Frances Alda
Fanny Jane Davis, who rose to international prominence under the stage name Frances Alda, was one of the first of a long line of New Zealand opera singers to achieve such fame.
Fanny Jane Davis, who rose to international prominence under the stage name Frances Alda, was one of the first of a long line of New Zealand opera singers to achieve such fame.
Airini Ngā Roimata Grennell was born on 11 February 1910 at Waitangi in the Chatham Islands, the eldest of five children. Her father, William Henry Grennell, was a farmer and fisherman at Matarakau on the northern side of the main island. He was of Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, Irish and American extraction. Airini’s mother was Mary Hazel Teripa Tīkao, the daughter of Hōne Taare Tīkao and his wife, Martha Hana Tōku Horomona (Hannah Solomon Score), who were of Ngāi Tahu (known locally as Kāi Tahu).
Around 1920 the Grennells moved to the South Island and stayed at Akaroa with Mary’s family until their homestead was completed at Koukourarata (Port Levy). Airini was sent to Sacred Heart Girls’ College, Christchurch, where she became a keen sportswoman, representing Canterbury in golf and basketball, and developed an appreciation for music. Around the age of 18 she travelled to England to study music professionally, gaining an LTCL and LRSM in teaching the piano and singing.
On 11 February 1931 at Christchurch, Airini Grennell married Hōne Weretā, a farmer of Ngāti Raukawa; later that year a daughter was born to them. During the 1930s Airini and Hōne separated, and Airini went back to studying music full time. Her parents shared in the upbringing of her daughter.
The Grennells were part of the Koukourarata concert party run by their aunt Rāhera Tainui. They performed regularly around Banks Peninsula, to raise money for the community during the depression, and later for servicemen and their families during the Second World War. In 1935 Airini and her sister Hinemoa also joined the Waiata Māori Choir, organised by the Reverend A. J. Seamer. Members of influential families throughout Māoridom belonged, including Te Uira Mānihera and Īnia Te Wīata. The choir travelled extensively, and in December began a tour of Australia. In 1937 they toured England, and following his coronation were presented to King George VI. After visiting India in 1938 the choir disbanded.
Airini’s attention then turned to radio, and in October 1938 she joined 4ZB in Dunedin as a programme assistant; her trained voice and excellent diction in both Māori and English fitted her well for this position. In 1940 her ‘Songs of the Islands’ session was very popular. During the Second World War Airini travelled with radio announcers to sing and play the piano for community concerts and to raise money. A talented soprano, she became known affectionately as the ‘Chatham Islands Nightingale’.
By the end of the war Airini had moved to Auckland, where she worked at 1ZB as a programme assistant. By 1949 she had returned to Christchurch and worked with both 3YA and 3ZB as an announcer. She helped to organise a series of radio programmes for women on 3YA and to initiate a network of women’s programmes on national radio. Airini was the commentator for five royal tours.
In March 1958 her husband, Hōne, died and on 25 November that year, at Christchurch, Airini married Rudolf Gopas, a well-known painter and photographer from Lithuania who lectured at the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts. Airini continued her career in broadcasting until 1966 when, after 28 years in radio, she retired. She made a brief appearance on television, one of the first Māori women to do so.
Airini enjoyed her retirement among her people, becoming a respected leader of Horomaka Kāi Tahu and Taranaki–Wharekauri Ngāti Mutunga, playing the piano at family gatherings and maintaining standards of speech in both Māori and English. She played golf as long as she was able, and took many family photographs. Her husband, Rudolf, and her daughter predeceased her, and after her death at Christchurch on 8 December 1988 her ashes were interred with theirs in the family burial ground at Rāpaki. Intellectually curious, witty and yet humble, Airini had helped to bring about a renaissance in Māori culture.
One of the most popular film and music stars of the 1930s and 1940s, Marlene Dietrich was known for her fashionable style and diverse portrayals of loose women. She was a firm advocate for the American war effort, contributing much of her time, energy and musical talents to aid the troops.
Often called the “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey was known for her deep-throated voice and mesmerizing stage presence that drew packed audiences and sold hit records in the early twentieth century. Also a songwriter, her lyrics and melodies reflected her experiences as an independent, openly bisexual African-American woman.
Jazz pianist and singer Hazel Scott was not only the first African-American woman to host her own television show, but she also bravely stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Hollywood studio machine. The gifted and popular performer dazzled audiences in the U.S. and abroad with her jazzy renditions of classical works.
Marie Kraja was an Albanian opera singer, who is particularly known for her performances of Albanian folk songs.
Agni Baltsa is a prominent mezzo-soprano opera singer.
Alberta Hunter was an American jazz and blues singer and songwriter from the 1910s to the late 1950s, who returned to singing in her 80s after 20 years working as a nurse.
Lucia Lucas is a baritone opera singer who made history in March 2018, when it was announced that she would be the first female (transgender) baritone to perform a principal role in an American opera production. The premiere performance on May 3 2019 saw Lucas singing the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Tulsa Opera in Oklahoma; it is the subject of the 2020 feature documentary The Sound of Identity.
Lucas is also the first transgender baritone to appear with the English National Opera in London on 5 October 2019, singing Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld. She has performed all over the world, including in Dublin, London, Brussels, Berlin, Torino, Essen, Daegu and Korea. She has performed roles including Hagen in the world premiere of Surrogate/Götterdämmerung, Monterone in Rigoletto, Tchelio in Love of Three Oranges, Komtur in Don Giovanni, and the Ffour Villains in Les contes d‘Hoffmann all with Oper Wuppertal; Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Lyric Opera of Dublin, and Escamillo in Carmen with Staatstheater Karlsruhe. As a five-year festival artist with Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Lucas also performed roles including Thoas in Iphigénie en Aulide, Ford in Falstaff, Marcello in La bohème, Varlaam in Boris Godunov, Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Dr. Teller in Doctor Atomic, Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte, and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro.
Abbie Mitchell was an African-American soprano opera singer who performed the role of Clara in the original production of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in 1935, and was also the first to record “Summertime” from that musical. At age 14, she was cast by African-American composer Will Marion Cook and lyricist Paul Laurence Dunbar for a role in their one-act musical comedy Clorindy: The Origin of the Cakewalk (1898), which ran for the whole season at the Casino Roof Garden. The 14-year-old married the 29-year-old Cook in 1898 and bore him two children before her 20th birthday. Mitchell appeared in the lead role in Cook’s Jes Lak White Folks (1899) and performed in his production The Southerners (1904).
In London Mitchell appeared in the 1903 musical In Dahomey (with music by Cook). Mitchell received international acclaim for her performance, and was invited to appear with the company in a Royal Command Performance for King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at Buckingham Palace.
She later performed with the “Black Patti’s Troubadours”, and in the 1908 operetta The Red Moon. In 1913, she appeared in the film Lime Kiln Field Day, but it was never completed or released. In 1919, Mitchell went to Europe with Cook’s Southern Syncopated Orchestra, as well as appearing in concert and in operas in New York.
Mitchell appeared in several Broadway plays including “In Abraham’s Bosom” (1926), “Coquette” (1927) with Helen Hayes, and “The Little Foxes” (1939) with Tallulah Bankhead. Mitchell was best known for her last musical role on the stage, performing in the role of “Clara” in the premiere of Porgy and Bess (1935). After this, she taught and coached many singers in New York and appeared in non-musical dramatic roles on the stage, and taught at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Lee De Forest made a short film of Mitchell singing, Songs of Yesteryear (1922), using his DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process; the film is preserved in the Library of Congress’s Maurice Zouary film collection.