and until 1945 Fortune Gallo...
, remaining active with that company until it too went bankrupt in 1946. She sang in several performances with the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
in 1945 and 1947; making her debut with the company as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
on October 9, 1945 with Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
as Siegmund, Margaret Harshaw
Margaret Harshaw
Margaret Harshaw was an American opera singer and voice teacher who sang for 22 consecutive seasons at the Metropolitan Opera from November 1942 to March 1964. She began her career as a mezzo-soprano in the early 1930s but then began performing roles from the soprano repertoire in 1951...
as Fricka, and William Steinberg
William Steinberg
William Steinberg was a German-American conductor.- Biography :Steinberg was born Hans Wilhelm Steinberg in Cologne, Germany. He displayed early talent as a violinist, pianist, and composer, conducting his own choral/ orchestral composition at age 13...
conducting.
Since the Met already had two first-class Wagnerian sopranos, Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Flagstad
Kirsten Målfrid Flagstad was a Norwegian opera singer and a highly regarded Wagnerian soprano...
and Marjorie Lawrence
Marjorie Lawrence
Marjorie Florence Lawrence CBE was an Australian soprano, particularly noted as an interpreter of Richard Wagner's operas. She was the first soprano to perform the immolation scene in Götterdämmerung by riding her horse into the flames as Wagner had intended. She was afflicted by polio from 1941...
, Traubel at first had difficulty finding her niche. Her debut as a regular company member was as Sieglinde in Die Walküre in 1939, the only standard role which she had previously sung, at the Chicago Opera. Flagstad left the US in 1941 to visit her homeland of Norway and could not return for political reasons. The same year, Lawrence was stricken with polio and her career was curtailed. On February 22, 1941, Traubel sang with tenor Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
in excerpts from Wagnerian operas on the live broadcast concert of the NBC Symphony Orchestra
NBC Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini...
conducted by Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
. The broadcast originated from Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
at a time when the NBC Symphony usually performed in NBC Studio 8-H. RCA Victor later released some of the music from the concert. Traubel later triumphed in Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
and in Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
. She was renowned for her strong voice, which was often described as a "gleaming sword"; her endurance and purity of tone were unsurpassed, especially as Brünnhilde and Isolde. Although she longed to sing Italian opera, she never did in a complete performance, although she often included Italian arias in her recital repertoire. Towards the end of her Met career, she did add the Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
briefly to her repertoire.
In 1948, while her Met career was its height, US President Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
contracted her to act as an "advisor" to his daughter, Margaret
Margaret Truman
Mary Margaret Truman Daniel , also known as Margaret Truman or Margaret Daniel, was an American singer who later became a successful writer. The only child of US President Harry S...
, who was hoping to launch a career as a classical singer. Traubel's 1959 autobiography, St. Louis Woman, contains an account of the three years she spent in the role, and how in the end she felt it had adversely affected her stature in the music world to have her name associated with "such a musical aspirant". Traubel's contract at the Metropolitan Opera was not renewed in 1953 when its General Manager, Rudolf Bing, expressed disapproval of her radio and TV appearances alongside the likes of Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
and her expressed desire to expand her lucrative career in major supper and night clubs. Traubel went on to appear at the Copacabana
Copacabana (nightclub)
The Copacabana is a famous New York City nightclub. Many entertainers, among them Danny Thomas, Pat Cooper and the comedy team of Martin and Lewis, made their debuts at the Copacabana. The 1978 Barry Manilow song "Copacabana" is named after, and is about the nightclub. Part of the 2003 Yerba...
, as well as in many cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
television roles. After her Met career, she appeared on Broadway in the Rodgers and Hammerstein
Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
failure, Pipe Dream
Pipe Dream (musical)
Pipe Dream is the seventh stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II; it premiered on Broadway on November 30, 1955. The work is based on John Steinbeck's short novel Sweet Thursday—Steinbeck wrote the novel, a sequel to Cannery Row, in the hope of having it adapted into...
, playing a bordello madame with a heart of gold and the voice of Isolde. Additionally, she appeared in the films Deep in My Heart, Gunn
Gunn
- General uses :* Gunn High School, high school in Palo Alto, California* Gunnr, one of the valkyries in Norse mythology* Gunn diode, diode used in high-frequency electronics* Clan Gunn, Highland Scots clan of Norse origin* Floyd M. Gunn Jr...
and The Ladies Man
The Ladies Man
The Ladies Man is a 1961 American comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was released on June 28, 1961 by Paramount.-Plot:...
. She also appeared opposite Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
as Katisha in a Bell Telephone presentation (abridged) of Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
. Traubel's last night club appearance was with Jimmy Durante at Harrah's Lake Tahoe
Harrah's Lake Tahoe
Harrah's Lake Tahoe, is a resort casino, in South Lake Tahoe, at Stateline, Nevada. It is branded with the name of its former owner William Fisk Harrah and owned by Caesars Entertainment Corp.. The 18-story tower and 525 rooms, plus of casino make it one of the largest resorts at South Lake...
in 1964.
A baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
fan, Traubel was once the part owner of her hometown team, the St. Louis Browns. She also wrote two murder mysteries, The Ptomaine Canary (serialized in US newspapers via Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
) in 1950 and The Metropolitan Opera Murders (1951), which feature a soprano heroine, Elsa Vaughan, who helps solve the mystery, as well as being a thinly-disguised portrait of Traubel herself. Her later years were devoted to caring for her second husband and former business manager, William L. Blass, whom she had married in 1938. (Her first husband, was Louis Franklin Carpenter, a St. Louis car salesman. The couple married in 1922 but soon separated.) Helen Traubel died of a heart attack in Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
, aged 73, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is a cemetery in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood....
in Los Angeles.
For her contribution to the recording industry, Helen Traubel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6422 Hollywood Blvd. In 1994 she was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame
St. Louis Walk of Fame
The St. Louis Walk of Fame honors well-known people from St. Louis, Missouri, who made contributions to culture of the United States. All inductees were either born in the Greater St. Louis area or spent their formative or creative years there...
.
Sources
- Gettysburg Times (via Associated PressAssociated PressThe Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
), "Helen Traubel In Tiff With Met: Won't Sign", 29 September 1953, p. 6. Accessed 31 October 2010. - Hischak, Thomas S. "Traubel, Helen", The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007, p. 297. ISBN 0313341400
- McHenry, Robert (ed.), "Traubel, Helen", Famous American Women: A Biographical Dictionary from Colonial Times to the Present, Courier Dover Publications, 1983, p. 416. ISBN 0486245233
- Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan OperaThe Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
Archives, Traubel, Helen (Soprano), MetOpera Database. Accessed 31 October 2010. - Montreal Gazette (via Associated Press), "Former Met Star Helen Traubel Dead ", 31 July 1972, p. 14. Accessed 31 October 2010.
- San Francisco OperaSan Francisco OperaSan Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
Performance Archives, Helen Traubel. Accessed 31 October 2010. - Sicherman, Barbara, and Green, Carol Hurd (eds), "Traubel, Helen Francesca", Notable American Women: The modern period, Volume 4, p. 697, Harvard University Press, 1980. ISBN 0674627334
- Star-NewsStar-NewsStar-News is the daily newspaper for Wilmington, North Carolina, and its surrounding area . It is owned by The New York Times Company....
(via United Press InternationalUnited Press InternationalUnited Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
), "Helen Traubel, Former Opera Diva, Dies", 31 July 1972, p. 18. Accessed 31 October 2010. - Time Magazine, "Happy Heroine" (cover story), 11 November 1946. Accessed 31 October 2010.
- Time Magazine, "Murder at the Met?", 24 April 1950. Accessed 31 October 2010.
- Traubel, Helen and Hubler, Richard Gibson, St. Louis Woman, University of Missouri Press, 1999. ISBN 0826212379
- Youngstown Vindicator (via Associated Press), "Helen Traubel Says Role with Margaret 'Hurt' Her", 23 December 1958, p. 11. Accessed 31 October 2010.
External links
- Historic photos of Helen Traubel from Life Magazine