LILLIAN RUSSELL
For many years Lillian Russell held without challenge and without
serious rivalry the first place among light opera prima donnas in this
country. Her triumphs followed one after the other in rapid succession,
and her popularity in all the leading cities in the country--and she
would visit none except leading cities--was remarkable. "Queen of Comic
Opera" she was called; and what a vision of loveliness, she was, to be
sure! the most perfect doll's face on the American stage, as some one
described it. A golden-haired goddess, with big blue eyes that seemed a
bit of June sky, and perfectly rounded cheeks, soft and dimpled like a
baby's.
There are two classes of women in the world,--pretty women, whom we see
everywhere, and beautiful women, about whom we often read, but whom we
seldom see in real life. Lillian Russell was emphatically a beautiful
woman. She was almost an ideal. I remember her in all her perfection as
Florella in "The Brigands," by W. S. Gilbert and Jacques Offenbach,
during the season of 1888-89. Later she learned to act better than she
did in those days,--but then she did not need to act. When one saw her,
he forgot all about acting. He thought of nothing except Lillian
Russell, her extraordinary loveliness of person, and her voice of golden
sweetness. She compelled admiration that was almost personal homage. And
she could sing, too! Her voice, a brilliant soprano, was rich, full, and
complete, liquid in tone, pure and musical.
From 1888 to 1896 were the days of her greatest successes, and the list
of operas in which she appeared during that time is a remarkable one.
Besides "The Brigands," there were "The Queen's Mate," "The Grand
Duchess," "Poor Jonathan," "Apollo," "La Cigale," "Girofle-Girofla,"
"The Mountebanks," "Princess Nicotine," "Erminie," "The Tzigane," "La
Perichole," "The Little Duke," and "An American Beauty." Naturally
enough, the Lillian Russell of to-day is not the Lillian Russell of ten
years ago. Her great beauty has lost some of its freshness, and her
voice, though by no means wholly past its usefulness, is worn by the
years of constant use in the theatre. She still retains to a remarkable
extent, however, her great personal hold on the public. Although the
Lillian Russell of to-day fails to maintain the standard of the Lillian
Russell of yesterday, there are but few light opera sopranos on the
American stage who can fairly rival her even now, and there is no one
who is at present what Lillian Russell was ten years ago.
Lillian Russell was christened Helen Louise Leonard. Tony Pastor gave
her the name of Lillian Russell, for the very practical reason, I
believe, that it had so many "l's" in it, and consequently would look
well on a bill-board. Little Miss Leonard was born in Clinton, Iowa. Her
father was the proprietor and editor of the "Clinton Weekly Herald," and
Lillian Russell's first press notice read as follows: "Born to Mr. and
Mrs. Charles E. Leonard, at their home on Fourth Avenue, December 4,
1861, a bright baby girl, weighing nine and one-half pounds." In spite
of the fact that this birth notice speaks of a high-sounding Fourth
Avenue, Lillian Russell was born in an alley. The house in Clinton, in
which the interesting event occurred, was situated in the rear of the
office building of H. B. Horton, located on Fourth Avenue, between First
and Second streets, and faced east on the alley running north and south
between Third and Fourth avenues. At that time the house was situated
almost in the centre of the business section across the street from the
Iowa Central Hotel, then the largest hotel in the state and one of the
finest west of Chicago. Shortly after the baby's birth the Leonard
family removed from their abode on the alley to 408 Seventh Avenue,
immediately in the rear of the Baptist Church, and at that time one of
the finest residences in the town. Here the remainder of their days in
Clinton was spent.
During the first few years of her life there was nothing to distinguish
Helen Louise Leonard from any other baby; but by the time she was two
years old, she showed the marks of great beauty, having large blue eyes
and golden hair. She was not reared among all the comforts of life. Her
country editor father was not possessed of wealth, but was compelled to
work hard on his prosperous, though none too well-paying newspaper,
every day of his life. During the period of Lillian's babyhood, too,
the war forced the prices of luxuries entirely beyond the reach of all
but the rich.
Lillian inherited her good looks from her father. Charles E. Leonard was
a man of fine appearance, and always dressed in a faultless manner. When
he went to Clinton in 1856 he was probably thirty years of age and
showed plainly the marks of early culture and training. He, too, was a
blond. That he was a man of marked ability is evidenced by the success
he achieved in his profession in what was then a scattering Western
settlement of not half a hundred houses all told, in the midst of a
country unreclaimed and almost wholly unsettled.
On December 18, 1856, he issued the first number of the "Clinton
Herald," a weekly publication having as competitors two other
well-established newspapers at Lyons, only one mile north in the same
county. There was really no field at Clinton at that time for a
newspaper, but Leonard thought otherwise. The panic of 1857 caught the
enterprise in the weakness of infancy; but the paper survived the
financial storm and eventually came forth on the top wave of success,
all of which was undoubtedly due to the excellent business management of
Leonard and the strong personality he threw into his work. When the
general offices of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad were removed to
Chicago in 1865, Mr. Leonard moved the fine job office connected with
the "Herald" to that city, as the nucleus for the extensive printing
establishment he later acquired.
After the family moved to Chicago, Lillian Russell spent several years
in the Convent of the Sacred Heart in that city. Her first music lessons
were on the violin, and were given by Professor Nathan Dyer. Then she
took vocal lessons from Professor Gill in Chicago. When the time came
for him to show off his pupils, he gave a musicale in Chickering Hall.
The fair-haired Lillian sang at this concert "Let Me Dream again" by
Sullivan and "Connais-tu le Pays?" from "Mignon." The papers, of course,
gave her complimentary notices, one declaring that she sang "like an old
professional." Possibly it was this notice that first turned her mind
toward the stage. For some time after that, however, she sang in St.
John's Episcopal Church on the West Side, and studied with Madame
Jennivally, who encouraged her in her ambition to become a grand opera
singer. With the idea of studying for the grand opera stage, she went to
New York to have her voice tried, and she had taken but a few lessons of
the late Dr. Damrosch when Mrs. William E. Sinn persuaded her to join
the chorus of Edward E. Rice's "Pinafore" company for the sake of the
experience on the stage. This connection lasted about two months and was
terminated by her first matrimonial experience, her marriage to Harry
Braham, the musical director of the company. She retired from the stage
for a time, but her domestic happiness did not last long. It then became
a matter of necessity for her to get an engagement, and she applied in
vain to such managers as McCaull and D'Oley Carte, who could find
nothing in her voice to warrant them in giving her a chance.
She finally succeeded in getting a position in a curious way. She was
living in a theatrical boarding-house, and among her fellow-boarders was
a girl who was engaged by Tony Pastor for a specialty act in his
theatre, which at that time was situated on Broadway opposite Niblo's
Garden. While calling at the house one day to complete some business
transactions with this young woman, the variety manager heard Miss
Russell singing in a neighboring room. He asked who she was and said he
wanted to meet her. He did meet her, and at once offered her fifty
dollars a week to sing ballads at his theatre. Fifty dollars a week was
a good salary in those days, and the following Monday saw the name of
Lillian Russell, "the English ballad singer," described as one of the
leading attractions on the programme.
"I was very cool and collected up to the time that I heard the first
note of the orchestra," wrote Miss Russell, in describing her first
experience at Pastor's. "From that moment until I had finished my third
song, however, I was practically in a trance. I was told afterward that
I did splendidly, but to this day I cannot tell what occurred after I
went on the stage until I reached my dressing-room and donned my street
clothes."
She sung with considerable success such well-known songs as "The Kerry
Dance" and "Twickenham Ferry." "The Kerry Dance," in fact, created a bit
of a sensation. It was a style of vocal music quite new at that time in
the variety theatres. When Mr. Pastor introduced his stage burlesques
on "Olivette," "The Pirates of Penzance," and other popular operettas,
Miss Russell took part in them, and she also appeared in Pastor's
condensed version of "Patience."
Then Colonel John A. McCaull enticed Miss Russell away from Mr. Pastor's
by means of a larger salary, and she sang under his management in "The
Snake Charmer" at the Bijou Opera House. Her next engagement was with a
company under the management of Frank Sanger. It was a strong
organization, and some of its members were Willie Edouin, Alice
Atherton, Jacob Kruger, Lena Merville, and Marion Elmore. Its tour
extended straight through the country to California; and the experience
that Miss Russell gained with the distinguished artists of the company
was invaluable to her.
A season of concert work was followed by her engagement at the New York
Casino, and her appearance in the "The Sorcerer" and "The Princess of
Trebizonde." At this period in her career another man interfered, and
the fair Lillian disappeared from the Casino, as did also Edward--they
called him Teddy--Solomon, the leader of the orchestra. The couple went
to England, where they remained two years, Miss Russell appearing in two
operas which Solomon wrote for her,--"Virginia" at the Gaiety Theatre
and "Polly" at the London Novelty Theatre.
Miss Russell left Solomon when she learned that another woman claimed to
be his wife and returned to the United States. She joined the Duff Opera
Company, with which she remained until May, 1888, when she again resumed
her place at the head of the New York Casino forces, singing first the
Princess in "Nadjy," the part originated by Isabelle Urquhart, when the
opera was first produced in New York. The revival ran for something like
two hundred nights; and the popular "Nadjy" was succeeded by "The
Brigands," which was also very successful.
The years of her greatest success already referred to then followed.
During the season of 1897-98 Miss Russell appeared with Della Fox and
Jefferson DeAngelis in "The Wedding Day;" and her last appearances in
opera were in April, 1899, in "La Belle Helene" with Edna Wallace
Hopper. During the season of 1899-1900, Miss Russell was with the Weber
and Fields Company, whose clever burlesques make life in New York so
merry.
Miss Russell was recently asked which one of the many operas in which
she had appeared was her favorite.
"'The Grand Duchess,'" she replied emphatically. "That, to my mind, was
one of the best comic operas ever written. Then I had a beautiful part
in 'Girofle-Girofla' and 'La Perichole,' but 'The Grand Duchess' was my
favorite."
[Illustration: LILLIAN RUSSELL
As "The Queen of Brilliants."]
Miss Russell also described interestingly her methods of working up a
part:--
"How do I study my parts? Well, every one has his or her own peculiar
idea of study and rehearsal, but the true artist always arrives at the
same result, with the aid of a clever stage manager and musical
conductor. When a part is handed to me, generally six weeks before the
opening night, I read it through carefully, picture myself in different
positions in the several scenes, and then I separate the music from the
dialogue and study the music first. The majority of the operas in which
I have recently appeared are of the French or Viennese school, and in
the translation there will sometimes appear a word or a sentence that
does not harmoniously fit the music. Of course this must be altered
before it is finally committed to memory. Then, again, we are all
inclined to think ourselves wise enough to improve upon the composer's
work, and where a chance is found to introduce a phrase to show one's
voice to better advantage, as a rule, the opportunity is not neglected.
"After I become thoroughly conversant with the music, I take up the
study of the dialogue. This, to a comic opera singer, is the hardest
task of all; for it is written in the blue book that an interpreter of
comic opera cannot act. The desire to overcome this prejudice often has
a disastrous result; and instead of doing justice to the role and one's
self, the fear of adverse criticism will be so overpowering that the
delivery of the dialogue, and the attempt to convey the author's idea to
the audience, become extremely painful alike to the auditor and the
artist. A great many times I have formed my own conception of a part
only to find myself entirely in the wrong at the first rehearsal; and
then to undo what I had done and to grasp the new idea would confuse me
for several days."
To complete the Russell marriage record, it should be added that in
January, 1894, during the run of "The Princess Nicotine," she became the
wife of the tenor of the company, Signor Giovanni Perugini, known in
private life as John Chatterton. This marriage also resulted unhappily,
and was followed by a separation and a divorce.