Background

Helen Francesca Traubel was born on June 16, 1899 in St. Louis, Mo. , to a prominent family of German descent. She was the daughter of Otto Traubel, a pharmacist with wide-ranging community and cultural interests, and Clara Stuhr, known locally as a concert and church singer.

As children Helen and her older brother, Walter, attended numerous cultural events, including dramas presented in German at the St. Louis Apollo Theater, founded by her maternal grandfather.

Education

Traubel attended public school, leaving after her sophomore year to concentrate on her singing. She received her vocal training in St. Louis starting at the age of thirteen from Louise Vetta-Karst, a brilliant voice teacher.

Still not satisfied with her voice, Traubel studied for a year with Giuseppi Boghetti.

She received honorary doctorates from the University of Missouri and the University of Southern California.

Career

Traubel first performed professionally as a teenager in the Pilgrim Congregational Church choir, where she sang from time to time until the mid-1930's. She made her concert debut with Rudolph Ganz and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on December 13, 1924, performing in Mahler's Symphony No. 4, and she sang again with the orchestra on tour in the Midwest, in the South, and at New York City's Lewisohn Stadium in 1926.

After these successful concert performances, Traubel was offered an audition for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the operatic holy of holies, by general director Giullo Gatti-Casazza, but she declined, returning instead to her home city for more study with Vetta-Karst.

She continued to confine herself to local engagements, including an appearance in the St. Louis Sangerfest in 1934, during which she performed under the direction of conductor and composer Walter Damrosch. Damrosch was so impressed with Traubel's singing that he rewrote his opera The Man Without a Country to include a new part, that of Mary Rutledge, designed specifically for Traubel.

Traubel finally had her debut at the Metropolitan Opera when The Man Without a Country premiered there on May 12, 1937. Critical acclaim for her singing led to a contract offer from the Met, but she turned it down. She did, however, accept a contract with the National Broadcasting Company, which gave her the chance to perform regularly on national radio and to make herself known to a broader public than habitués of the opera.

She made her New York City Town Hall debut recital on October 8, 1939. Her impressive performance at Town Hall signaled her elevation to the first ranks of American opera. It was followed by an equally impressive concert performance at Carnegie Hall just two weeks later. On December 28, 1939, she gave her second performance at the Metropolitan Opera, this time playing Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre, and thereafter became a star at the Met.

Traubel was highly acclaimed throughout her career for her stage presence and the brilliance of her vocal technique. She was judged to be the best American Wagnerian soprano since Lillian Nordica. She shared the Wagnerian spotlight with Flagstad before and after World War II but held it by herself during the war years, when Flagstad, a Norwegian, returned to her homeland. Traubel was the first American-trained soprano to sing the roles of Brunhilde and Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera, and her reputation as the principal Wagnerian soprano was secure throughout the 1940's. Even though Flagstad's absence gave her the opportunity to perform these important and difficult roles during World War II, her own fluent vocal technique, warm tone, and striking stage presence combined to demonstrate her right to assume Flagstad's mantle.

Throughout the years of Traubel's career American opera critics and audiences naturally assumed that European operatic training was essential for a career in this country. Thus, her accomplishments and widespread acclaim are all the more remarkable because she did not seek out European training or even performing experience. Indeed, Traubel first sang outside the United States only in 1940 and 1941 on a transcontinental tour that included appearances in Canada. Eventually, however, she performed all over Europe, in Cuba, in Mexico, and in South America. In the early 1950's she made two world tours, including a triumphant appearance in Japan.

Although Helen Traubel was known principally as a Wagnerian soprano, she expanded her repertoire to include the role of the Marshallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in 1951.

She also made numerous concert appearances and was the first singer to record with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings, recitals, and national radio broadcasts for the Ford Motor Company and the Bell Telephone Company, along with performances in nightclubs, in films, and on television, added to her immense popularity. However, when she appeared with such nonoperatic personalities as Groucho Marx and Jimmy Durante, she aroused the ire of Rudolph Bing, the Metropolitan Opera's general manager, who felt that such appearances tarnished her reputation as a serious artist. As a result of her dispute with Bing, Traubel refused to return to the Met for the 1953 season.

Thereafter she continued to pursue her diverse musical and cultural interests, which included appearances in the film Deep in My Heart (1954), the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Pipe Dream (1955), and the film Gunn (1967). In addition, she served as Margaret Truman's vocal coach.

Although Traubel's vocal flexibility became limited at the top of her range as she aged, she retained her presence and tone and was very popular with varied audiences in concert, on radio and television, and in clubs.

In 1950, Traubel released her first effort at fiction writing, a mystery story called The Ptomaine Canary, syndicated by the Associated Press and published privately. In 1951, she published The Metropolitan Opera Murder, which earned a degree of critical acclaim for its inside portrait of the Met backstage. In 1959, she published her autobiography, St. Louis Woman.

Traubel died in Santa Monica, Calif.

Achievements

• Helen Francesca Traubel was a dramatic soprano, she is best known for her Wagnerian roles, especially those of Brünnhilde and Isolde. Helen Traubel received many honors throughout her career, including recognition by the New York Tau Alpha chapter of the Mu Phi Epsilon honorary musical society for the outstanding performance of 1939 and 1942; a citation of merit from the National Association of American Composers and Conductors; and the King Christian X (of Denmark) Medal of Liberation. The Associated Press named her Woman of the Year in Music twice, and she received an award from the New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. For her contribution to the recording industry, Helen Traubel has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6422 Hollywood Blvd. In 1994 she was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Helen Traubel: The Great American Soprano LP VG++/NM USA Odyssey Columbia

    (Tracklist: • A1 Divinites Du Styx • A2 Du Bist Der Le...)

  • The Metropolitan Opera Murders

    (When the prompter falls dead during the second act of Ric...)

  • The Great American Soprano: Helen Traubel / Arias From Don Giovanni, Alceste, Die Walkure, Lohengrin, La Gioconda and a Recital of Songs

    (The Great American Soprano: Helen Traubel / Arias From Do...)

  • Helen Traubel & Lauritz Melchior Sing Wagner

    (During the 1940s, Helen Traubel and Lauritz Melchior rule...)

  • The Magnificent Voice Of Helen Traubel
  • Lebendige Vergangenheit - Helen Traubel (Vol.2)
  • St. Louis Woman by Helen Traubel (1999-03-24)
  • Arias
  • The ptomaine canary
  • Wagner: Tristan & Isolde (Buenos Aires 1943)
  • Lebendige Vergangenheit - Helen Traubel
  • Helen Traubel In Concert
  • Helen Traubel - Portraits in Memory

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  An avid baseball fan throughout her life, she purchased an interest in the St. Louis Browns. Traubel was once the part owner of her hometown team, the St. Louis Browns.

Connections

Helen Traubel was married twice. An early marriage at age nineteen to St. Louis businessman Louis F. Carpenter soon ended in divorce. In October 1938, she married her business manager, William Bass. She never had any children.

Father:

Otto Traubel

He was a pharmacist with wide-ranging community and cultural interests.

Mother:

Clara Stuhr

She was known locally as a concert and church singer.

Spouse (2):

William Bass

Spouse (1):

Louis F. Carpenter

References

• The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians
• The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia
• 1947 Helen Traudel Dramatic Soprano Opera Booking Ad - Original Booking Ad
• Famous American Women: A Biographical Dictionary from Colonial Times to the Present