Olive Middleton
The Recorded Legacy
BORN TO SING
from OPERA NEWS: March 5, 1966
By F.S.
For the past five years a durable British soprano named Olive Middleton has reigned as "prima donna assoluta" of the La Puma Opera Workshop, an educational non-profit organization devoted to the advancement of singers. Its recent Aida at the Palm Gardens, a ballroom on West Fifty-Second
Street, drew an extraordinary audience of flamboyant young men, obviously devoted to the diva. They come to be conquered,. From Miss Middleton's first appearance, in a costume of orange fringe and gold sequins, she had her fans at her feet. Through several of the singers were, as the program indicated, "aspiring," the soprano showed herself to be a finished performer.
Several days later, OEPRA NEWS interviewed her in the lovely Manhattan apartment she shares with her husband, Alfred Middleton, who also acts as her voice teacher. A petite lady with vibrant brown eyes and short rust locks, Miss Middleton seemed delighted. "I'm a shy person," she confided. "Actually, this is my very first interview." The confession seemed strange for she has enjoyed a long, successful career. A native of England, she studied in Paris with Emma Nevada, the renowned American soprano. Subsequently, Olive and two other Nevada pupils went to London to seek their fortunes. At the Aldwych Theater, with the redoubtable Sir Thomas Beecham conducting, Olive made her debut as heroine of "The Boatswain's Mate", an opera by Dame Ethyl Smyth. Not long after this she sang Musetta, Marguerite and Pamina with the British National Opera Company at Covent Garden; other well-remembered names on the roster included Maggie Teyte and Florence Austral. As to the year of the performances, Miss Middleton grew more confidential: "I don't like dates, my dear. It was... in the '20s."
In London she billed herself as Olive Townend or Townend-Morelli, a combination of her maiden name and her husband's professional name. With the Carl Rosa Company at Covent Garden she sang great performances of Nedda, Mimi and Butterfly; in La boheme her Musetta was another renowned British soprano, Eva Turner. "Sir Thomas later told me, 'You were always my best Susannah,'" recalls Miss Middleton. She expressed a corresponding preference for Sir Thomas, but she also appeared with such distinguished maestros as Eugene Goosens and Albert Coates. She toured Italy and France and sang throughout the British Isles in concert, oratorio and recital.
During the war, the soprano and her husband fled their home in the south of France and, after a year in Portugal, came to America. "Emigrés," sighed Miss Middleton. She sang only occasional opera performances during the forties. "I worked with Tito Spada in Mozartiana, doing excerpts from The Flute, Figaro and Don Giovanni, but I didn't stay at it. Then, in 1951, Maestro Spada asked me to sing the Witch in Hansel and Gretel. I thought the role too heavy for my voice, but he insisted, and actually it suited me very well. That's what started me back in opera. I didn't stay long with Maestro Spada; he considered my voice too high for Donna Anna. I hadn't been with Mrs. La Puma long when she let me sing Donna Anna.
"Really, the best part of my career has been with the La Puma Opera Workshop, my happiest days. Do you know that when I sang Tosca, my audience strewed the stage with roses? Have you heard a Tosca applauded for the lines "Avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma"? Well, I have been, every time; and I've had to learn new roles to please my public. One evening when I was doing Sieglinde, a young man came to my dressing room and asked, 'Madame, do you sing Norma?' I said I didn't. 'Then you must learn it,' came his reply. A year later, he again came to my dressing room, asking sternly, 'Do you know Norma yet?' I'm preparing it, I said, and finally I sang it. It was such a success I had to repeat it three nights in a row!"
At present Olive Middleton is learning Lady Macbeth. "I love to sing. It gives you a chance to be someone else; sometimes you don't like being yourself. That's why I returned to the stage. There's another reason, too. I wanted to die onstage -- drop in my tracks. I've always thought it would be a wonderful way to go. I've died onstage, all night, at the end of almost every opera. Yes, I came back to die -- but so far I've kept on singing."
Here are two mp3s from Act I of Tosca: the first, Tosca's entrance, showing the general tone of La Puma evenings and Mme. Middleton's loyal following, and #2: her short solo, Non la sospiri la nostra casetta.
Olive's Operas
AIDA
2 CDS - $20.00
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ADRIANA LECOUVREUR
2 CDS - $20.00
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FEDORA
Plus a private Birthday Recital
2 CDS - $20.00
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LA FORZA DEL DESTINO
2 CDS - $20.00
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GALA NITE
Cavalleria rustican / Triumphal Scene from Aida
2 CDS - $20.00
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MANON LESCAUT
2 CDS - $20.00
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NORMA
2 CDS - $20.00
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TOSCA
2 CDS - $20.00
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IL TROVATORE
2 CDS - $20.00
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DIE WALKÜRE
3 CDS - $39.00
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THE EARLY ACETATES
Selections of Verdi / Puccini / Ponchielli / Giordano / Gluck / Mozart
Strauss / Debussy and Wagner
1 CD - $10.00
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