Background

Grace Moore was born on December 5, 1898, in the community of Slabtown (now considered part of Del Rio) in Cocke County, Tennessee, the first of four children of Richard L. Moore, Sr. , a Scots-Irish traveling salesman from Murphy, North Carolina, and Tessie Jane Stokely. Four years after the birth of Mary Willie Grace Moore, the family moved to Knoxville and then to Jellico, Tennessee, where her father was a partner in a dry goods company.

Education

Moore was educated in Tennessee public schools and briefly at Ward-Belmont College in Nashville. She then went to the Wilson-Greens School of Music in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Career

After making her public singing debut in a recital program at the National Theatre, Washington, D. C. , in 1919, she left school and went to New York City, where she sang in a nightclub to pay for vocal lessons.

Following appearances in Suite Sixteen, Just a Minute, and Up in the Clouds, Moore made her Broadway debut in the 1920 edition of the revue Hitchy-Koo, which featured Jerome Kern’s music. She then sang in Town Gossip and went to Paris to train for a career on the operatic stage. Moore circulated easily in café society. When she had exhausted her funds, she returned to Broadway to star in Irving Berlin’s Music Box Revue of 1923. In 1925 she went back to France, where the opera singer Mary Garden, long her idol and now her friend, recommended her to operatic coach Richard Barthelemy. Auditioning for Giulio Catti-Casazza in 1927, Moore finally won a contract with the Metropolitan Opera.

Her Met and operatic debut occurred in February 1928, when she sang Mimi in La Bohème to a warm reception. Later she sang in Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and then made a European tour. After singing Juliette at Deauville, Moore made a highly successful Paris debut as Mimi at the Opéra-Comique in 1928. In the next few seasons at the Met she sang in Carmen, Tosca, Manon, Faust, Pagliacci, Gianni Schicchi, and others.

Moore went to Hollywood in 1930 and subsequently appeared in the films A Lady’s Morals (1930), a biography of Jenny Lind, and New Moon (1931). In 1932 she returned to Broadway in the operetta The Dubarry. Back in Hollywood she won the starring role in One Night of Love (1934), a film that features a pioneering attempt to record operatic works with full orchestra. Her other films include Love Me Forever (1935), The King Steps Out (1936), When You’re in Love (1937), and I’ll Take Romance (1937).

Moore continued in opera throughout her film career. She made her London debut at Covent Garden in La Bohème in June 1935 to tremendous ovations. She starred in a film version of Louise (1938) in France and then performed it at the Met the following year. In 1941 she sang L’amore dei tre re. Radio broadcasts and public appearances further increased her popularity. During World War II she made numerous appearances at bond rallies, benefits, and army camp shows, for which she was decorated by several governments. Her autobiography, You’re Only Human Once, appeared in 1944. Grace Moore died on January 26, 1947, in an airplane crash in Copenhagen following a command performance there.

Achievements

• Grace Moore has been listed as a noteworthy soprano. by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

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  • A Lady's Morals (1930) (MOD)

    (This decorous if provocatively titled meeting of two song...)

  • The Victorian Novel in Context (Texts @ Contexts)

    ( This book introduces students to the Victorian novel an...)

  • Italo Montemezzi : L'amore Dei Tre Re ( Love of Three Kings ) - Ezio Pinza , Grace Moore ; Metropolitan Opera 2/15/41 Montemezzi, Cond. ( Eklipse Cd's )

    (rare live historic performance of the Italo Montemezzi ve...)

  • Louise (Charpentier)

    (This film adaptation of Gustave Charpentier's Louise was ...)

  • Jane Eyre (Knickerbocker Classics)

    ( Explore Charlotte Bronte's world full of shocking secre...)

  • So This Is Love
  • Without Your Love
  • I'll Take Romance
  • Grace Moore In Opera And Song
  • One Night of Love

Views

Quotations: "Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career. "

Membership

Grace Moore was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1940 to 1942. In addition, Moore was also made a life member of the Tennessee State Society of Washington, District of Columbia.

Connections

On July 15, 1931, Grace Moore married Valentín Parera, a Spanish movie actor, in Cannes. They had no children.

Father:

Richard Lawson Moore, Sr.

Mother:

Tessie Jane Moore (Stokely)

Sister:

Estel Carver Moore

Sister:

Anna Catherine Moore

Brother:

Martin Stokely Moore

Brother:

James Leslie Moore

Brother:

Herbert Briscoe Moore

Brother:

Richard Lawson Moore, Jr.

husband:

Valentín Parera

Valentín Parera was a Spanish actor who appeared in both silent and sound films in the 1920s and 1930s.

Friend:

Mary Garden

Mary Garden was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century.