Sarah Robinson-Duff (died May 11, 1934, New York City [1] ) was an American operatic soprano and celebrated voice teacher of many important opera singers, including Mary Garden and Alice Nielsen. She wrote the vocal pedagogy book Simple Truths Used by Great Singers (1919) which was based in the tradition of Robinson-Duff's teacher, Mathilde Marchesi. She is considered one of the most important American voice teachers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [2]
Born in Bangor, Maine, Robinson-Duff was the daughter of Henry K. Robinson and his wife Frances Robinson (née McClintock). [2] She was a descendant of John Robinson (1576–1625), the pastor of the "Pilgrim Fathers" before they left on the Mayflower . [2] When she was 18 she married Colonel Charles Duff. Their daughter, Frances Robinson-Duff (1878-1951), became an important teacher of drama whose students included Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy Gish, Helen Hayes, Mary Pickford, and Clark Gable among many others. [2] [3] They also had two sons: Roden Robinson-Duff, a physician in Chicago, and Jay Robinson-Duff, a trader on the New York Stock exchange. [2]
Robinson-Duff studied singing in Europe with George Henschel and Mathilde Marchesi. [2] Before her teaching career she was active as a soprano in concerts and operas in Europe. [1] She taught singing in Chicago from 1889 through 1897 where one of her pupils was Mary Garden. [1] Her voice studio was located at No. 63 Auditorium Building. [4] In 1890 she performed in recital with her students at Central Music Hall. [5] In 1897 she relocated to Paris, and celebrated the turn of the century at a party held by Horace Porter, United States Ambassador to France, and his wife. [6] She taught singing in Paris for 22 years. [2] In 1919 she returned to the United States and settled in New York City where she continued to teach voice. One of her students was soprano Florence Kimball, the teacher of Leontyne Price, who became a celebrated voice teacher at the Juilliard School for 45 years. [7] Her other successful students included contralto Jessie Bartlett Davis; sopranos Frieda Hempel, Mary McCormic, Alice Nielsen, and Marcia Van Dresser; mezzo-sopranos Olive Fremstad and Fanchon H. Thompson; and vaudeville star Nora Bayes. [2] [1] She was quoted in The New York Times as stating:
"Breath and brains are the qualifications most necessary for a singer." [2]
Mary Beth Peil is an American actress and soprano. She began her career as an opera singer in 1962 with the Goldovsky Opera Theater. In 1964 she won two major singing competitions, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; the latter of which earned her a contract with the Metropolitan Opera National Company with whom she performed in two seasons of national tours as a leading soprano from 1965 to 1967. She continued to perform in operas through the 1970s, notably creating the role of Alma in the world premiere of Lee Hoiby's Summer and Smoke at the Minnesota Opera in 1971. She later recorded that role for American television in 1982. With that same opera company she transitioned into musical theatre, performing the title role of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate in 1983. Later that year she joined the national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I as Anna Leonowens opposite Yul Brynner, and continued with that production when it opened on Broadway on January 7, 1985. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal.
Emma Eames was an American first dramatic soprano, later lyric soprano renowned for the beauty of her voice. She sang major lyric and lyric-dramatic roles in opera and had an important career in New York City, London and Paris during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century.
Estelle Liebling was an American soprano, composer, arranger, music editor, and celebrated voice teacher and vocal coach.
Mathilde Marchesi was a German mezzo-soprano, a singing teacher, and a proponent of the bel canto vocal method.
Alice Nielsen was an American Broadway performer and operatic soprano who had her own opera company and starred in several Victor Herbert operettas.
Frieda Hempel was a German lyric coloratura soprano singer in operatic and concert work who had an international career in Europe and the United States.
Margherita Grandi was an Australian-born Italian dramatic soprano.
Soprano sfogato is a contralto or mezzo-soprano who is capable — by sheer industry or natural talent — of extending her upper range and encompassing the coloratura soprano tessitura. An upwardly extended "natural" soprano is sometimes called soprano assoluto.
Blanche Marchesi was a French mezzo-soprano and voice teacher best known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Wagner. She was the daughter of Mathilde Graumann Marchesi, a German voice instructor who taught a variety of well-known opera singers, including Emma Eames, Nellie Melba, and Emma Calvé.
Mary McCormic was an American operatic soprano and a professor of opera at the University of North Texas College of Music (1945–1960).
Florence Kirk was an American dramatic soprano who had an active international performance career in operas and concerts from 1937 to 1954. Born in Philadelphia and trained at the Curtis Institute of Music by Elisabeth Schumann, she was particularly associated with the roles of Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni and the title heroine in Verdi's Aida. Her repertoire included other Verdi heroines like Leonora and Lady Macbeth, Santuzza from Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, Minnie in Puccini's La fanciulla del West and the title role in Tosca, and several roles from Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle.
Aglaja Orgeni, was a Hungarian coloratura soprano.
Marcia Van Dresser was an American operatic soprano, recitalist and actress. She was sometimes referred to as a mezzo-soprano.
Edytha Fleischer-Engel was a German soprano and voice teacher. She began her career as a principal artist at the Berlin State Opera and the Salzburg Festival.
Lucia Dunham was an American voice teacher, classical soprano, and academic writer on singing and diction who is chiefly remembered as a longtime professor of vocal performance at the Juilliard School from 1922-1956.
Frances Robinson-Duff (1878-1951) was an American actress and voice teacher known as "the foremost dramatic coach in America" in the first half of the 20th century.
Florence Page Kimball was an American soprano who became a celebrated voice teacher at the Juilliard School where she taught for 46 years. She taught hundreds of students, and many of her pupils had successful performance careers. Her most famous student was soprano Leontyne Price. As a soprano Kimball was primarily active as a recitalist. In 1929 she performed Verdi arias in a touring vaudeville production.
Joyce Mathis was an American soprano who was a concert artist, recitalist, and opera singer from the 1960s into the early 1990s. She is considered a part of the first generation of black classical singers to achieve success in the United States; breaking down racial barriers within the field of classical music. She won several notable singing competitions, including the Marian Anderson Award in 1967 and the Young Concert Artists in 1968. In 1970 she recorded the role of the High Priestess in Verdi's Aida alongside Leontyne Price and Placido Domingo. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem wrote his song cycle Women's Voices for her in 1975. In 1976 she created the role of Celestina in Roger Ames's opera Amistad at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She appeared frequently in performances with Opera Ebony and the Boys Choir of Harlem in addition to touring widely as a recitalist and concert soprano.
Florence Turner-Maley was an American composer, singer, and teacher.
Colette D'Arville was a French soprano and musical theatre actress who had an international career in operas, concerts, and musicals from the 1920s through the 1940s. Born Marie Marthe Cescosse, she began her career at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens from 1922 to 1927 with the stage name Colette Etchery, she changed her stage name to Colette D'Arville for her United States debut in the 1928 Broadway musical Here's Howe. She was active with the Opéra-Comique in Paris during the 1930s, and periodically appeared in operas with American companies from 1931 to 1942 in addition to performing on American radio and in concerts and recitals. She was particularly associated with the title role in Bizet's Carmen. While principally active in live performance on the stage and radio, she starred as Chichita in the 1935 musical film Tango Bar for Paramount Pictures. She was romantically involved with composer Deems Taylor and tenor Giovanni Martinelli.
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