External links
- Christine Johnson at the Internet Broadway Database
- Christine Johnson at Find a Grave
- Williamson Music
- Carousel CD
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Christine Johnson Smith (September 8, 1911 – June 9, 2010 [1] ), usually credited as Christine Johnson, was an American contralto opera singer and actress who sang at the Metropolitan Opera and other opera houses. She is best known, however, for creating the role of Nettie Fowler in the original Broadway production of Carousel .
Johnson was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and moved to Owensboro, Kentucky, after her freshman year of high school, graduating from Owensboro High School in 1929. [2] She showed early promise, starring in school plays and singing in churches. [3] After high school, she studied voice at the Nashville Conservatory of Music and sang for radio station WSM in Nashville, Tennessee.
Johnson moved to New York City in 1937 and began to work with NBC's Radio City Music Hall and Lyn Murray and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra at CBS, sometimes touring in concerts in North America. She studied voice and operatic repertoire in New York with Ernst Knoth and Sidney Dietch. In 1941, she sang Dorabella in Così fan tutte , opening the Tanglewood opera house at Lenox, Massachusetts. [4]
In 1942, she received good notices for the role of Mrs. Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor . Other roles followed for her, with the New Opera Company of New York under Emil Cooper, at San Francisco Opera and elsewhere, in Macbeth , The Fair at Sorochyntsi , The Queen of Spades , Cavalleria rusticana , Carmen , La forza del destino , The Girl of the Golden West , the title role in Roberta , Azucena in Il trovatore and Maddalena in Rigoletto . [5] During this period, she also sang at New York's Town Hall. [3]
In 1943, Johnson won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air which led to her becoming the youngest person ever to sing the role of Erda in Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold at that opera house. [6] She appeared on CBS radio's The Squibb Show twice in 1944. There she sang "It's A Lovely Day" and "My Heart's in the Highlands" with Lyn Murray and His Orchestra. [7]
In 1945, Johnson created the role of Nettie Fowler in Carousel . Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote "You'll Never Walk Alone", which has become a standard, and "June is Busting Out All Over" especially for her. [5] [ dead link ] She also sang the role on the show's original cast album. Johnson stayed with the show for hundreds of performances and then toured and studied in Italy for a time. [3] She rejoined Carousel during the national tour and continued as Nettie through its Broadway revival in 1949. [5]
After Carousel closed, Johnson moved back to Owensboro, where she married surgeon Robert Smith in 1950 and raised two daughters, Robin and Nancy. She taught voice for many years, [5] and one of her pupils was Florence Henderson. [8] She also served on local arts committees and participated in some local productions. Johnson's husband died in 1959, and she later worked for Texas Gas Transmission Corporation until her retirement. [3]
Johnson died on June 9, 2010, at the age of 98, and was buried at Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery. [9]
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Carousel is the second musical by the team of Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II. The 1945 work was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline. The story revolves around carousel barker Billy Bigelow, whose romance with millworker Julie Jordan comes at the price of both their jobs. He participates in a robbery to provide for Julie and their unborn child; after it goes tragically wrong, he is given a chance to make things right. A secondary plot line deals with millworker Carrie Pipperidge and her romance with ambitious fisherman Enoch Snow. The show includes the well-known songs "If I Loved You", "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone". Richard Rodgers later wrote that Carousel was his favorite of all his musicals.
Renée Lynn Fleming is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards and has won five times. In June 2023, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that Fleming would be one of the five artists recognized at the 2023 Kennedy Center Honors, which she received in December 2023. Other notable honors won by Fleming have included the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur from the French government, Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden's Polar Music Prize and honorary membership in England's Royal Academy of Music. Unusual among artists whose careers began in opera, Fleming has achieved name recognition beyond the classical music world. In May, 2023, Fleming was appointed by the World Health Organization as a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health.
Shirley Verrett was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles making her a Soprano sfogato. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s; she was particularly well known for singing the works of Giuseppe Verdi and Gaetano Donizetti.
Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win in all four acting categories. In addition to her six Tony Awards she has received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from President Barack Obama, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017.
Giorgio Tozzi was an American operatic bass and actor. He was associated with the Metropolitan Opera for many years and sang principal bass roles in nearly every major opera house worldwide.
Risë Stevens was an American operatic mezzo-soprano and actress. Beginning in 1938, she sang for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for more than two decades during the 1940s and 1950s. She was most noted for her portrayals of the central character in Carmen by Georges Bizet. From 1963 to 1968 she was director of the Metropolitan Opera National Company.
Lisa Vroman is an American lyric soprano and stage actress.
Kelli Christine O'Hara is an American actress and singer, most known for her work on the Broadway and opera stages.
Patricia Neway was an American operatic soprano and musical theatre actress who had an active international career during the mid-1940s through the 1970s. One of the few performers of her day to enjoy equal success on both the opera and musical theatre stages, she was a regular performer on both Broadway and at the New York City Opera during the 1950s and 1960s.
Rodney Gilfry is a leading American operatic baritone. After launching his career at Frankfurt Opera in 1987, Gilfry quickly established a reputation for stylish singing and acting. A renowned Mozart specialist, he has given acclaimed performances as Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva, Guglielmo, and Papageno, and is also known for his work in roles from the standard baritone repertoire.
Nadine Conner was an American operatic soprano, radio singer and music teacher.
Claramae Turner was an American operatic contralto, perhaps best known for her appearance in the film Carousel (1956), adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical of the same name.
The Color Purple is a musical with music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray, based on the 1982 novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker and its 1985 film adaptation. The musical follows the journey of Celie, an African American woman in the American South from the early to mid-20th century.
Sierra Marjory Boggess is an American theater actress and singer.
Ali Ewoldt is a Filipino-American theatre actress, who made her Broadway debut in the Les Misérables revival in 2006, playing Cosette. She has also performed on national and international tours and in U.S. regional theatre. She became well known as the first Asian-American actress to star as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
Virginia MacWatters was an American coloratura soprano and university professor.
Kimilee Karyn Bryant is an American actress, singer and former Miss South Carolina. Bryant is best known for playing the role of Christine Daaé in the Broadway and other productions of The Phantom of the Opera, and later the role of Carlotta in the same musical. She has sung at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and played many roles in U.S. regional theatres and opera, including at New York City Center with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players. She has also performed in cabaret, film and television.
Clamma Churita Dale is an American operatic soprano. She portrayed "Bess" in the highly successful 1976 Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess. The show was transferred from Houston to Broadway and Dale was awarded a 1977 Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a musical and received a Tony Award nomination. She won a Grammy award in 1978 for Best Opera Recording of the Porgy & Bess soundtrack.
Owensboro High School is a public high school located at 1800 Frederica Street in Owensboro, Kentucky, United States. The school's digital newspaper is The Digital Devil. Owensboro High School is one of only 33 high schools in Kentucky to be listed among the "Best High Schools 2009 Search" published in U.S. News & World Report in December 2009. This was the second consecutive year that OHS has received this distinction.
Dolores Mae Wilson was an American coloratura soprano who had an active international opera career from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. Beginning her career with major theatres in Europe, she performed in six seasons at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City during the 1950s. She is perhaps best known for originating the title role in the world premiere of Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe at the Central City Opera in 1956. After abandoning her opera career, she embarked on a second career as a musical theatre actress; making several appearances on Broadway in the following decades.