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Appreciation: Frances Bible

Frances Bible 1950s

The great American mezzo-soprano Frances Bible passed away on January 29 at the age of 80. She was renown for her lush voice and her captivating stage presence. Ms. Bible's appearances in opera, concert and recital took her around the world.

A 1965 biography distributed by her management called her artistry "14-carat musicianship with sterling dramatic ability" and said, "she is beautiful, electric and superbly musicianly, one of the best all-around singers and best opera personalities of our time." Below, Cori Ellison traces her New York City Opera career and long-time colleague and friend, baritone Chester Ludgin, remembers Ms. Bible and their many performances together.

Among her performances at the San Francisco Opera, her Octavian in Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier (performed in three seasons) set the standard. Her assumption of the role of Evadne, Cressida's servant, in the American premiere of William Walton's Troilus and Cressida (1955) stands out. (Her colleagues in those performances included Dorothy Kirsten and Richard Lewis in the title roles, and Giorgio Tozzi, Robert Weede, and Ernest McChesney, Erich Leinsdorf conducting.)

A 1959 recital Ms. Bible gave in San Francisco gives evidence of her art and her versatility: she opened the program with "Parto, parto" from Mozart's opera, La clemenza di Tito, followed with two songs each of Schubert and Wolf, and closed the first half with "Nacqui all'affano" from Rossini's La Cenerentola. The second half featured a group of French songs (Hahn, Saint-Saens, Faure), and songs by Respighi, Del Valle de Paz, Ginastera and Obradors. She ended the printed program with five English and American songs. (The conscientious person who saved the program noted that her encores were "Voi che sapete" from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and the Appalachian folk song, "Go way from my window."

When we spoke to Gwendolyn Jones for the Little Women features, she told us, "I saw Frances Bible on the televised Ballad of Baby Doe years ago and I immediately dashed off a fan letter. She was Augusta Tabor in every way. I'll never forget seeing her on stage sitting on a couch with that ramrod-straight spine and saying, 'He will rue the day he was every born,' referring to Horace. She was an inspiration to all of us."

Cori Ellison Traces Frances Bible's Career

(This article was originally published in the New York City Opera edition of Stagebill.)

In its 57-year history, New York City Opera has developed so many fine singing actors that it's hard to single one out. But in honoring the late mezzo-soprano Frances Bible, NYCO honors all that it values most in an artist -- sumptuous vocalism, vivid stage presence, team spirit, versatility, humanity, and good old American pluck.

Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte with Phylis Curtin and Judith Raskin, New York City Opera

By all accounts, Frances Bible was eagerly anticipating an April visit to New York City Opera, to participate in events surrounding our new production of The Ballad of Baby Doe, and to reconnect with old friends. But Fate had a different idea, and the perennially robust Bible died suddenly on January 29, just three days after her eighty-second birthday. NYCO will dedicate its April 19 performance of Baby Doe to her beloved memory, and many of her friends will gather here on that evening to celebrate her remarkable life and career.

Bible's ashes will rest in the waters of Lake Ontario, near her birthplace, Sackets Harbor, New York. An "army brat" who spent part of her childhood in Hawaii, "Frannie," as she was universally known, was an overachiever who studied piano, played violin in a string quartet, and played the organ at a local church -- not to mention leading her school's girls' fencing team. Encouraged by her church choir director to train her voice, Bible won a scholarship to The Juilliard School where, as a bachelors' and masters' degree student from 1939-47, she studied with Queena Mario, a celebrated Metropolitan Opera soprano of the 1920s and 30s.

Bible began her career at Chautauqua Opera, but made her first big splash in a Juilliard production of Cosi fan tutte, after which Mario phoned NYCO to get her an audition. A day after graduation, Bible sang for NYCO's first General Director, Laszlo Haldsz, who promptly signed her up.

Augusta Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe with Walter Cassell, New York City Opera

Bible began her NYCO career much as kids fresh out of Juilliard still do today. On opening night of the Fall 1948 season, she made her debut, heard but not seen, as the Shepherd in Tosca, and spent the rest of that season filling roles like the also-unseen Priestess in Aïda, Mercedes in Carmen, and Lola in Cavalleria rusticana. As a bonus, she became NYCO's first Cherubino [in The Marriage of Figaro] on October 14, 1948. The following season, she sang two tiny roles in the first of NYCO's many world premieres, Troubled Island by William Grant Still.

During Bible's NYCO debut season, Virgil Thomson wrote in the Herald Tribune, "She has a voice of rich and striking beauty." The New Yorker called her "one of the supreme artists singing anywhere today." And the Long Island Press later wrote, "No star at the City Opera has ever outshone that of its glorious dramatic mezzo Frances Bible," going on to cite her "unique artistry and a voice of molten splendor."

Bible's first big career breakthrough came in Fall 1949, when she sang Octavian in NYCO's first Der Rosenkavalier. This role, which she learned in four weeks, became her favorite, whisking her to triumphs in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Karlsruhe, and on the NBC Opera. Bible was soon in demand for opera, symphony, and recital engagements worldwide, including Vienna, London, Dublin, Canada, Australia, and most major American cities, under conductors such as Bernstein, Leinsdorf, Mehta, Ormandy, Schippers, Shaw, and Stokowski. Her 1962 Glyndebourne debut as Cherubino led to her re-engagement the next summer as Ottavia in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, a performance preserved on an EMI recording.

Bible's dazzling resume features one glaring omission -- the Metropolitan Opera. Only a few seasons after Bible's NYCO debut, Rudolf Bing, the Met's General Manager, was already beating a path to her door. Her over-eager agent hastily accepted the Met's offer, conveniently forgetting Bible's already-signed NYCO contract for the same time period. In a letter to Bing, dated April 28, 1950, Haldsz wrote: "I spoke with Miss Bible at great length as to her feelings ... and just as I expected, she upheld my contention that a contract holds not only on a legal but on an ethical basis, which will give you some indication of what a very fine person she is." As many an artist (including Maria Callas) would discover, clemency was not among Bing's virtues. "Now you will never sing here," he sternly declared.

Octavian in Der Rosenkavelier, San Francisco Opera

The Met's loss was NYCO's gain. Bible went onto to make NYCO history as the company's first Hansel, Mignon, Ottavia, Lucretia, Neris in Medée, and Dorabella in the legendary 1959 Cosi fan tutte co-starring Phyllis Curtin, Judith Raskin, John Alexander, John Reardon, and James Pease. The versatile Bible also gave NYCO cherishable renditions of Siebel in Faust, Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann, Genevieve in Pelléas et Melisande, Amneris in Aïda, UIrica in Un ballo in maschera, Jocasta in Oedipus Rex, Suzuki in Madame Butterfly, the Principessa in Suor Angelica, Herodias in Salome, and both Cornelia and Sesto in Giulio Cesare. In 1953, at the urging of the great Italian maestro Tullio Serafin, NYCO mounted, especially for Bible, La Cenerentola, which had not been performed professionally in the U.S. for 125 years.

Bible also created memorable roles in NYCO world premieres, including Frade in Tamkin's The Dybbuk and Elizabeth Proctor in Ward's The Crucible, captured on an Albany recording. But she is doubtless best remembered for being not the first but perhaps the greatest Augusta Tabor in Baby Doe, which she first performed during the opera's premiere run in Central City in 1956. After its NYCO premiere in 1958, she sang Augusta here during nine seasons, starred in a 1976 telecast, and made the classic recording, recently issued on CD by Deutsche Grammophon, with Beverly Sills and Walter Cassel.

By the time of Bible's final NYCO performance, on November 5, 1977, as Ottavia, she had sung here for thirty years, in forty roles, rarely missing a season. Claiming that she wanted to "stop before people start throwing rocks at me," she became artist-in-residence at the Shepherd School of Music of Rice University in Houston, where she taught from 1975-1991. In 1991, she retired to Hemet, California, where she died.

Frances Bible is survived by a Great Dane called Zeus and a "mostly" Australian shepherd named Fiedi, as well as many friends, countless fans, and her NYCO family, past and present.

Cori Ellison is dramaturg at New York City Opera.

Some Remembrances of Frances Bible
by Chester Ludgin

Frances Bible, circa 1964

I joined the roster of The New York City Opera Company in the fall of 1957. My second season with the company, the spring of 1958, was a season of American operas exclusively. One of those operas was to be the first production of Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe since its world premiere in Central City, Colorado in 1956. There was a great deal of excitement on the part of the New York opera-going audiences in anticipation of the many Baby Doe performances scheduled for that and succeeding seasons.

It's hard to avoid the thought that one of the reasons for the great popularity of this wonderful opera was the three-dimensional characterization that Frances Bible gave to the role of Augusta Tabor. She sang the role beautifully and with great conviction, and every word was clearly understood! Before I graduated to the role of Horace Tabor, I did two small roles in that first City Opera Baby Doe season: the Bouncer and the Denver Politician. But it was in my many performances of the role of Horace Tabor that I was given the golden opportunity of appearing opposite Frances Bible. Being on stage with her was always an enriching experience. She was always so totally in the role that, in doing a scene with her, the other performer would automatically get caught up in the drama. I'm sure I learned a great deal about performing simply by being in the presence of Frances in the many performances I did with her.

I had the remarkably good fortune of appearing in seven operas with Ms. Bible, and in each one I can't remember ever witnessing a superior performance of her mezzo-soprano roles! Besides The Ballad of Baby Doe, we sang together in Der Rosenkavalier, Martha, The Marriage of Figaro, Aïda, Die Fledermaus, and of course, The Crucible.

Special mention must be made of Robert Ward's The Crucible. The world premiere took place in the fall season of 1961 at The New York City Opera. At that time, New York City had eight or nine daily newspapers, and in each day's editions there would be articles and photos of the protagonists of The Crucible. There was a great deal of advance excitement and curiosity before our world premiere. I was John Proctor and Frances Bible was my wife, Elizabeth Proctor. Those two roles are among the greatest written in any voice category! In the last scene, John Proctor rises to heroic heights: if he signs a (false) confession, whereby he would incriminate himself and others of witchcraft, he would be allowed to live. But, he decides that he cannot do it and destroys the confession, knowing that he will hang. The scene is highly emotional for Proctor, and he looks to Elizabeth for support. To begin with, in those last moments I always felt that I had to steel myself to avoid weeping. I would be looking into the face of Frances Bible as Elizabeth, and by that time her eyes were a waterfall! So, instead of looking into her eyes, I would focus on an imaginary spot on her forehead.

There is no doubt in my mind that if this were a just world, Frances Bible would have starred regularly in all the great opera houses of the world! She was a great and a supportive colleague, and, I hope I can say, a friend. I will miss her!!

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Chester Ludgin, circa 1964

Baritone Chester Ludgin was noted for his "imposing stage figure and dignity [and] his splendid voice." In 1964, The New Yorker called him "one of the greatest singing actors before the public today."

Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Ludgin was extremely proud that he was trained entirely in the United States. He was a member of the New York City Opera and San Francisco Opera companies and made guest appearances in major houses around the world. His repertory included Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, the title role in Rigoletto, Iago in Otello, Telramund in Lohengrin, Kurvenal in Tristan und Isolde, Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West and Scarpia in Tosca. He scored a major triumph in the title role of Boris Godunof in San Francisco when he stepped in on short notice to replace an ailing George London for an entire run of performances. Mr. Ludgin spent eight consecutive summers with Central City (Colorado) Opera performing a variety of American and standard roles, including singing Amonasro to the Aïda of Beverly Sills.

Mr. Ludgin participated in twelve world premieres, notably Andrew Imbrie's Angle of Repose (based on the Wallace Stegner novel) for San Francisco and Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place for Houston. But it is his creation of the role of John Proctor in Robert Ward's The Crucible that must stand as a major career highlight. He also sang in numerous musical theater productions, including Kismet, The Most Happy Fella and South Pacific.

Robert Commanday of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote of Mr. Ludgin, "If he's not in the opera, he's in the opera house. His straight-backed, towering figure can be seen at the rear of the orchestra section, applauding like mad and cheering his working colleagues. In short, Ludgin is a member of the family."

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Beverly Sills adds: "The only time I hated playing Baby Doe was when Frances Bible was singing Augusta Tabor. She made me want to murder Baby Doe for being the other woman. In a way, Frannie helped me to shape Baby Doe's character because I realized every woman in the audience was on Augusta's side. She was a wonderful colleague with a gorgeous voice. She was also a great pal and I will miss her."

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Beverly Sills sang with Frances Bible in the famous New York City Opera production of The Ballad of Baby Doe. The two can be heard together on the Deutsche Grammaphon recording.