Mary Garden (20 February 1874 – 3 January 1967) was a Scottish-American operatic lyric soprano, then mezzo-soprano, with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century. She spent the latter part of her childhood and youth in the United States and eventually became an American citizen, although she lived in France for many years and eventually retired to Scotland, where she spent the last 30 years of her life and died.

Described as "the Sarah Bernhardt of opera", Garden was an exceptional actress as well as a talented singer. She was particularly admired for her nuanced performances which employed interesting uses of vocal color. Possessing a beautiful lyric voice that had a wide vocal range and considerable amount of flexibility, Garden first arose to success in Paris during the first decade of the 20th century. She became the leading soprano at the Opéra-Comique; notably portraying roles in several world premieres, including Mélisande in Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902). She worked closely with Jules Massenet, in whose operas she excelled. Massenet notably wrote the title role in his opera Chérubin (1905) for her.

In 1907, Oscar Hammerstein convinced Garden to join the Manhattan Opera House in New York where she became an immediate success. By 1910 she was a household name in America and Garden appeared in operas in several major American cities; including performing with the Boston Opera Company and the Philadelphia Opera Company. Between 1910 and 1932 Garden worked in several opera houses in Chicago. She first worked with the Chicago Grand Opera Company (1910–1913) and then joined the Chicago Opera Association in 1915, ultimately becoming the company's director in 1921. Although director for only one year, Garden was notably responsible for staging the world premiere of Sergei Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges before the company went bankrupt in 1922. Shortly thereafter she became the director of the Chicago Civic Opera where she commissioned the opera Camille by 28-year-old composer Hamilton Forrest. She sang roles at the Civic Opera until 1931, notably in several United States and world premieres.

Additionally, Garden appeared in two silent films made by Samuel Goldwyn.

After retiring from the opera stage in 1934, Garden worked as a talent scout for MGM. She also gave lectures and recitals, mostly on the life and works of Claude Debussy, until 1949. She retired to Scotland and in 1951 published a successful autobiography, Mary Garden's Story.

Her voice is preserved on a number of recordings made for the Gramophone Company (including some with Debussy at the piano), Edison Records, Pathé, Columbia Records and the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1903 and 1929.

Biography

Early life and rise to stardom in Europe

Early years

left|thumb|upright|Mary Garden, 1905

Mary Garden was born on 20 February 1874 at 35 Charlotte Street, Aberdeen, Scotland, the oldest of the four daughters of Robert Davidson Garden (b. 1851), a cashier at the Blaikie ironworks, and his wife Mary (née Joss) (1852–1948).

The family moved to Chicopee, Massachusetts, United States when she was nine years old. They then moved to Hartford, Connecticut a few years later, and then to Chicago in 1888 when Mary was 14.

left|thumb|Mary Garden as Mélisande in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande

After her debut, Garden quickly became one of the leading sopranos at the Opéra-Comique. In 1901 she starred in two world premieres, Marie in Lucien Lambert's La Marseillaise and Diane in Gabriel Pierné's La fille de Tabarin. That same year she sang the title role in Massenet's Thaïs at Aix-les-Bains, and sang both the title roles in Massenet's Manon and Messager's Madame Chrysanthème at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo; all under the coaching of Sanderson. In 1902, Claude Debussy selected her to play the female lead at the Opéra-Comique debut of his Pelléas et Mélisande. Garden's performances met with considerable critical acclaim. She also created a sensation as Salomé in the French version of Richard Strauss's opera of that name. During the performance she lasciviously kissed the severed head of John the Baptist which shocked the morals of a number of the audience members even more than her Dance of the Seven Veils (which she performed in a bodystocking).

thumb|Mary Garden drawn by [[José Mojica|Jose Mojica during Cincinnati performance for Manuel Rosenberg 1927]]

Although serving as director for only one year, she was responsible for producing the world première of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges. Also during this time she appeared in two silent films made by Samuel Goldwyn, the title role in a film version of Thais (1917) and the role of Dolores Fargis in The Splendid Sinner (1918). During World War I she was decorated by the French and Serbian governments and made a Chevalier (knight) of the Légion d'Honneur in 1921. Garden and Tennyson remained lifelong friends, and Garden dedicated her autobiography "To Jean Tennyson in loving appreciation of our long and loyal friendship."

Personal life

thumb|left|upright|Mary Garden featured on an advertisement for the autopiano, 1910s

As portrayed in both her autobiography and Michael Turnbull's biography, Garden was an archetypal diva who knew exactly how to get her own way. She had a number of feuds with various colleagues from which she invariably emerged victorious, eventually ending up in control of the Chicago Opera. A relentless self-publicist, yet a woman of genuine beauty, her flamboyant personal life was often the subject of more attention than her public performances, and her affairs with men, real or imagined, were liable to emerge as scandalous rumours in the newspapers.

Mary Garden died in Inverurie, close to Aberdeen, where she spent the last 30 years of her life. An award for opera singing at the Aberdeen International Youth Festival is made in her name. There is a small memorial garden dedicated to her in the west-end of Aberdeen, with a small inscribed stone.

Recordings and films

Mary Garden made about 40 gramophone records between 1903 and 1929 for G & T, Columbia and Victor. They continue to be reissued and are of interest to connoisseurs of historical recordings—although Garden herself was said to have been generally disappointed with the results. Of special interest are the four 1904 Black G&T recordings she made accompanied by Claude Debussy in Paris. There are also a small number of recordings made from radio broadcasts.

She made two silent films, Thais (1917) and a World War I romance entitled The Splendid Sinner (1918). Without her singing voice, her acting was criticized and neither film was a success. In the 1930s, Garden appeared on Cecil B. DeMille's Lux Radio Theater. One such airing had Garden and Melvyn Douglas reading the play Tonight or Never by ) which had recently been made into a motion picture.

Literary references

Garden is cited with other artistic figures of the period in Hugh MacDiarmid's poem A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (ll.30–2):

<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">Whaur's Isadora Duncan dancin nou,

Is Mary Garden in Chicago still

And Duncan Grant in Paris – and me fou?</poem>

Allen Ginsberg contrasts the relative silence surrounding Garden's death with the uproar caused by the death of Jack Ruby in "Bayonne Turnpike to Tuscarora," from the 1973 award-winning collection The Fall of America:

<poem style="margin-left: 2em;">

Mary Garden dead in Aberdeen,

Jack Ruby dead in Dallas -

Sweet green incense in car cabin

...

New Years' 1967 come,

Reynolds Metals up a Half

Mary Garden, 92, sleeping tonite in Aberdeen

</poem>

Garden and Ruby both died on 3 January 1967.

References

Notes

Sources

  • Fletcher, J. B.: Garden, Mary in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992)
  • Garden, M. and Biancolli, L.: Mary Garden's Story (New York, 1951)
  • Turnbull, Michael TRB: Mary Garden (Portland, Oregon, 1997)
  • Mary Garden at Flickr
  • Mary Garden, Scottish-American Soprano with many photos
  • Victor Discography Catalog of Mary Garden
  • Mary Garden sings "Depuis le jour" from Gustave Charpentier's Louise, recorded Dec. 24, 1926. (4 min 34 sec) from Britannica Online for Kids
  • Garden with William S. Hart