Alice Geraldine Farrar[1] (February 28, 1882 – March 11, 1967) was an American lyric soprano who could also sing dramatic roles. She was noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice."[2] In the 1910s, she also found success as an actress in silent films. She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".[3][4]
After three years with the Monte Carlo Opera,[2] Farrar made her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in Roméo et Juliette on November 26, 1906.[5] She appeared in the first Met performance of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1907 and remained a member of the company until her retirement in 1922, singing 29 roles there in 672 performances.[6] She developed a great popular following, especially among New York's young female opera-goers, who were known as "Gerry-flappers".[4] Farrar created the title roles in Pietro Mascagni's Amica (Monte Carlo, 1905), Puccini's Suor Angelica (New York City, 1918), Umberto Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne (New York, 1915), as well as the Goosegirl in Engelbert Humperdinck's Königskinder (New York, 1910), for which Farrar trained her own flock of geese. According to a review in the New York Tribune of the first performance, "at the close of the opera Miss Farrar caused 'much amusement' by appearing before the curtain with a live goose under her arm."[7]
Geraldine Farrar as the Goosegirl, Metropolitan Opera, 1910. Farrar trained her own flock of live geese for the World Premiere, expressing hope that future performers would do the same.
According to her biographer:
"Unlike most of the famous bel canto singers of the past who sacrificed dramatic action to tonal perfection, she was more interested in the emotional than in the purely lyrical aspects of her roles. According to Miss Farrar, until prime donne can combine the arts of Sarah Bernhardt and Nellie Melba, dramatic ability is more essential than perfect singing in opera."
She recorded extensively for the Victor Talking Machine Company and was often featured prominently in that firm's advertisements.
Film career
Farrar also appeared in silent films, which were produced between opera seasons. Literary and film critic Edward Wagenknecht describes Geraldine Farrar as “the most illustrious artist Paramount brought to the screen.” The acquisition of Farrar by producer Jesse Lasky in 1915 was regarded as “the most sensational coup in motion-picture history” at the time.[9] As a prima donna of the Metropolitan Opera, Farrar’s arrival in Hollywood was greeted with great anticipation and fanfare:
When her private car arrived at Santa Fe station, the mayor of Los Angeles was on hand to greet her. All six of her Lasky films were directed by Cecil B. DeMille, with whom she hit it off perfectly, being much adored by her fellow workers, down to the very prop boys, as she had been by the stagehands at the Metropolitan.[10]
The resolution of Geraldine Farrar, the beautiful and gifted star, to employ her talents in the attainment of success in the films is one of the greatest steps in advancing the dignity of the motion pictures. Miss Farrar's 'Carmen' in the films is the greatest triumph the motion picture has yet achieved over the speaking stage.”[12]
For her performance, she came in first among the women in the 1916 "Screen Masterpiece" contest held by Motion Picture Magazine.[13] One of her other notable screen roles —and the one that Farrar personally ranked her finest—was as Joan of Arc in the 1917 film Joan the Woman.[14]
Beginning in 1908, Farrar had a seven-year love affair with the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini. Her ultimatum, that he leave his wife and children and marry her, resulted in Toscanini's abrupt resignation as principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in 1915. Farrar was a close friend to the Met's star tenor Enrico Caruso and there has been speculation that they too had a love affair. It is said that Caruso coined her motto: Farrar farà ("Farrar will do it").[16]
Her marriage to actor Lou Tellegen on February 8, 1916, was the source of considerable scandal. The marriage ended, as a result of her husband's numerous affairs, in a very public divorce in 1923. The circumstances of the divorce were brought again to public recollection by Tellegen's bizarre 1934 suicide in Hollywood. Farrar reportedly said "Why should that interest me?" when told of Tellegen's death.[citation needed]
Farrar retired from opera in 1922 at the age of 40. Her final performance was as Leoncavallo's Zazà. By this stage, her voice was in premature decline due to overwork. According to the American music critic Henry Pleasants, the author of The Great Singers from the Dawn of Opera to Our Own Time (first published 1967), she gave between 25 and 35 performances each season at the Met alone. They included 95 appearances as Madama Butterfly and 58 as Carmen in 16 seasons. The title role in Puccini's Tosca, which she had added to her repertoire in 1909, was another one of her favourite Met parts.
Farrar quickly transitioned into concert recitals, and was signed (within several weeks of announcing her opera retirement) to an appearance at Hershey Park on Memorial Day 1922.[17] She continued to make recordings and give recitals throughout the 1920s and was briefly the intermission commentator for the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts during the 1934–35 season. Her unusual autobiography, Such Sweet Compulsion, published in 1938, was written in alternating chapters purporting to be her own words and those of her deceased mother, with Mrs. Farrar rather floridly recounting her daughter's many accomplishments.
In 1967, Farrar died in Ridgefield, Connecticut of heart disease aged 85, and was buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. She had no children.
Filmography
The headstone of Geraldine Farrar in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
^Metropolitan Opera Archives, review from the New York Tribune by Krehbiel, Henry. "Königskinder, Metropolitan Opera House: 12/28/1910". Met performance CID 49510, World Premiere, in the presence of the composer.
^Hart, Samantha. Hollywood Walk of Fame (Cry Baby Books, 2004), p. 140. ISBN0-9665787-0-8
^"Farrar to Be at Hershey". Harrisburg Telegraph. February 2, 1922. p. 8. ...Geraldine Farrar will open the Hershey Park season with a concert on Memorial Day afternoon.
Nash, Elizabeth (1981). Always First Class: The Career of Geraldine Farrar. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America. ISBN0-8191-1882-6. OCLC7812696.
Rosenthal, H. and Warrack, J., "Farrar, Geraldine", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 1979, p. 161. ISBN0-19-311321-X.
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