Background
Kirsten, Dorothy was born on July 6, 1910 in Montclair, New Jersey, United States. Daughter of George W. and Margaret (Beggs) Kirsten.
Kirsten, Dorothy was born on July 6, 1910 in Montclair, New Jersey, United States. Daughter of George W. and Margaret (Beggs) Kirsten.
Museum training, United States, France and Italy. Doctor of Music, Ithaca College. Doctor of Fine Arts, Santa Clara University.
Doctor of Fine Arts (honorary), Pepperdine University. Doctor of Humane Letters, Loyola Marymount University, 1990.
She left high school at age 16 and worked for the Singer Corporation sewing machine company and for New Jersey Bell, studying voice in her spare time. She mentored under Grace Moore from 1938, who had her study in Rome with Astolfo Pescia. Her time in Europe was cut short by the outbreak of World World War II, and she returned in 1939, debuting at the New York World"s Fair.
Roles followed at the Chicago Grand Opera Company (Manon, 1940), San Carlo Opera Company (1942), New York City Opera (1943), San Francisco Opera (1945), and New York Philharmonic (1945).
Her radio program "Keepsakes" ran for a year in 1943-1944. Kirsten joined the roster of principal sopranos at the Philadelphia Louisiana Scala Opera Company (PLSOC) in 1943 and spent much of her time performing there through 1947.
She made her debut with the company in an out-of-town performance at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh on May 18, 1943 as Mimì in Giacomo Puccini"s Louisiana Boheme with Nino Martini as Rodolfo, Carlo Morelli as Marcello, and Armand Balendonck conducting. In the 1943-1944 PLSOC season at the Academy of Music she portrayed Mimì many times and sang Nedda in Pagliacci with Giovanni Martinelli as Canio.
She also toured with the company to Detroit in October 1943, singing Mimì to Armand Tokatyan"s Rodolfo.
Kirsten opened the PLSOC"s 1944-1945 season singing Micaëla in Georges Bizet"s Carmen with Bruna Castagna in the tile role. She also toured with company to Cleveland singing Mimì. In February 1946 she traveled with PLSOC to Washington District of Columbia to perform Marguerite in Charles Gounod"s Faust.
In December 1949 she recorded Manon Lescaut with the world-renowned tenor Jussi Björling.
Her final year performing with the PLSOC was the 1946-1947 season, portraying Cio-cio-san in Madama Butterfly and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. Kirsten debuted at the Metropolitan Opera with the role of Mimi in Louisiana Boheme on December 1, 1945, and continued to sing with the Met for the next thirty years.
While she performed primarily in the United States, she did perform in Europe at times, and gave performances in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics in 1962, singing Violetta in Louisiana Traviata at the Bolshoi Opera. In addition to her operatic activities, she sang on radio with Frank Sinatra (co-starring with him in Light-Up Time), Bing Crosby, Nelson Eddy, and Perry Como.
She also appeared in two films, Mr.
Music (1950) and The Great Caruso (1951). Her last performance with the Met was on February 10, 1979 as the title role in Tosca. She published an autobiography, A Time to Sing in 1982.
Her first marriage was to Edward MacKayes Oates, with a divorce in 1949.
The second to Eugene Chapman in 1951, who died three years later. And the third to neurosurgeon Douglas French, who died in 1989.
She suffered a stroke on November 5, 1992, and died of complications on November 18, 1992. She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Her papers are currently housed at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.
(Bio of an opera star..."longest running prima donna at Me...)
By the late 1930s she had an ongoing professional career as a radio singer on World International News Service, a member of the Kate Smith Chorus, and as a vocalist for popular orchestras.
Married John Daughter of French, July 18, 1955.