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Dorothy Kirsten (July 6, 1910, Montclair, New Jersey - November 18, 1992, Los Angeles, California) was an American operatic spinto soprano.

Biography

Kirsten's mother was an organist and music teacher, her grandfather was a conductor, and her great-aunt, Catherine Hayes, was also an opera singer. She left high school at age 16 and worked for the Singer sewing machine company and for New Jersey Telephone, studying voice in her spare time. Her teacher, Louis Darnay, eventually employed her as a secretary and maid.

By the late 1930s she had a professional career going as a radio singer on WINS, a member of the Kate Smith Chorus, and as a vocalist for pop orchestras. She mentored under Grace Moore from 1938, who had her study in Rome with Astolfo Pescia. Her time in Europe was cut short by the outbreak of World War II, and she returned in 1939, debuting at the New York World's Fair. Roles followed at the Chicago Grand Opera (Manon, 1940), San Carlo Opera Company (1942), New York City Opera (1943), San Francisco Opera (1945), and New York Philharmonic (1945). Her radio program "Keepsakes" ran for a year in 1943-44.

She debuted at the Metropolitan Opera with the role of Mimi in La Boheme on December 1, 1945, and continued to sing with the Met for the next thirty years. While she performed primarily in the United States, she did perform in Europe at times, and gave performances in the USSR in 1962, singing Violetta in La Traviata at the Bolshoi Opera. She sang in the American premieres of William Walton's Troilus and Cressida and Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites in San Francisco. In addition to her operatic activities, she sang on radio with Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Nelson Eddy, and Perry Como. She also appeared in two films, Mr. Music (1950) and The Great Caruso (1951). Her last performance with the Met was on December 31, 1976, in Tosca.

Kirsten published an autobiography entitled A Time to Sing in 1982. She was married three times. Her first marriage was to Edward MacKayes Oates, with a divorce in 1949; the second to Eugene Chapman in 1951, who died three years later; and the third to neurosurgeon Douglas French, who died in 1989. She suffered a stroke on November 5, 1992, and died of complications on November 18 of that year.

Her papers are currently housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.

Dorothy Kirsten

New York Times obituary

Dorothy Kirsten, an American lyric soprano who sang leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera for 30 years and was particularly renowned for her performances of Puccini heroines, died yesterday morning at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was 82 years old and lived in Los Angeles.

She died of complications from a stroke she suffered on Nov. 5, said Peter Gravina, her longtime press representative.

At the height of her career, in the 1950's and 60's, Miss Kirsten appealed not only to opera fans, who knew her as an attractive, intelligent, thoroughly musical singer and a fine actress, but also to a broader public that knew her from her frequent radio and television appearances or from her performances in the films "The Great Caruso," with Mario Lanza, and "Mr. Music," with Bing Crosby.

On the opera stage, her repertory ran from staples like Mimi in Puccini's "Boheme" to comparative rarities like the title role in Charpentier's "Louise." In her concert and television appearances, she sang not only opera arias but theater and popular songs as well, and she co-starred with Frank Sinatra on the radio show "Your Hit Parade." Musical Heritage

Miss Kirsten was born into a musical family in Montclair, N.J., on July 6, 1910 (although she gave her birth year variously as 1917 and 1915). Her mother was an organist and music teacher. Her great-aunt, Catherine Hayes, had an operatic career and was known as "The Irish Jenny Lind." Her grandfather was a conductor and an early president of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians.

She was drawn to music and acting early in life, but did not set her sights on an operatic career until she had achieved some modest success as a popular singer. After leaving high school when she was 16 years old, Miss Kirsten worked as a demonstrator of Singer sewing machines and as what she called a trouble-shooter at New Jersey Telephone, while studying voice in New York City at night. When she had made some progress and wanted more frequent lessons than she could afford, she agreed to work for her teacher, Louis Darnay, as both secretary and maid in exchange for lessons.

By 1937, she was singing professionally on radio, both as a member of the Kate Smith Chorus and in her own solo spots with several dance orchestras. The soprano Grace Moore heard her in 1938 and became her mentor and benefactor, sending her to Rome for a year of study with Astolfo Pescia, who was Beniamino Gigli's vocal coach. She had planned to spend a second year in Italy and then a year in France, but returned to New York at the start of World War II.

Upon her return in 1939, Miss Kirsten made her professional concert debut in a stage show at the New York World's Fair. She was also reunited with Miss Moore, who recommended her to the Chicago Grand Opera, where Miss Kirsten made her operatic debut as Pousette in Massenet's "Manon" in 1940. Miss Kirsten sang 15 minor roles during her first season and the following year shared the stage with Miss Moore in a Chicago performance of "La Boheme," singing Musetta to Miss Moore's Mimi.

In 1942, Miss Kirsten began to sing leading roles with the San Carlo Opera Company, in Washington and New York City. She made her New York City Opera debut in 1943, and by 1945 had performed with the San Francisco Opera, the New York Philharmonic and other major orchestras. Starting in September 1943, she had her own radio program, "Keepsakes," which ran for a year.

Miss Kirsten's Metropolitan Opera debut, as Mimi in "La Boheme" on Dec. 1, 1945, was a critical success, and was the start of a 30-year association with the house. In 1971, when she celebrated her 25th anniversary with the company, she reminisced about that debut, and recalled that Miss Moore sat in the first box, at the side of the stage, and threw roses to her. When Miss Moore died in a plane crash in Denmark in 1947, Miss Kirsten sang Schubert's "Ave Maria" at her funeral.

Miss Kirsten's career was centered in the United States, but she did tour Europe and, in 1962, the Soviet Union. There, besides giving recitals, she sang Violetta in a Bolshoi Opera performance of "La Traviata," to considerable acclaim, even though, as she said later, she had to go on without the benefit of a stage rehearsal. Worked With Composers

During her years at the Met, Miss Kirsten sang most of the important Puccini roles, including the title roles in "Manon Lescaut," "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly," and she starred as Minnie in a revival of "La Fanciulla del West" that helped restore the work to the repertory. She prepared for the title role in "Louise" by going to France to study it with the composer. She also worked with the composer Italo Montemezzi on "L'Amore dei Tre Re" before she performed it in San Francisco and at the Met.

In addition to the Puccini heroines, her repertory included the female leads in Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" and "Faust," Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" and Verdi's "Traviata." She sang in the American premieres of Walton's "Troilus and Cressida" and Poulenc's "Dialogue des Carmelites," both in San Francisco.

Miss Kirsten's voice was not huge, but she used it gracefully throughout her long career. When she gave her farewell performance at the Met, on Dec. 31, 1976, Allen Hughes wrote in The New York Times that "she sang and acted the part of Tosca with the vocal control and dramatic acuity of a prima donna in mid-career."

In an article she wrote for Opera News just before that performance, Miss Kirsten attributed her vocal longevity to her refusal to accept roles that she felt were too heavy for her voice.

"I've always believed in the principle of protection, and I never sang a role I felt was not right for my voice," she wrote. "This took courage and drew some criticism along the way, but after 30 years of preserving Puccini's legato and tessitura I don't have to apologize to anyone, do I?" Video Releases

Miss Kirsten's autobiography, "A Time to Sing," was published in 1982. Recently, several of her television performances on the "Voice of Firestone" program, including the Poker Scene from "Fanciulla," "Vissi d'Arte" from "Tosca" and several popular songs, have been released on tape by Video Arts International. And her recordings of several Romberg operettas have been reissued by Angel Records.

Miss Kirsten's first marriage, to Edward MacKayes Oates, ended in divorce in 1949. In 1951 she married Dr. Eugene Chapman, who died in 1954. In 1955, she married Dr. John Douglas French, a neurosurgeon who was director of the Brain Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. When Dr. French developed Alzheimer's disease in the early 1980's, Miss Kirsten testified at a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and in 1983 she set up the French Foundation for Alzheimer Research. Dr. French died in 1989.

She is survived by two sisters, Eleanor Parker of Tucson, Ariz., and Ethel Anderson of Lenoir, N.C., and a brother, George, also of Lenoir.

Photo: Dorothy Kirsten as Mimi in "La Boheme" in 1942. (De Bellis).

BARRY MORELL

New York Times obituary:

Barry Morell, a tenor who sang leading roles for 21 years at the Metropolitan Opera as well as at other major international houses, died on Thursday at his home on Cape Cod. He was 75.

The cause was esophageal cancer.

In his first year with the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Morell sang 7 leading roles in 22 performances, a record that, it was claimed at the time, was matched by only two other tenors, Enrico Caruso and Edward Johnson.

A lirico spinto tenor, Mr. Morell had a particularly affinity for the operas of Puccini, appearing frequently as Pinkerton in ''Madama Butterfly,'' Cavaradossi in ''Tosca'' and Rodolfo in ''La Bohème.'' Jay S. Harrison, the music critic for The New York Herald Tribune at the time of Mr. Morell's debut, described his voice as ''a glorious instrument -- true, vibrant, splashed with silver.''

Born in Manhasset, N.Y., Mr. Morell was supposed to take over the family textile business but showed a penchant for singing early on. At 17 he made his stage debut singing ''Ol' Man River'' at a benefit for the New York City Actors' Fund, on Broadway. That song is generally taken by a deep voice, and Mr. Morell indeed believed he was a baritone for many years, until, after an Army stint overseas and an 11-week bout with pleurisy, he found himself with almost no voice at all. Searching for a teacher to help him rectify this, Mr. Morell eventually met Giuseppe Danise, a noted pedagogue who had married his star pupil, the soprano Bidú Sayão. ''First of all, you are not a baritone; you are a tenor,'' Danise is supposed to have said. ''Now we shall see whether you can become a singer.''

The answer was yes; after six years of study, Mr. Morell made his debut as Pinkerton in 1955 with what was then known as the New York City Center Opera Company. Two and a half years later the Met invited him to audition, and Rudolf Bing signed him up with the company, where his debut, in the same role, was in 1958.

He married his first wife, Jane, a former model, in 1953, and his second wife, Joan, a former ballerina, in 1964. In 1968 he moved his wife and children to Rome, following the call of a growing international career. He appeared at Covent Garden, the Vienna Staatsoper, Berlin, Barcelona, and many other international houses, including the Rome Opera, where his debut as Cavaradossi was received with a 15-minute ovation.

He also made several recordings for RCA and other labels, including solo albums of Donizetti and Verdi arias.

Mr. Morell's last Met appearance was in 1979, once again as Pinkerton. In 1986 he retired from the stage for good. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, David, of Denver, N.Y., Kimberly Wickham of Margaretville, N.Y., Lee Adrian Morell of Dallas-Fort Worth, Tex., Kenlin Wilder-Busser of Boston and Susan Siegal of New Jersey; and five grandchildren.

Independant Obituary:

The American tenor Barry Morell spent the first 10 years of his career in the United States singing lyrical roles, but then, as his voice grew larger and darker in colour, he took his new, heavier repertory abroad, appearing in London, Santiago, Vienna, Graz, Naples, Rome, Berlin and Barcelona. The beauty of his voice and the musicality of his singing did not change, though his limitations as an actor were perhaps more noticeable.

Barry Morell, operatic tenor: born Manhasset, New York 30 March 1927; twice married (two sons, three daughters); died Cape Cod, Massachusetts 4 December 2003.

The American tenor Barry Morell spent the first 10 years of his career in the United States singing lyrical roles, but then, as his voice grew larger and darker in colour, he took his new, heavier repertory abroad, appearing in London, Santiago, Vienna, Graz, Naples, Rome, Berlin and Barcelona. The beauty of his voice and the musicality of his singing did not change, though his limitations as an actor were perhaps more noticeable.

However, as Rodolfo in La bohème and Alfredo in La traviata during the early years, and as Gounod's Faust and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor during the later period, he gave what by any standards were very fine performances.

Morell was born in Manhasset, New York, in 1928. After abandoning a career in the family textile business, he studied singing in New York, at first as a baritone, then with Giuseppe Danise, as a tenor. Having made his operatic début at the New York City Center Opera in 1955 as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, he transferred to the Metropolitan Opera in 1958, making his first appearance there in the same role. Morell continued to sing at the Met every year until 1969, his roles including Cavaradossi in Tosca (with Renate Tebaldi), Matteo in Arabella (with Lisa della Casa), Alfredo, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto and Rodolfo.

Meanwhile the tenor appeared in these roles in other North American cities. In 1959 he sang Rodolfo, with Tebaldi as Mimi, for the Sociedad pro Arte Musical in Havana, Cuba. He visited Cincinnati for the Summer Opera season several times, singing Pinkerton, Alfredo, the Duke and Cavaradossi. He sang the Duke for San Francisco Cosmopolitan Opera Company. He appeared at Philadelphia, San Antonio and New Orleans. In 1961 he created the role of Mark in the world premiere of The Harvest by the American composer Vittorio Giannini at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; the cast also included Marilyn Horne and Geraint Evans.

In March 1966 Morell, launched on his international career, made his Covent Garden début in the title role of The Tales of Hoffmann. This was not altogether a happy occasion - though the tenor sang finely enough, the production was not well revived. Later in the year he sang Cavaradossi in Santiago, where he became very popular, and the title role of Gounod's Faust in Mexico City. His Faust was an excellent characterisation, and he sang it in Philadelphia and Hartford at the end of the decade. Another new role was Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, which he sang in San Antonio and later in Santiago, when his voice, with its attractive bronze sheen, was judged in superb condition.

Morell tackled two new, heavier Verdi roles, Don Alvaro in La forza del destino in 1970 and Don Carlos in 1972, both in Seattle. In 1973 at Graz, he found another congenial part as Enzo in Ponchielli's La gioconda, repeating the role at the San Carlo, Naples, and the Berlin Deutsche Oper the following year, when he also sang his first Manrico in Il trovatore at Houston.

He returned to the Metropolitan for a final time in 1979, singing, as he had on his début there 21 years previously, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and retired in the mid-1980s.