Opera Singers take to the Screen
Opera singers making their mark in the movies
by Susan King
At the dawn of the talkies, Hollywood went to Broadway to find stars for their movie musicals. Some performers didn’t repeat their Great White Way success such as Marilyn Miller, while others such as the Marx Brothers and Ginger Rogers became superstars of the big screen. But the studios didn’t just set their sights on Broadway. They went to the Met and other opera houses to find the next big thing in cinema. And it wasn’t just in the early years of sound.
The legendary opera singer Maria Callas (the subject of Netflix’s “Maria,” Pablo Larrain’s third entry in his diva trilogy starring Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominee Angelina Jolie) made one movie for acclaimed, controversial Italian filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini. She starred in a non-musical role in his 1969 “Medea,” based on the Euripides’ play — she made the film after her longtime lover Aristotle Onassis married Jackie Kennedy.
The New York Times was impressed with Callas especially since they weren’t much taken with her acting at the Metropolitan. “Under Pasolini’s direction, she becomes a fascinating cinematic presence, possessed with a power that has, I suspect, less to do with an ability to act, in conventional terms, anyway, than with grace of movement (which is part of acting, I admit), and with her magnificent face.”
Though their film careers didn’t endure, three opera stars earned Oscar nominations in the 1930s. Lawrence Tibbett was a giant on the Metropolitan Opera stage for 25 years, having made the move from secondary to starring roles in 1925 at the age of 28. Tibbett was the first baritone to star in a motion picture, 1930’s “The Rogue Song,” which ran for six months at New York’s Astor Theatre and earned Tibbett a best actor Oscar nomination.
Perhaps it was the infamous scene where he sings while tied between two posts and being whipped that clinched the nomination. Alas, the film is lost so we can’t enjoy this cinematic moment. Veteran British actor George Arliss took home the Oscar that year for “Disraeli.”
He made six more films including the popular 1931 “Cuban Love Song” with Lupe Velez. He made his last appearance at the Met in 1950-overuse and alcohol had strained his voice- and replaced Ezio Pina in 1956 in the Broadway musical “Fanny.” His drinking — he was arrested for DUI in 1954 — and arthritis aged him prematurely, and in 1960, the singer fell and hit his head on a table in his N.Y. apt. He underwent surgery for the injury and never regained consciousness.
Tibbett appeared with another opera star, Grace Moore, in 1930’s “New Moon.” Moore, aka the “Tennessee Nightingale,” began on the Broadway musical comedy stage appearing in two of Irving Berlin “Music Box Revues” before making her Met debut in 1928 singing Mimi in Puccini’s “La Boehme.” After “New Moon” and “A Lady’s Morals,” also for MGM in in 1930. she took a break from features. When she returned a few years later, Moore signed a contract with Columbia. She made six films for the studio including 1934’s “One Night of Love,” for which she earned a best actress Oscar as an aspiring opera singer. Claudette Colbert won the Academy Award for “It Happened One Night.” The film was a big hit; her other films, though never matched the popularity of “One Night of Love.” She left films for good in 1939 and eight years later was killed in a plane crash.
Kathryn Grayson starred as Moore — Merv Griffin was her love interest!!!!! — in the tone deaf 1953 biopic “So This is Love.”
Miliza Korjus was a Polish-born opera singer who MGM’s Irving Thalberg signed sight unseen after her hearing her records in 1936, the same year Thalberg died. Her first and only film for the studio was 1938’s “The Great Waltz,” a rather snoozy biopic about Johann Strauss II. Korjus was the only real bright light in the musical playing — no big stretch — an opera singer. She earned a supporting actress Oscar nomination — Fay Bainter won the honor for ‘White Banners.” The studio had her set for a new film, but just a few weeks before production was to being, she was in a serious car crash which crushed her leg. Her leg was spared from amputation after several surgeries.
She went on a concert tour of South America in 1941; when the U.S. entered World War II, Korjus stayed in Mexico where she made one film. She returned to the U.S. in 1944 where she performed in concert. After she married in 1952, Korjus retired from live performing and only recorded albums. She died in 1980.
As for Callas, she died of a heart attack in Paris at the age of 53 in 1977. Dario Soria, the former head of Angel Records, told the New York Times: “As a singer, she was responsible for the revival of bel canto. As an actress, she made the stage exciting theater. As a personality, she had the kind of magic that makes news. I think she’ll be remembered as one of the greatest opera singers of all time.”
Susan King was a film/TV/theater writer at the Los Angeles Times for 26 years specializing in Classic Hollywood.
Comments