Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)
Rosa Melba Ponselle (1897-1981)
MSA SC 3520-13604
Biography:
Rosa Ponselle’s voice is remembered “simply, as the most
beautiful in the history of recorded sound.”1 A music prodigy, she believed that “music should reach out
to the people, bring them exhilaration, enrich their lives.”2 Because
of her talent and such beliefs, she dedicated her life to the art, first as a
performer, then as a mentor and benefactor.3
Rosa Ponselle, a “tireless and self-demanding” singer, forever changed the
music industry.4
She was born on January 22, 1897, to two Italian immigrants,
Benjamin and Madalena Ponzillo.5 Her father was both a coal merchant and
business owner who ran a grocery store and bakery located below the family’s
home.6
Ms. Ponselle’s mother stayed at home to take care of her three children, Rosa being the youngest.7 Ms. Ponselle was born in Meriden, Connecticut,
where she attended public school. However, her parents moved the family to New York City where they hired private
tutors to educate their children.8
At eight
years old Ms. Ponselle took piano lessons from Anna Ryan, who was giving vocal
lessons to Carmela, Ms. Ponselle’s older sister.9 Additionally,
Ms. Ponselle was singing in church choirs.10 After
overhearing Ms. Ponselle sing, Anna Ryan decided to give her informal vocal
lessons as well.11 While
in school, Ms. Ponselle played the pump-organ, due to her exceptional ability
to sight read, and would sing, although she was often made fun of by other
students as her voice sounded like that of an adults; by twelve years old it had
reached maturity.12 Failing
to be deterred, Ms. Ponselle developed an overwhelming passion for music during
her early childhood.13
At age thirteen she wanted to call herself Melba in honor of the Australian
singer Nellie Melba. Her church refused to recognize this as her confirmation
name, but for the rest of her life Ms. Ponselle stated that it was her middle
name.14
Family financial struggles prevented Ms. Ponselle from
finishing school; at the age of fourteen she was sent to work to provide supplemental
income.15 Her
first paid position was to demonstrate sheet music on a piano at a local music
store.16 Richard Halliwell, owner of a chain of
theatres, offered Ms. Ponselle the job of playing background piano for silent
films at the Star Theatre in Meridan when she was sixteen.17
In this position she made $12 a week.18
She was later advanced to a “slide-singer” who sang songs to accompany stills
and helped the audience sing-along to songs, while continuing to play piano, for
which she earned $15 a week.19 Growing
in popularity, Ms. Ponselle was moved to the San Carlino Theatre in New Haven, which had a
larger stage and an orchestra pit with an all-female orchestra.20
At this theatre, Ms. Ponselle would sing up to four songs, half to please
Italian immigrants and half to please Yale students.21 During
one performance, James G. Ceriani, owner of Cafee Mellone, a New Haven supper club, noticed Ms. Ponselle’s
talent and offered her a singing position for twice the salary.22
She was one of his two soloist singers until 1915.23
At this time, Ms. Ponselle’s family faced an even deeper
financial crisis and she, along with her sister, were forced to find employment
with a better income or else her parents would fall victim to creditors.24
Fortunately, Carmela Ponzillo had gained popularity through singing in cafes,
vaudeville, operettas, and musical comedies. Consequentially, the two sisters
were able to start a sister act in vaudeville with the help of Carmela’s
agent, Gene Hughes.25
Comically, Mr. Hughes was skeptical about Rosa's weight; she had a love
of food and a love of eating at night.26
However, once hearing her voice, he exclaimed to Carmela “I don’t [care]
how fat she is! When can she open with you?”27
Ms. Ponselle, “thanks to a good corset and dieting” began to slim down and
build her stage appearance.28
The sisters called themselves the “Ponzillo Sisters” and were often known as
the “Italian Girls.”29
They became widely popular, reaching the height of their
career during a B.F. Keith circuit performance
where they played first at the Royal Theatre in Bronx, New York, and then in
different states such as Maine and Georgia.30
During this circuit the sisters played at the Palace Theatre in Times Square, New
York City, which was the most important spot in the vaudeville world.31 The
sisters were named the favorite act of the circuit32
and the overall experience taught Ms. Ponselle essentials about a musical
performance career while increasing her self-confidence as a performer.33
She was a performer on vaudeville until 1918.34
Fatefully, during one of her vaudeville performances,
William Thorner, a voice actor, was impressed with Ms. Ponselle and gave her
informal voice lessons.35
Mr. Thorner introduced Ms. Ponselle to a man who would change the course
of her life, Enrico Caruso, Mr. Thorner’s protégé at the time.36
Stating “you will sing with me yet,” Mr. Caruso started Ms. Ponselle on her six
month transition from vaudeville to grand opera. She determinedly trained during
this time period and changed her name from “Ponzillo” to “Ponselle.”37
When ready, Mr. Caruso arranged for Ms. Ponselle to audition at the
Metropolitan Opera (Met) with its manager, Guilio Gatti-Casazza.38
Mr. Caruso’s words rang true when, on November 15, 1918, Ms. Ponselle succeeded
at the audition and performed opposite him in her first grand opera performance
as Leonora in La Forza del Destino; she
was 21 years old.39
This performance was one of the most significant events in
Ms. Ponselle’s life. She became an instant star. The media sang her
praises with compliments such as calling her voice “vocal gold” and stating
that “unless we are greatly mistaken, our opera has in Rosa Ponselle a dramatic
soprano of splendid potentialities; she possesses a voice of natural beauty
that may prove a gold mine.”40 Additionally,
Ms. Ponselle became popular for not only her voice, but the fact that she had
no formal vocal training, had only performed in two operas before her role in a
grand opera,41 and
had never received European vocal training or any performance experience in Europe.42
All of these factors were unheard of, but nonetheless Ms. Ponselle "[broke]
every rule that existed for making an operatic career" and rose to the top.43
From this point on she was known as the
“first American singer to make a debut at the Metropolitan in a starring role”44
and is “credited with opening the doors of the Met to American trained singers.”45
Ms. Ponselle was “prouder of having set this precedent for singers than
anything else in her career” because she changed the qualifications of the
grand opera and opened doors for countless aspiring artists.46
Ms. Ponselle had a fruitful career at the Met, singing 23
roles, giving 465 performances, and over 20 years, or nineteen seasons.47
Examples of the roles she played are Rachel in La Jiuvre (1919), Selika in La’Africaine
(1922), Giocanda in La Giocanda,
(1924) and Carmen in Carmen (1935).48
Her greatest achievements were her roles
in La Forza del Destino, La Juivre, La Vestale, and Norma.49
Norma in particular was an amazing
achievement as it was an opera rarely performed due to its vocal difficulty. It
was considered “the ultimate test by means of which the truly great soprano
could distinguish herself from the merely very good.”50
Before Ms. Ponselle, the opera had not been performed in 36 years; however,
after two years of preparation, she performed it marvelously in 1927.51
Continuing to make history, in the later part of 1927, Ms.
Ponselle appeared and sang on The Victor Talking Machine Hour, a radio show,
alongside John McCormack.52 In
December of 1931, she was part of a landmark radio moment when she sang Norma on the
NBC broadcast, which began a Met Saturday broadcast tradition.53
As her voice sounded brilliant on the radio and on recordings, she made several
more appearances on programs such as The Chesterfield Hour (1934-1938)..54
Although distasteful of travel, Ms. Ponselle did so for her
career. In 1924, she sang in Europe at the home
of the dying Puccini.55
Additionally, from 1929 to 1932, she sang at London’s
Covent Garden, and, in 1933, she sang the role of Giulia in Spontini’s La Vestale, Florence, Italy,
for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.56
In the latter she performed so well that the audience demanded an encore,
something that was rarely done for an opera.57
There were several opportunities for Ms. Ponselle to stay in Europe to sing,
but she chose to stay with the Met and never left the United States again.58
In 1935, at 40 years of age, Ms. Ponselle made her last
appearance on the Met stage as Carmen. She altered the performance, making it
her own, and for that it was “called one of her finest achievements;” to the
present it remains one of the Met’s largest box-office successes.59 However,
at this performance she announced her retirement after the 1936-1937 season.60 Shock
ensued as the opera world felt a deep sense of loss for something unique and
brilliant.61
Ms. Ponselle’s retirement was the result of a culmination of
factors. One was the refusal of the Met to allow her to play Adriana Lecouver; she
considered this demoralizing.62
Additionally, on December 13, 1936, she married Carle Jackson, son of the
Baltimore Mayor Howard W. Jackson, and moved to Baltimore, where he was an
industrialist.63 The
most substantial factor in her decision however, was the demanding lifestyle of
the performer.64 Throughout
the entirety of her career, Ms. Ponselle held herself to “high standards of
musical excellence.”65 Those
close to her noted that “even when Rosa was
told she had sung marvelously she often felt that she had not done this or that
right; she would go home and work on it, and worry about it, too, until she
felt it was just the way she wanted it to be.”66
In reference to her retirement, Ms. Ponselle stated “I gave up everything for my singing, I didn’t eat all the
wonderful things I wanted, I went to bed early, and I worked, I worked hard.
And I practiced. I gave everything I had to my singing and my public. Now I can
go where I please and do as I please, and I’m not going to give that up.”67
Thus, she was worn out from her past lifestyle and decided to live the rest of
her life in a calmer, freer fashion.
For a few years after her retirement, from 1937 to 1939, Ms.
Ponselle continued to perform small concerts and make recordings, however, she began
to transition to the second tier of her life, which was dedicated not to
performing, but to nurturing aspiring artists and the classical musical
industry.68 She
adjusted well to her new home in Baltimore; so much that she called
it her “adopted home” and lived there for the rest of her life. She had a villa built on her estate in Green Spring
Valley, and named it Villa Pace after an aria from
her first operatic performance, La Forza
del Destino.69 She
designed the villa herself, telling the architects where to place different
features and rooms. She ultimately had it built in the shape of a cross.70
In 1949, Ms. Ponselle and her husband divorced. However, she
continued to live in her villa where she would tutor dedicated, aspiring
singers.71
In 1950, she further extended her help by becoming the artistic director for the
Baltimore Civic Opera, a position she held for thirty years.72
With an ambition to “see [the] opera company and symphony among the greatest in
the world,” and believing that Baltimore
had “a nucleus of art and culture,” Ms. Ponselle worked diligently in her role.73
She would open her home so that most of the planning for the Baltimore Civic
Opera would be conducted there. For example, about a month and a half before
each performance, Ms. Ponselle would hold nightly rehearsals.74
She coached the singers while helping to choose their productions.75
Additionally, Ms. Ponselle would lend her own costumes to performers and tailor
them accordingly, while also lending furniture from her home to the stage.
Finally, she would open her villa to the public in December and January each
year, charging a small fee for a tour, with all profits going to the Baltimore
Civic Opera.76
Because of such contributions, she is “credited with adding the professional
patina for which for which Baltimore Opera has become renowned.”77
Ms. Ponselle was not often alone in her villa, as she
entertained regularly and opened her doors to singers who were struggling. It
was noted that “many prominent singers have sought her help when things were
going badly.”78 Through
tutoring and help, she was able to jump-start careers of performers such as
Placido Domingo, Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills, and Samuel Ramey.79
Ms Ponselle tutored and served as an artistic director not for fame or money,
or even to fill her time. She firmly wanted “her chicks,” or singers in the
Baltimore Civic Opera, to “have the opportunity to sing in operatic productions
before large audiences [because] this would expand their talents.”80
She chose to help out of love and recalled that “to help the most soul
–satisfying things of all…I am sure my greatest pleasure now is in coaching my
chicks in their civic opera roles and in aiding music in Baltimore in every possible way.”81
And for her help, The Baltimore Civic Opera and its singers were ever grateful.
One stated that Ms. Ponselle “always urged us on to
accomplishments we thought impossible…Rosa has
a marvelous, almost hypnotic ability to extract the best of everyone in the
company, yet she is so humble in her art she never throws her weight around…she
covers the staff in her warmth, and we are all at her feet.”82
Ms. Ponselle sang publically a few times during her retirement. The first was in 1950 when RCA Victor convinced her to
preserve her voice by recording it.83
She made two recordings, for the first time in high fidelity.84 Secondly, while attending the 1952
Republican National Convention in Baltimore, she was convinced to sing a few numbers.85
Finally, in 1953 Ms. Ponselle allowed RCA Victor to once again make a recording
during a Christmas open-house at her villa, which was titled “Open House with
Rosa Ponselle.” All of the profits from this went to the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra.86 Otherwise,
Ms. Ponselle lived the rest of her life singing only for pleasure and for
herself while continuing to help singers and musical organizations. She also
developed a passion for interior design, clothing design, swimming, and her pet
poodles.87
Additionally, she worked on a memoir with James Drake which was titled Ponselle: A Singer’s Life,
and was published in 1982.88
In 1980, Ms. Ponselle created a will that asked for the
creation of the Rosa Ponselle Charitable Foundation, which would grant musicians
to-be scholarships.89
This organization would go on to create events such as the
Biennial Rosa Ponselle International Competition, started in 1984, which
recognized and encouraged young musicians through monetary aid and exposure.90 On May 25, 1981, Ms. Ponselle died of a heart attack in her villa at
age 84.91 She
is buried at Druid Ridge
Cemetery in Green Spring
Valley, beside her sister Carmella, who died in 1977.92
Ms. Ponselle was remarkable beyond question, a fact well
recognized as she received many honors and awards. When she was still living, Leonard
Bernstein called Ms. Ponselle the “Queen of the Queens
in all of singing” and credits her with changing his life because when he heard
her sing “Suicidio” at eight years old, he became forever devoted to music.93
In a letter to her he wrote “I thank you every day of my life.”94
In 1967, to honor Ms. Ponselle, the Baltimore Civic Opera performed La
Forza del Destino the way she had performed it.”95 On
her 75th birthday, in 1972, Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer named that day
“Rosa Ponselle Day”due to the fact
that she “brought fame to Baltimore
as an internationally acclaimed opera star” while the city was “enriched by her
talent and her dedication to teaching…and her support of cultural activities.”96 She was given a key to the city.97
In 1992, the Rosa Ponselle Charitable
Foundation created another event in her honor, titled the Rosa Ponselle “All
Marylanders” Competition for Young Classical Singers. This event was open only
to Maryland
residents and helped young musicians (between 10 and 21 years of age) to create
musical careers early in life, just like Ms. Ponselle.98 In 1997, new CD’s
were created for the market,99
two biographies were released,100 and
the United States Postal Office released a series of postage stamps, all to honor her and to celebrate her 100th birthday.101 Finally, she received The Commendatore Medal
from the Italian Government and honorary doctorates from The Peabody Institute
of Music and the University
of Maryland.102
“Ponselle has never been limited to what was possible.”103
Indeed, the odds of a person with no formal training, limited experience, and
American-born making it into the grand opera were slight. Even further, Ms.
Ponselle suffered from a “continuing stage fright and a developing unease
concerning hitting the high notes needed for certain roles.”104
However, with a fierce determination, self discipline, and a voice that was
considered “the ultimate perfection, a miracle,” a voice that she considered a
gift from God,105 Ms.
Ponselle “started at the top and stayed there.” She created an infamous career
in grand opera, made over 100 recordings,106
and “led countless people to love and appreciate opera” while aiding a plethora
of students in their musical ambitions.107
In reflection of her career, Ms. Ponselle stated that “It’s an endless job, I’d
never do it again. You give up too many pleasures. Don’t mistake me, I’m happy
I did it. But I wouldn’t do it again. I’d have a family and children.”108
Baltimore, Maryland, and the world are fortunate that
Ms. Ponselle, with admirable forte and passion, chose the path she did as the
music world is better to have heard her voice and to have had her as a mentor
and contributor.
Quotes:
Rosa Ponselle “came as close to supremacy as any one artist
can.”109
“Through her artistry she has so enriched the musical
heritage of our nation in general and of her adopted state of Maryland in particular.”110
“Rosa Ponselle, who retired in 1937, was simply the greatest
voice in any category this listener has ever heard. No voice has such color, such resonance, such
sheer psychological beauty of sound. None had the voluptuous, perfectly
controlled column of sound that emanated from the throat of Rosa Ponselle.”111
“I think we all know that Ponselle is simply the greatest
singer of us all.”112
“Here is a singer who could sing Spontini’s long gracefully
sculptured melodies with the required sense of tone and dignity of style and
with the formal and somewhat stilted pathos that is their quant and special
mark”113
Rosa Ponselle was “probably the most beautiful of any
soprano in her generation.”114
“Ponselle, just by having the voice she had and using it as
eloquently as she did, superseded all previous models and became herself the
one that female singers, from coloraturas to contraltos, want to sound like.”115
Endnotes
1. “Rosa
Ponselle," International Dictionary of Opera, 1993, Biography in Context, http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=BIC1
&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&action=e
&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CK1643000458&userGroupName=aacpl_itweb&jsid=52474905fd15833c429ec30d38fe4b20
return to text
2. Mary Gay
Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, ed. Winifred G.
Helmes (Maryland: Tidewater Publishers,
1977) , pg. 280 return to text
3. Ibid, pg 280 return to text
4. Ibid, pg 280 return to text
5. Ibid, pg 280 return to text
6. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba." The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, ed.
Kenneth T. Jackson, Karen Markoe, and Arnold
Markoe, New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 6 August 2013. return to text
7. Ibid. return to text
8. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg 280 return to text
9. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
10. Ibid. return to text
11. Ibid. return to text
12. Tim Smith,
“A Golden Sound, Though Stilled for 20 years the Achievements of Rosa Ponselle,
Who Died in 1981 at her Home in Greenspring Valley, Continue To Astonish;
Classical Music,” The Sun, 20 May
2001 return to text
13. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
14. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
15. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
16. Ibid. return to text
17. Ibid. return to text
18. Ibid. return to text
19. Ibid. return to text
20. Ibid. return to text
21. Ibid. return to text
22. Ibid. return to text
23. Ibid. return to text
24. Ibid. return to text
25. Ibid. return to text
26. Ibid. return to text
27. Ibid. return to text
28. Ibid. return to text
29. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
30. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
31. Ibid. return to text
32. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
33. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
34. Ibid. return to text
35. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
36. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
37. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
38. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
39. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
40. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
41. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
42. Carolyn B.
Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, ed. Suzanne Seibert (Maryland: Women of
Achievement in Maryland History, Inc, 2002), pg. 271 return to text
43. “Rosa
Ponselle" return to text
44. Ibid. return to text
45. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
46. J.Y. Smith,
“Soprano Rosa Ponselle, 84, Once Called ‘Caruso in Petticoats,’ Dies,” The Washington
Post, 26 May 1981 return to text
47. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
48. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
49. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
50. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
51. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
52. Ibid. return to text
53. Ibid. return to text
54. Ibid. return to text
55. Ibid. return to text
56. Ibid. return to text
57. Ibid. return to text
58. Ibid. return to text
59. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
60. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
61. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
62. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
63. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
64. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
65. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
66. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
67. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
68. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
69. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
70. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
71. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
72. “Rosa
Ponselle Dies at 84 at Her Villa Pace Estate”, The Sun, 26 May 1981 return to text
73. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
74. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
75. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
76. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
77. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
78. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
79. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
80. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
81. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
82. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
83. Will
Crutchfield, “Rosa Ponselle’s Villas to be Sold,” New York Times, 07 April 1986 return to text
84. Ibid. return to text
85. Randi M.
Pollack, “Rosa Ponselle Day Proclaimed,” The
Sun, 19 January 1972 return to text
86. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
87. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
88. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
89. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
90. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
91. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
92. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
93. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
94. Ibid, pg. 271 return to text
95. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
96. Pollack,
“Rosa Ponselle Day Proclaimed” return to text
97. Ibid. return to text
98. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
99. Smith,
“Soprano Rosa Ponselle, 84” return to text
100. George
Jellinek, "Rosa Ponselle, American Diva," Opera News, 31 Jan.
1998 return to text
101. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
102. Smith,
“Soprano Rosa Ponselle, 84 return to text
103. Ibid. return to text
104. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
105. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
106. “Ponselle,
Rosa Melba" return to text
107. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
108. “Rosa
Ponselle Dies at 84 at Her Villa Pace Estate” return to text
109. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
110. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
111. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland History, pg. 271 return to text
112. Ibid, pg. 271 return to text
113. Calcott, Notable Maryland Women, pg. 280 return to text
114. Ibid, pg. 280 return to text
115. “Rosa
Ponselle" return to text
Return
to Rosa Ponselle's Introductory Page
|
This web site is presented for reference purposes under the doctrine of fair use. When this material is used, in whole or in part, proper citation and credit must be attributed to the Maryland State Archives. PLEASE NOTE: The site may contain material from other sources which may be under copyright. Rights assessment, and full originating source citation, is the responsibility of the user.
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|
February 19, 2025© Copyright
Maryland State Archives