Eileen Farrell (February 13, 1920 – March 23, 2002) was an American soprano who had a nearly 60-year-long career performing both classical and popular music in concerts, theatres, on radio and television, and on disc. NPR noted, "She possessed one of the largest and most radiant operatic voices of the 20th century." While she was active as an opera singer, her concert engagements far outnumbered her theatrical appearances. Her career was mainly based in the United States, although she did perform internationally. The Daily Telegraph stated that she "was one of the finest American sopranos of the 20th century; she had a voice of magnificent proportions which she used with both acumen and artistry in a wide variety of roles", and described her as having a voice "like some unparalleled phenomenon of nature. She is to singers what Niagara is to waterfalls." In 1947 she launched her career as a concert soprano and nine years later began performing on the opera stage. After announcing her retirement from performance in 1986, she still continued to perform and record music periodically up into the late 1990s.
Early life and education
Farrell was born in Willimantic, Connecticut, United States, the youngest of three children born to Irish American Catholics Michael Farrell and Catherine Farrell (née Kennedy). Her parents were vaudeville singers who had performed under the name "The Singing O'Farrells" prior to having children. The family moved quite frequently during Farrell's childhood to various towns in Connecticut. Eileen's first clear memories were of her family's home in Storrs, Connecticut, which was where her parents were working as teachers of music and drama at Storrs Agricultural College (now the University of Connecticut).
In 1956, she made her stage debut as Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana with the San Carlo Opera in Tampa, Florida. In 1957, she debuted with the Lyric Opera of Chicago; in 1958, with the San Francisco Opera. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut on December 6, 1960, singing the title role in Gluck's Alceste. She opened the 1962–63 Met season as Maddalena in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, opposite Franco Corelli. She remained on the Met roster through the 1963–64 season, singing forty-four performances in six roles, then returned in March 1966 for two final performances as Maddalena. Her other roles at the Met included the title role in Ponchielli's La Gioconda, Leonora in Verdi's La forza del destino, Isabella in de Falla's Atlàntida, and Santuzza.
Farrell was equally at home singing pop material and opera. She recorded four albums of popular music for Columbia Records: I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues, Here I Go Again, This Fling Called Love and Together with Love. The first album reached No. 15 in the USA.
Throughout the 1960s she was a frequent soloist with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Leonard Bernstein; she was also a favorite of Thomas Schippers. With Eugene Ormandy, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, she was a featured soloist in an abridged recording of Handel's Messiah. The other featured soloists were Martha Lipton, Davis Cunningham and William Warfield.
From 1971 to 1980, Farrell was professor of music at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington. From 1983 to 1985, she was professor of music at the University of Maine in Orono. She also made several recordings of blues music late in her career, as well as a well-received duet with Frank Sinatra on his Trilogy album (1979), in which they sang a version of the country music hit "For the Good Times". This introduced her to a new group of fans, especially Sinatra expert Charles Fasciano, who considered this song his personal favorite. She published a memoir, Can't Help Singing, in 1999.
In her later career, sometime in 1981 or 1982, she hosted her own television show which aired on CBS Cable, where she sang various songs from her career, including "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe" and "I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues" with Ted Taylor accompanying her on piano.
Beginning in 1987, she began to record pop albums again. Her first was for the Audiophile label called With Much Love. She later recorded several albums for the Reference label that were well received.
Farrell was married to a New York Police Department officer, Robert Vincent Reagan, with whom she maintained homes in the Grymes Hill and Emerson Hill areas of Staten Island, New York. They had a son and daughter. He died in 1986. She was elected to Woonsocket's Hall of Fame. A resident of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, Farrell died at a nursing home in Park Ridge, New Jersey, on March 23, 2002, aged 82.