[Preface]
[Orville's
Worlds] [Family] [Young
Orville ] [To New York] [To
London, and back] [The Second
Marriage, 1913 – 1917] [The
Third Marriage, Rehabilitation] [The
Met Years, Two careers 1920-1924] [Photogallery]
The Third
Marriage, Rehabilitation
There
are several versions of the tale, which merge into something
along the following lines. Orville was walking Lydia’s dogs1
in the spring of 1917, along Seventh Avenue, near Columbus
Circle and their apartment on Central Park West. Downtrodden
and oversized, he pondered the significance of a laundry ticket
in-hand when he recognized ahead, from eight years previously,
a lady’s profile in the back of a chauffeured car pulling
onto Seventh. Impulsively wadding the laundry ticket into
a ball, he tossed it through the open car window and into
the surprised lady’s lap. Her startled look of indignation
was greeted by a farm boy’s grin2. Blanche Malli,
the chorus girl from Naughty Marietta then opened the
car door and Orville stepped in. The tale leaves uncertain
what they did with the dogs, or if they burst into song.
Absent
horn accompaniment, some chance meeting around Central Park
united the couple from years past, who yet shared affections
from years past. Still attractive, Blanche was also well attired,
well transported, and single. She not only accepted Orville
as he was that day, she had the desire, plan, and resources
for his resurrection. As Orville’s second marriage was dissolved
during 1917, he moved across Central Park to join Blanche
at her address on Madison Avenue.
Blanche
Malevinsky3 was from the middle of ten children
born to Isador Malevinsky, from Poland, and his wife, Dora,
from France, a Jewish family who had settled in Austin, Texas
sometime around 1870. Isador was a dry goods merchant who
probably struggled through the depression of the “Gay 90’s”,
so that in the late 1890’s he moved family and business to
Galveston, where 19-year-old Blanche worked in the shop. Beautifully
situated along the gulf coast, low lying Galveston was among
the fastest growing cities in America, and was squarely in
the path of a category 4 hurricane that struck on September
8, 1900. While most hurricanes migrate west through the Caribbean
and then turn north along the Atlantic coast, a few cross
the Gulf of Mexico to points as far west as Texas and as far
south as the Yucatan. This one turned north through Oklahoma,
wandered up across the Great Lakes, and back east over Nova
Scotia, thrashing a fishing fleet before disappearing into
the North Atlantic. Galveston’s estimated 8000 fatalities
rank this as the deadliest natural disaster ever to occur
in the United States.
It
is unknown how the Malevinsky family fared in this storm,
but they certainly suffered tremendous losses as virtually
all of Galveston was flooded and destroyed. Remaining casualty
lists include no Malevinsky’s, but the event took its toll.
The parents had previously changed countries and continents,
moved among different Texas cities, and started several business.
After the hurricane, they and at least three of their daughters
remained permanently in Houston. There had been enough adventure.
Three other of the children eventually found their way to
New York. After appearing in Canadian theatre and traveling
abroad in theatre business under the name of Malli, Blanche
was working on Broadway by 1908. The youngest sister, Noama,
later came to New York and worked in music and stage under
her married name of Nona Croft.
The
oldest sibling was attorney Moses L. Malevinsky, eight years
older than Blanche, who had been living with his wife and
daughter in the same Galveston home as the rest of the family.
Having later lost an important case before Houston Judge,
John Lovejoy, Moses became a partner in the Lovejoy firm.
They successfully built a large Houston legal office, Moses
making $20,000 per year in Texas by the early part of the
new century. Having won a major case against a railroad, they
were informed that company hirelings waited outside to attack
them. The pair reportedly descended the courthouse steps together,
cocked pistols in hand, and walked away4. Moses
seemingly arrived in New York at about the same time as Blanche,
becoming friends with an attorney named Dennis F. O’Brien.
The latter had moved uptown as lawyer for George M. Cohan,
another Irishman and boyhood friend from a small Massachusetts
factory town. O’Brien and Malevinsky were partners by 1910,
and by 1913 had brought in O’Brien’s nephew, Arthur Driscoll,
in a law partnership known affectionately on Broadway as “the
Kosher sandwich5”. They represented many theatre
performers, as well as film, theatre, and production companies.
Moses specialized in copyright and intellectual property law,
becoming an important figure in theatre and literature plagiarism
litigation.
The
emerging picture is that the Malevinsky’s became established
and successful in New York, and that Blanche became a knowledgeable
investor. The primary investment area appears to have been
oil industry, through Moses’s years of connections in Houston.
Blanche was stated to be independently wealthy when she motored
back into Orville’s life6. Her sister, Nona Croft,
had moved to San Francisco around 1913, mingling among society
there. Blanche had gone to England in 1914, and then sailed
through the newly opened Panama Canal in early 1915 to visit
Nona in San Francisco. They reported that the bridle trails
in Golden Gate Park were at least as good as any in New York’s
Central Park or London’s Hyde Park6.5. Blanche
was then off to another cruise in late 1915, to Brazil, Cuba,
and Argentina. In a fascinating episode, Nona was supposedly
divorced in San Francisco during 1914 from Kenneth Croft,
an English promoter and Army Lieutenant, who then became entangled
in an international controversy for recruiting Americans to
join the English army, which jeopardized America’s neutrality
during early years of WWI. His wife was reportedly with him
during some of this, and they seemingly had a daughter in
1916.
Combining
finances with Blanche, Orville could easily afford unemployment
to focus on rebuilding career. Physical rehabilitation consisted
primarily of weight loss, abstinence from alcohol, athletic
improvement at the YMCA, and remedial voice coaching. A sound
body had always been there, and in interviews during the early
1920’s, Orville described daily handball workouts in athletic
shorts, year-round at local outdoor courts7. He
claimed that he had never smoked and rarely drank coffee,
although in interviews a few years previously he had admitted
to smoking as much as he wished. His exercise regimen was
aimed at endurance and lung capacity, obvious benefits in
opera.
Rebuilding
Orville’s voice was entrusted to Frederick Haywood, who had
coached Lydia during 1915. Although Orville might have consulted
with Oscar Saenger, who knew Haywood, Saenger may have been
diverted at this point. With widespread emergence of phonographs
as an entirely new communication medium, Saenger had just
produced twenty voice lessons, packaged on ten Victor records
and available at $25 for the set (among the first predecessors
to self-help tapes and pod-casts). Several of Saenger’s students,
such as Paul Althouse and Mabel Garrison, recorded lessons
that included instruction for sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, tenors,
baritones and bassos. In any event, Orville worked in Frederick
Haywood’s studio for a year to repair his damaged voice and
learn additional vocal techniques. Despite his obvious talent
with gifted soloists, Frederick Haywood’s passion was national
development of choral music from the ground up, through high
school training. He was active in high school educational
organizations, and in 1922 joined with Oscar Saenger and fifteen
others as a charter member of the American Academy of Teachers
of Singing, which still exists.
Orville
likely began working with Haywood during late summer of 1917.
Results would have been readily apparent to assess, so that
they could directly determine progress and prognosis. From
a larger perspective, it was as important that Orville reshape
his emotional state and confidence. He had previously proven
to be a tenacious student, and results must have been satisfactory,
for Blanche married him on December 11, 1917. Orville had
passed his most important audition, for the new bride was
quite unlike the last one. The new groom was quite unlike
the last one, and the couple remained together for the remainder
of Orville’s life.
Rehabilitation
was one part of Orville’s career restart. Another was for
him to become engaged with worthy opera companies that would
net him favorable critical review. Orville’s professional
nemesis had been that successes occurred in new opera companies
that soon failed, but the series of new companies constituted
a colossal run of luck that launched his fame, and the run
continued. There were a few seasonal organizations that toured
cities where major opera stars were seldom heard, and some
cities had summer theatres that attracted top talent. Orville
was already participating in summer opera, and his improved
circumstances and year of study presented new freedom and
impetus to consider fresh options. Sometime around the beginning
of 1918, Orville sang before a group that included Caruso
and Gatti-Casazza of the Met, along with a variety of conductors
and singers7.5. It is unknown just what this event
and group were, but it was reported that they were favorably
impressed with Orville’s performance, and that he might be
headed toward the Met.
By
February of 1918 Orville was out on a mid-west tour for the
benefit of local Red Cross chapters, managed through his old
friend and tour arranger, Harry E. Paris. Starting in Muncie
on Washington’s Birthday, they traveled on to Fort Wayne and
other cities, accompanied by a violinist and pianist from
New York8. It was also stated that Orville had
been invited for a guest appearance with Galli-Curci at the
Chicago Opera, but had been previously engaged elsewhere9.
The tour provided good publicity in support of war efforts,
and tested Orville’s new stamina. Staying busy, Harry Paris
also had Irish tenor, John McCormack, in Muncie two weeks
after Orville’s engagement. After being discovered by Hammerstein,
McCormack had spent some time in grand opera, including at
the Met, but had become immensely popular as a touring artist,
filling concert halls around America, including New York’s
Hippodrome.
With
a break in April, Orville was again touring during May around
New York State and the east9.5. Beginning with
a sensational ovation at the Newark Festival on May 3, 1918,
he went on through the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia
(with Secretary of War Baker as a guest), and then Elmira,
Schenectady, and Brooklyn, New York (the last with the governor
present). These generated enough requests for appearances
that there were discussions of a fall tour through the west.
Orville
and Blanche then headed to his third Ravinia season for July
and August of 1918, among familiar artists and conductors.
He appeared for the first time with French-born Met basso,
Leon Rothier, and coloratura soprano, Lucy Gates, who was
a granddaughter of Brigham Young and wife of Albert Bowen,
one of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Church of Latter
Day Saints. He again sang mainly from his repertoire, but
was perhaps performing Lakme and The Barber of Seville
for the first time. More importantly, these New York top tier
opera personalities were hearing the newly rebuilt Orville,
who was met with hearty approval, so that his days of irony
were hopefully ending. The Chicago Evening Post described
of Orville, “Apparently, since last summer, he has changed
his whole vocal method, and it has transformed him from top
to bottom. He always had a good voice, but now…he has a chance
to show how good it is.”
Consistent
with Orville’s lucky streak, a new opera company arose in
New York during his year of reconstitution (1917-18). Not
born merely of eternal operatic hope, it arrived on a carefully
orchestrated patriotic wave, as the country gradually escalated
into WWI. The national attitude toward the looming foreign
war promoted patriotism infused with suspicion and xenophobia,
much like that which precipitated Nisei camps of WWII. Following
an October, 1916 experiment performing two Mozart comic operas
in English, rather than in the now dreaded German, an organization
called the Society of American Singers (SOAS) incorporated
in March of 1917. Founded by German born Albert Reiss, a long-standing
tenor at the Met, SOAS officers, shareholders, and singers
were all required to be “professional singers of standing
and American citizenship10”. Most were from the
Met, and SOAS was something of a Met offspring.
The
war effort grew ruthlessly pro-American, so that German language
began disappearing from the vast American population of German
farm towns, such as Muncie, Indiana, and certainly disappeared
from opera. Albert Reiss stepped down as SOAS president after
a year, amid innuendo regarding nationality11.
Boston-born Geraldine Farrar apparently experienced some backlash
because of her years singing with the Berlin Opera, and perhaps
consorting with Crown Prince Wilhelm. Otto Kahn, who did not
have to sing, became an SOAS shareholder, despite having come
from Austria. Such issues became quicksand in one of the world’s
most cosmopolitan cities (19th century watchmakers of the
New York Horological Society held their meetings in German),
and the highly international opera community struggled to
maintain fairness and equilibrium in a profession dedicated
literally to harmony through the common goal of music.
The
brief 1917 first season of SOAS had been a fortnight of English
opera at the Lyceum Theatre in May, following the normal winter
opera season, which also included a repeat of their Mozart
pair from 1916. Amid the early 1918 reorganization, the new
SOAS president, former Met baritone William W. Hinshaw, was
planning a two to four week fall season of classic English
and French style opera comique at the Park Theatre in Columbus
Circle, near the old Century Theatre11.5. Far from
being Broadway musical comedy or burlesque, opera comique
was full opera, frequently infused with spoken script, of
more lighthearted and less ponderous theme, not normally presented
in America. Some operas would be sung in native tongues, but
also with a performance in English, while others would be
all in English. They were even exploring some audience participation.
The season would run during September and October, prior to
the Met’s November opening.
SOAS
assistant business manager, and performing tenor, was George
J. Hamlin, whom Orville had encountered while touring around
Indiana during 1905. Hamlin had later debuted at the Chicago
Opera Company with Mary Garden in Victor Herbert’s Natoma,
which Garden had first sung with Hammerstein, who had commissioned
the work. Hamlin had been making occasional trips to New York,
becoming a popular and well-reviewed concert tenor at Aeolian
Hall and Carnegie Hall, and eventually settled there. His
daughter, Anna, was briefly a soprano with the Chicago Opera
Company, and their family papers now reside in the archives
of the New York Public Library.
One
Hinshaw gambit was a $1000 prize and SOAS production in a
competition for a one-act opera written by an American composer,
which went to Henry Hadley for Bianca11.8.
(SOAS premiered Bianca under Hadley’s direction, on
October 19, 1918, with Maggie Teyte as soprano.) Hinshaw was
described as striving with the determination of a “war drive”
in a “work of idealism for American Artists”, adding that,
“We are 100 percent American singers, all of us – wherever
we were born.” (The chorus was referred to as the “allied
chorus”.) He assembled a strong organization, intending to
extend the SOAS season. He brought in (American born) Jacques
Coini as artistic director, who had been at Orville’s old
Manhattan, London, and Century operas, and Met conductor,
Richard Hageman12. Hinshaw planned revivals of
Gilbert & Sullivan productions, plus other light French
and English opera comique as a general theme. Orville was
not mentioned in articles describing SOAS fall plans, even
as late as September twenty-ninth.
As
a brief aside, there are striking parallels between the lives
of Orville and William Wade Hinshaw, president of SOAS. Ten
years older than Orville, Hinshaw had been born in Union,
Iowa to old Quaker stock. Hinshaws had arrived at North Carolina
from Ireland by 1768, and were part of the Quaker migration
to the Northwest Territory, reaching Henry County, Indiana
around the same time as Harrolds and Beesons reached Delaware
County. Clearly, Hinshaws had also migrated to Iowa, just
as Harrolds likely scattered to other states. William Hinshaw
had married in Iowa, and being gifted with voice and ambition,
went to Chicago to pursue singing. His wife died of pneumonia
in 1905, leaving four children, after which William trained
in Germany as an operatic baritone, having some capability
to reach basso range. By 1911 he had sung in German roles
at the Met, perhaps as a guest, and became betrothed to Mabel
Clyde, whose father owned Clyde Steamship Lines. He thus arrived
at SOAS with money and resources to assemble a fertile organization.
He later became interested in Quaker history, and after being
enthused by a Mrs. Edna Joseph in 1923, immersed himself in
a major effort that created a Quaker genealogical encyclopedia
from various monthly meeting records. Its six volumes have
become the definitive record of Quaker ancestry.
SOAS
became an ideal New York venue for the Harrold’s and Frederick
Haywood to demonstrate their Orville-reclamation project;
its Met associations made it a half-sibling to Ravinia. Ravinia-related
personalities at SOAS included Henri Scott, Morton Adkins,
Mabel Garrison, Lucy Gates, Edith Mason, Florence Macbeth,
and conductor Richard Hageman, plus, Jacques Coini , who had
been with every permanent opera where Orville had appeared.
They had already heard the new Orville sing, being favorably
impressed, as well as being pleased with Orville’s performing
capability. SOAS fall productions opened on September 23 of
1918, with initial plans for an eight-week season. On October
10, they presented Tales of Hoffman, with Orville as
Hoffman 13, filling in for an ailing Riccardo Martin.
New
York Tribune, October 11, 1918
…but
last night his voice of eight years ago returned to him and
his tones were rich and powerful. Mr. Harrold has style, a
beautiful voice, great clarity of diction, and fine character
sense. He is today an artist of the very first rank, far and
away the finest American tenor.
New
York Herald, October 11, 1918
But
the feature of the evening was the fine singing of Mr. Harrold.
He electrified the audience singing with beautiful quality
of tone and passionate fervor.
New
York American, October 11, 1918
And
he invested his characterization with splendid vocalism, wide
range of dramatic expression, and remarkable intelligence.
A special word of praise is due Mr. Harrold for his faultless
presentation of the English text.
New
York Globe, October 11, 1918
Mr.
Harrold’s exceptional voice was in good condition, and his
high notes stirred the audience to shouts of approval. One
can always be sure with Mr. Harrold that his performance will
be thoroughly studied musically, sound and skillful as to
phrasing, diction, and expression.
New
York Evening World, October 11, 1918
Chief
among the stars was Orville Harrold; his splendid voice a
delight to hear, his romantic presence and his easy, graceful
bearing an object lesson to tenors, not only of American,
but of foreign birth.
New
York Evening Post, October 11, 1918
It
was here that Orville Harrold won the loudest tribute of the
evening.
In
marketing Orville’s recovery, Blanche and he did not gloss
over his circumstances. They described Orville’s journey of
running downhill and climbing back up again, a classic comeback
story that audiences and critics could love. A late 1918 Musical
America edition credited Blanche as responsible for the
resurrection, describing Orville’s daily YMCA workouts, diet,
ninety-six voice lessons with Haywood, and picturing him bicycle
riding (in hat and tie) and posing with Heywood13.5.
His voice was described as “even richer, more vigorous, and
smoother than before.” The article expressed delight that
Orville had made this effort, rather than remaining content
in the fact that “his second best is still far superior to
many tenors’ best.”
A
promotional box notice in the Musical Currier of October,
1918 showed head shots of Orville, Blanche, and Frederick
Haywood, with the heading, THE TENOR WHO CAME BACK, HIS WIFE,
AND TEACHER, with a description of the recovery:
“Orville
Harrold sprang into fame as an operatic tenor almost overnight
in London eight years ago; but he found, as so many other
singers have, that being an American operatic tenor is more
productive of fame than of fortune. So he went over to light
opera and to the Hippodrome, where, singing two performances
a day through two seasons, he spoiled the voice that had brought
him fame. Realizing this, he and Mrs. Harrold determined that
he should stop all work, rest, and attempt to restore his
voice to its previous condition. He followed a very strict
regime of life and study, working in the studio with Frederick
Haywood for over a year, and the astonishing result was evident
when he appeared in The Tales of Hoffman with the Society
of American Singers at the Park Theatre, New York. He was
given an ovation by the audience, and the press praised him
extravagantly, the New York Tribune declaring him to be “far
and away the finest American tenor. The pictures show Mr.
Harrold, Mrs. Harrold, and Frederick Haywood, the New York
teacher who rebuilt Harrold’s voice.”
Orville
debuted his Pinkerton with SOAS on October, 24, in Madame
Butterfly14. Perhaps buoyed by patriotic fervor,
in addition to Hinshaw’s marketing, SOAS ran a six-month continuous
season into the beginning of April, 1919, requiring additional
singers not tied to other opera contracts. Seeking English
opera, it was natural to present Gilbert and Sullivan, which
grew so popular that it ran for continuous weeks at a time.
Orville headed the cast of Robin Hood15,
opening February 3, 1919, and appeared as Thaddeus in The
Bohemian Girl during mid-March16, sang Irish
ballads between acts on St. Patrick’s Day, and finishing in
The Mikado at the end of March. While the last offered
little for a tenor, the New York
Times noted that, “Nanki-Poo’s opening ballad was sufficient
excuse for Mr. Harrold’s entering the Gilbert and Sullivan
series17.” Orville also rotated through spring
productions of Martha, Cavalleria Rusticana,
and I Pagliacci, with tenors Ricardo Martin and Craig
Campbell. Campbell had starred opposite Emma Trentini in The
Firefly, while Ricardo Martin (from Kentucky) was among
the rare American trained American performers who had appeared
with the Met. Orville attended the SOAS gala banquet in March,
and the season ended with the two hundredth SOAS presentation.
The
extended SOAS season had just ended when Orville joined a
new enterprise called the Commonwealth Opera Company, where
the president was (Lieutenant) John Philip Sousa19.
In the patriotic war climate, Sousa, an icon of all-American
music, had assembled shows at the Hippodrome during 1915 and
1916, featuring operatic presentations that included Orville
and Maggie Teyte (of SOAS)20. He formed the Commonwealth
Opera during mid-1918, on donations from the American musical
industry, to produce American-style comic opera and generally
light entertainment. Much like SOAS, Commonwealth presented
four Gilbert and Sullivan programs at the Brooklyn Academy
of Music21, over four weeks of April, 1919. With
its generally pro-American flavor, ten of the thirty cast
members were from SOAS. The new Orville was attracting ample
opportunities for staying before the public, in New York and
beyond.
As
the Commonwealth Opera packed its trunks in Brooklyn, Orville
packed his bags to set out during the last week of April,
1919 on the first tour of yet another new opera company. Just
days after Orville’s SOAS debut back in October, twenty-year
Met baritone, Antonio Scotti, had announced plans to head
a touring opera troupe, under the name Scotti Grand Opera
Company. Part of the impetus was his desire to showcase his
favorite roles, and he appeared in a majority of his presentations.
He had a sweetheart deal with the Met, in which the tour was
managed by the Metropolitan Musical Bureau22, stage
sets and costumes were from the Met, and later new sets were
designed and painted by Met designer James Fox23.
Scotti had associations with SOAS president, William Hinshaw,
perhaps gaining inspiration there for a company owned by shareholder
performers. A number of performers were from the Met, plus
SOAS sopranos Florence Easton (Maclennan) and Ruth Miller
(who had also sung with the Met), and SOAS tenors Francis
Maclennan and Orville Harrold. (Orville was the only Scotti
member from Brooklyn’s Commonwealth Opera.)
This
first Scotti tour was modest effort, functioning by attaching
its special car to regular railroad trains, to present Leoni’s
L’Oracolo, Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana,
and Puccini’s Madame Butterfly24. The plan
was to mount spring and fall tours, and later events grew
to as large as 150 people on their own train, traveling 3000
miles across country, into Canada, and down the west coast,
including members of the Met chorus and orchestra25.
In the spring of 1919, Orville’s primary objective was that
he was once again attracting notice and performing well in
the top layer of opera.
This
Scotti tour swung down through Louisiana, Texas, St. Louis,
Memphis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, ending in
May of 1919. After a brief time in New York, Scotti relaxing
out at Far Rockaway, Orville and Antonio Scotti were off to
Ravinia, where their road show of L’Oracolo was added to the
program. Florence Easton was with them there, Thomas Chalmers
arrived from the Met, and Orville appeared with Alice Gentle,
from their old Hammerstein days. Hageman and Papi were again
conducting, so that Ravinia was becoming something of a seasonal
Met. Orville sang in eleven operas that summer26,
which by then they were all in his expanding standard repertoire.
He was growing increasingly versatile, popular, and in-demand,
as his reconstituted voice continued to reconstitute his career.
Old
chapters were ending, and new ones beginning, as Oscar Hammerstein
died during August, while Orville was at Ravinia. After summer
opera, the SOAS opened its fall 1919 season on October 13,
presenting Suppe’s light opera (as opposed to his Light
Brigade) Boccaccio. The part of Fillippa was played
by Adelina Harrold27. For the fall, Patti had advanced
to minor rolls, and was an SOAS understudy, remaining with
them through the full winter season28. Orville
was no longer associated with SOAS at this point.
Following
the Ravinia summer season, Orville was back on the road during
October with Scotti’s fall, 1919 tour. They presented the
same three operas as during the spring, while swinging through
the north rather than the south29. With several
new members, they began on October 6 in Montreal, with some
romantic intrigue. There was a new tenor, Mario Chamlee, reportedly
found by Scotti singing in a New York silent movie theatre.
If so, Scotti was likely pointed in that direction by one
of the tour sopranos, Ruth Miller, whom Chamlee had secretly
married just before the tour began30. Mario Chamlee
had grown up in Los Angeles as Archer Cholmondeley, a minister’s
son who graduated from USC as a science major, having studied
violin and sung with the glee club. After serious voice training
in Los Angeles he obtained a position with the Lombardi Opera
Company of San Francisco in 1916, but was soon dropped by
that organization. He next appeared with the Aborn Opera Company,
where he sang with Ruth Miller31. The couple then
sang together with the Cosmopolitan Opera Company at the Garden
Theatre, New York, and also with that troupe in Detroit, before
Mario was drafted into WWI32. He served for several
years with the Argonne Players, a group of army soldiers who
sang and entertained troops on the front lines. Returning
from Europe to his waiting song-mate in 1919, he picked up
a one-week gig with Hugo Riesenfeld at the Rialto Motion Picture
Theatre, which stretched into fourteen weeks32.5.
Over the next decade, the Chamlees were among Orville’s and
Blanche’s closest friends.
From
Montreal, Scotti’s fall tour moved for four weeks through
Utica, Syracuse, and upper New York State, to Pittsburgh,
Cleveland, Canton, Toledo, then on into Orville’s Indiana,
and finally through lower Michigan. They were back in New
York in November, where Orville had a new job. During Ravinia,
where the Met contingent had heard the new Orville singing
for a second season, conductor Gennaro Papi had approached
Orville to let him know that Paul Althouse may be leaving
the Met, and that Orville had an audition with Met general
manager, Giulio Gatti-Casazza33. Orville had finally
gotten his chance at the big show.
The
1919-20 Metropolitan season opened with Tosca on November
17. Gatti-Casazza had his wife, Frances Alda, and Orville
present La Boheme the following evening at a charity
benefit in Brooklyn, Orville’s first appearance in this opera,
and starring as Rodolfo. Alda later reported that she was
chagrinned that evening, as she was missing a simultaneous
special event being given at the Met for the visiting Prince
of Wales34. However,
“At
least, I felt so, until I actually heard Orville Harrold sing
his first Rodolfo. The beauty of his pure tenor voice so enthralled
me I forgot about the Prince and the glitter across the Brooklyn
Bridge….I could only realize that here was a marvelous voice
and a marvelous singer. Brooklyn realized it too that night.
The audience gave Harrold a tremendous ovation after his aria
in the first act, before I began to sing. It was sincere and
genuine and touching. Best of all, it was deserved.”
Alda
reported to Gatti-Casazza and Otto Kahn, later that evening
back at the Met, that. “Harrold had the biggest ovation
any tenor ever had, Even Caruso.”
Orville
had his Met debut in Manhattan the following Saturday, next
to Caruso in his last new Met role. While Caruso starred as
Lazaro in La Juive, Orville sang Leopoldo (another
new role for him), along with Rosa Ponselle and three Ravinia
partners, Rothier, Chalmers, and D’Angelo35. Antonio
Scotti reportedly stated that he never heard finer singing
than in the trio of Caruso, Ponselle, and Harrold36.
Two nights later, Orville sang another new role as Grigori
in Boris Godunov, in which the New York Times reported
that he sang very well37. Having performed three
new roles in a one-week span, Orville convincingly demonstrated
versatility, stamina, and talent. Two evenings later, he and
Scotti appeared in their now familiar L’ Oracolo from
the road tour. He was off to a flying start, as critics and
audiences appreciated both his singing and acting.
Interestingly,
Boris Godunov was sung in Italian, except for the title
role, sung in Russian by Feodor Chaliapin. Russian opera had
arrived in the west only recently, having blossomed under
Mikhail Glinka after mid-19th century. There were
thus few opera singers capable of Russian, leaving the question
of what language to use. Meanwhile, the Met abounded in foreign
speaking performers, especially in male roles, and since Italian
was fundamental to opera, it was the language of choice for
this situation.
December
settled into a more even pace, with no new roles, first with
repetitions of La Juive during the early weeks. Orville
then received a Christmas day ovation for his Pinkerton38,
the first time at the Met, with Geraldine Farrar in Madame
Butterfly. Completing his rehabilitation and return to
top tier opera, he capped off 1919 with a defining December
29th performance of La Boheme, for which
the New York Times declared, ORVILLE HARROLD TRIUMPHS.
Continuing39:
“His
singing of the hero in “La Boheme” wins instant success. Orville
Harrold of Indiana, who has sung in almost every sort of stage
entertainment in New York, and most successfully with Hammerstein’s
opera in London, made up for ten lost years last night with
a performance as hero in Puccini’s “La Boheme” that won success
by acclamation from the most influential Monday audience at
the Metropolitan Opera House. A crush of attendees, Italians
all, started the spontaneous demonstration after Rodolfo’s
aria in the first act, in which Mr. Harrold displayed a wealth
of manly tenor voice, good diction, and grace as an actor,
which perhaps he never showed in like measure before. He evidently
had “arrived,” his hour of triumph was deserved, and when
with Mme. Alda he finished the scene with a sustained, full,
round high-note, the house responded with a roar of enthusiasm
not often heard in a theatre.”
From
among reviews summarized in a box advertisement in the Musical
Currier40:
New
York Tribune
“His
performance clinched his right to be considered among the
very first tenors. No such singing has been heard at the Metropolitan
from any tenor in recent years, with the single exception
of Mr. Caruso. Hats off, gentlemen - a great tenor and an
American!”
New
York Sun
“The
audience was aroused to a demonstration of pleasure such as
the house rarely witnesses. The outbreak, vigorous, general
and long continued, was caused by the singing of Orville Harrold.”
New
York American
“Orville
Harrold, the American tenor, won last night in the Metropolitan
Opera House one of the most pronounced successes achieved
by any singer of his kind in New York since the star of Enrico
Caruso rose above the horizon. He had his listeners with him
from the very start, stirring them to a pitch of enthusiasm
in the first act that held up the performance for fully two
minutes.”
Orville
had finally arrived, indeed.
As
had happened throughout Orville’s career, opera companies
continued to come and go. With excellent casts and sets, the
Scotti Opera was popular and artistically successful, but
failed financially in 1922. Orville participated in five of
the six Scotti junkets. The SOAS performed its 1919-20 season,
and perhaps one other. William Hinshaw considered touring
the United States with SOAS to benefit localities that had
few opportunities to experience good quality opera, and it
is not known how much of this happened. He considered touring
Europe in 1922. In the larger picture, SOAS was born of war
mentality, and time eventually overran its appropriateness
and viability.
As
another aside, SOAS was apparently the last time that Orville
worked with Jacques Coini, with whom he had shared much of
the previous decade. Felice Lyne had described in London how
Coini had contributed so greatly to preparing her for her
first major appearances singing and acting on an opera stage.
Under the title of artistic director, or more simply stage
manager, Hammerstein had entrusted much of his shows’ artistic
character to Coini, as did subsequent production companies.
By 1921, Coini was working at the Chicago Opera with his old
Hammerstein companion, Mary Garden, who was director there.
(She and Hammerstein’s conductor, Cleofonte Campanini, were
managing the Chicago Opera, which included many old Hammerstein
performers.) From their work on a modernly weird opera called
The Love for Three Oranges came a delightful description
by Garden’s friend Ben Hecht (the Shakespeare of Hollywood)
of Coini’s work, and how he did what he did, simply quoted
as Hecht so well phrased it41:
“And there
is M. Jacques Coini….He wears a business suit, spats of tan
and a gray fedora. M. Coini is the stage director.
He instructs the actors how to act. He tells the choruses
where to chorus and what to do with their hands, masks, feet,
voices, eyes and noses.
Through this business of skyrockets and
crescendos and hobgoblins M. Coini stands out like a lighthouse
in a cubist storm. However bewildering the plot, however
humpty-dumpty the music, M. Coini is intelligible drama.
His brisk little figure in its pressed pants, spats and fedora,
bounces around amid the apoplectic disturbances like some
busybody Alice in an operatic Wonderland.
The Opus mounts. The music mounts.
Singers attired as singers were never attired before crawl
on, bounce on, tumble on. And M. Coini, as undisturbed
as a traffic cop or a Loop pigeon, commands his stage.
He tells the singers where to stand while they sing, and when
they don't sing to suit him he sings himself. He leads
the chorus on and tells it where to dance, and when they don't
dance to suit him he dances himself. He moves the scenery
himself. He fights with Mr. Prokofiev while the music splashes
and roars around him. He fights with Boris. He
fights with electricians and wigmakers.
It is admirable. M. Coini, in his tan spats
and gray fedora, is more fantastic than the entire cast of
devils and Christmas trees and lollypops, who seem to be the
leading actors in the play. Mr. Prokofiev and Miss Garden
have made a mistake. They should have let M. Coini play
"The Love for Three Oranges" all by himself.
They should have let him be the dream towers and the weird
chorus, the enchantress and the melancholy prince. M. Coini
is the greatest opera I have ever seen.”
Orville was forty-two
years old when he joined the Met, thirteen years after venturing
to New York. There had been Americans at the Met since the
1890’s, but virtually all had trained in Europe. Paul Althouse
had been the first American tenor without European experience
to sing at the Met. Rosa Ponzelle, a year before Orville,
was one of the few other domestically trained Americans there,
along with Mable Garrison. Between Americans and foreign pupils,
Oscar Saenger had thirty former students at the Met by the
mid-1920’s. Having arrived, Orville got a roaring start. After debuting with Caruso in an entirely new Met production, he had
appeared sequentially in Madame Butterfly and La
Boheme, the first and second most frequently performed
operas in America (and both by the melodic Puccini). Years
earlier, his youth had been described in a 1911 newspaper
article42, literally, as Bohemian. Orville later
stated that he identified particularly with La Boheme,
after years of wandering and being left stranded in the Midwest
by vaudeville43. Having squandered love and career,
the wandering Orville had recovered both as the decade of
the Great War closed in 1919.
1. Phone conversation with the granddaughter of Orville
Harrold
2. The Comeback of Don Jose, article in The World Magazine,
March 21, 1920, pg. 12
3. obit for Orville Harrold, The Daily Northwestern,
October 21, 1933, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, pg. 4
4. Law and Letters, The New Yorker, October 29, 1932,
pg. 10
5. obit of Dennis F. Obrien, www.yonkershistory.org/obrien.html
6. The Comeback of Don Jose
6.5. The Oakland Tribune, May xx, 1915, pg. xx
7. From Plow-Boy to Parsifal, Orville Harrold (Etude
Magazine, New York, July, 1922) pg. 443
7.5 Famous Tenor To Sing Here Soon, Muncie Morning Star,
February 10, 1918
8. ibid. and Seat Reservations For Orville Harrold,
The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, March 10, 1918
9. Orville Harrold to Sing In Fort Wayne, The Fort Wayne
Journal Gazette, March 19, 1918
9.5 Orville Harrold Winning Laurels in Concert Field,
Musical America, May 25, 1918, pg. 49
10. For Opera in English, The New York Times, March
5, 1917
11. Albert Reiss Quits American Singers, The New York
Times, March 19, 1917
11.5. Opera In English At the Park, The New York Times,
September 22, 1918
11.8 To Produce An American Opera, The New York Times,
October 13, 1918
12. Opera In English At The Park, The New York Times,
September 22, 1918
13. A summary of critical reviews, from an unknown publication,
published by agent Walter Anderson, from the scrapbook of
Effie Kiger
13.5 Article from Musical America, no edition
or page, from Patti Harrold’s scrapbook
14. Mme. Butterfly Sung, The New York Times, October
25, 1918
15. To Revive “Robin Hood”, The New York Times, February
2, 1919
16. “Patience At the Park, The New York Times, March
16, 1919
17. American Singers Revive “The Mikado”, The New York
Times, March 26, 1919
18. Revive “Iolanthe” At Park, The New York Times, April
3, 1919
18.5 Letter from Miriam Voellnagel to Orville Harrold,
July 20, 1933
19. Stars Pledge Aid For Comic Opera, The New York Times,
July 19, 1918
20. Plans of the Musicians, The New York Times, November
21, 1915
21. “Mikado” for Brooklyn, The New York Times, April
20, 1919
22. Scotti Plans Opera Tour, The New York Times, October
13, 1918
23. Scotti as Opera Pioneer, The New York Times, April
18, 1920
24. Scotti Starts His Tour, The New York Times, April
27, 1919
25. See America With Scotti, The New York Times, September
5, 1920
26.
High Points In the Career of Orville Harrold, Charles A. Hooey,
www.musicweb-international.com/hooey/harrold-chron.htm
27. “Boccaccio” Sung With Spirit At The Park, The New
York Times, October 14, 1919
28. Theatre Notes, Munsey’s Magazine, October, 1920,
pg. 112
29. Scotti to Resume Tour, The New York Times, October
5, 1919
30. Ruth Miller Secretly Wed, The New York Times, November
4, 1919
31. Mario Chamlee, Wikipedia.com
32. Ruth Miller Secretly Wed, The New York Times, November
4, 1919
32.5 Americanizing Our Opera, The New York Times, November
5, 1922
33. From Plow-Boy To Parcifal, Orville Harrold (Etude
Magazine, New York, July, 1922) pg. 443
34. Men, Women, and Tenors, Frances Alda (Houghton Miflin
Co. 1937) pg. 237
35. New Singers To Be Heard, The New York Times, November
16, 1919
36. Syndicated column by music critic, Pierre Keyes,
unattributed clipping of November, 1919, from Patti Harrold’s
scrapbook
37. The Opera, The New York Times, November 25, 1919
38. Throngs At Holiday Opera, The New York Times, December
26, 1919
39. Orville Harrold Triumphs, The New York Times, December
30, 1919
40. full page advertisement for Wolfsohn Musical Bureau,
The Musical Currier, January 22, 1920
41. Ben Hecht and Prokofiev’s Love For Three Oranges, benhechtbooks.net/hecht_at_the_opera_with_prokofiev
42. Hoosier Tenor, The Indianapolis Sunday Star Magazine,
December 10, 1911, pg. 1
43. From Plow-Boy To
Parsifal, Orville Harrold (Etude Magazine, New York, July,
1922) pg. 443
Next
.....
See also
three Orville Harrold articles by Charle A Hooey:
• Chronology
• Discography
• An
American Original
