Eileen Farrell

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Eileen Farrell (February 13, 1920 – March 23, 2002) was an American soprano who had a nearly 60-year career performing classical and popular music in concert halls, theatres, on radio and television, and on DVD.

"She was one of the twentieth century's most influential and vibrant operatic voices," NPR said. Although she was on the radio as an opera performer, her concert appearances far outnumbered her theatrical appearances.

Although she did not work internationally, her work was mainly based in the United States, although she did well.

"She was one of the finest American sopranos of the twentieth century," the Daily Telegraph said, "She had a voice of dazzling proportions, which she used in a multitude of roles." And was described as having a voice "astounding phenomenon of nature."

Niagara is to waterfalls, as she is to singers. "Farrell began her career on CBS Radio in 1940 as a member of the CBS Chorus.

Farrell's own show, Eileen Farrell Sings, was on CBS Radio in 1941, on which she appeared in both classical and popular music for five years.

In 1947, she began her career as a concert soprano and nine years later, she began performing on the opera stage for the first time.

Five seasons at the Metropolitan Opera from 1960–1966 was the pinnacle of her opera career.

She continued to perform and record classical and popular music throughout her career, and is known for releasing the first mainstream crossover album, I've Got the Right to Sing the Blues (1960).

She continued to perform and record music into the late 1990s after announcing her resignation from appearances in 1986.

She served as a voice coach for nine years at Indiana University, both privately and as a professor.

Early life and education

Farrell was born in Willimantic, Connecticut, the youngest of three children born to Irish American Catholics Michael Farrell and Catherine Farrell (née Kennedy). Her parents were vaudeville musicians who had performed under the guise of 'The Singing O'Farrells,' before having children. During Farrell's childhood, the family moved to various towns in Connecticut. Eileen's first vivid memories were of her family's home in Storrs, Connecticut, where her parents were living as music and drama teachers at Storrs Agricultural College (now the University of Connecticut).

Farrell's family migrated to Willimantic when she was five years old. Since her mother obtained the post of organist at St. Mary's Church in Norwich, Connecticut, she and her family migrated to Norwich, Connecticut, Connecticut. The family lived in Norwich for almost ten years, with Farrell completing her freshman year of high school at Norwich Free Academy in 1935. Farrell and the family then migrated to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and Farrell joined Woonsocket High School in 1936. She graduated from the school in 1939.

Farrell received early vocal instruction from her parents as a child. Her mother, a natural coloratura soprano, was her primary tutor, but her father, a baritone, occasionally taught her. Mother Cornelius J. Holland, a local pastor, at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was a big influence on Miss Farrell's early singing career. After graduating from high school, she travelled to New York City in August 1939 to work with former Metropolitan Opera contralto Merle Alcock. Charlie Baker, who was the music director of Rutgers Presbyterian Church, was assisting her in learning to sing with Alcock. After working with him for a few months, he recruited her as a Rutgers paid singer. Baker became Farrell's vocal coach and helped her prepare the majority of her music when her radio career began. Can't Help Singing: Eileen Farrell (1999), she credits Baker with her success during the early years of her radio career. Farrell later became a student of vocal and opera coach Eleanor McLellan, who was praised for teaching her a proper technique.

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Early career in radio

Farrell began her career as a member of the CBS Chorus in 1940. CBS gave her a half-hour radio show Eileen Farrell Sings (also known as Eileen Farrell Presents), on which she will perform both classical and popular music with the CBS Orchestra under conductor Howard Barlow, after three months with the chorus. Jim Fassett, a music producer, was in charge of the program, and it was mainly recorded at the Ed Sullivan Theater. Margaret Harshaw, Frank Sinatra, Martial Singher, and Ris Stevens were among the featured guests on the program. The program first appeared in early 1941 and quickly became extremely popular. It came out in 1946.

Farrell appeared on several other radio shows while on her own. She appeared on Andre Kostelanetz's The Pause That Refreshes and Bernard Herrmann's Invitation to Music as a regular guest. She has appeared on The Bell Telephone Hour, The Prudential Family Hour, Songs of the Centuries, and Your Hit Parade among other things. With Shirley Temple as the mistress of ceremonies, she made a special Christmas recording for the American soldiers stationed abroad during World War II.

Concert and opera career

She toured the United States from 1947-1948 as a concert pianist, and in 1949, she toured South America.

Farrell's live performance in New York in October 1950 was widely celebrated and attracted immediate attention. She appeared in a concert performance of Berg's Wozzeck as Marie last year. She was hired by Arturo Toscanini for his first and only RCA Victor studio recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1952.

Eileen Farrell provided the singing voice in the 1955 film Interrupted Melody, which starred Eleanor Parker as the Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence. In a performance of arias from Verdi's Ernani at the Lewisohn Stadium in New York City, she appeared before an audience of over 13,000 under the conductor Alfredo Antonini's direction.

She made her stage debut in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana in 1956 with the San Carlo Opera in Tampa, Florida. She appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1957, and with the San Francisco Opera in 1958. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut on December 6, 1960, playing the title role in Gluck's Alceste. Maddalena in Giordano's Andrea Chénier opened the 1962–63 Met season as Maddalena, opposite Franco Corelli. She remained on the Met roster from 1963 to 1964, appearing in forty-four performances in six roles before returning in March 1966 as Maddalena. In addition to her Met duties, she appeared in La Gioconda, Leonora in Verdi's La destino del destino, Isabella in de Falla's Atlántida and Santuzza.

Farrell was equally at home performing pop songs and opera. She released four albums of famous music for Columbia Records: I've Got the Right to Sing the Blues, This Fling Called Love, and Together with Love is the perfect example.

She appeared in the 1960s as a frequent soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein's direction; she was also a fan of Thomas Schippers. Eugene Ormandy, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performed in an abridged recording of Handel's Messiah. Martha Lipton, Davis Cunningham, and William Warfield were among the other featured soloists.

Farrell, a professor of music at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington from 1971 to 1980. She worked at the University of Maine in Orono from 1983 to 1985. She 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 performed a version of "For the Good Times" in which they performed a version of the country music hit "For the Good Times." This introduced her to a new community of fans, particularly Sinatra expert Charles Fasciano, who rated this album as his personal favorite. In 1999, she wrote Can't Help Singing, a memoir.

She began recording pop albums in 1989. It was her first appearance for With Much Love, a Soundphile company. She later released several albums for the Reference label that were well received.

Farrell was married to Robert Reagan, a New York Police Department officer, with whom she owned properties in the Staten Island and Emerson Hill communities. They had a son and daughter. He died in 1986. She was nominated to the Woonsocket Hall of Fame. Farrell, a resident of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, died at a nursing home in Park Ridge, New Jersey, on March 23, 2002, at the age of 82.

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