Geraldine Farrar

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Lore & Background

Farrar was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, the daughter of baseball player Sidney Farrar. She began studying music at age five and by 14 was giving recitals. She studied voice with Emma Thursby in New York City, in Paris, and with Francesco Graziani in Berlin. Farrar created a sensation at the Berlin Hofoper with her debut as Marguerite in Charles Gounod's Faust in 1901 and remained with the company for three years, continuing her studies with Lilli Lehmann. Her admirers in Berlin included Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, with whom she is believed to have had a relationship beginning in 1903. Farrar made her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in Roméo et Juliette on November 26, 1906. She appeared in the title role in the first Met performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1907 and remained a member until her retirement in 1922, singing 29 roles there in 672 performances. She created the title roles in Mascagni's Amica (Monte Carlo, 1905), Puccini's Suor Angelica (New York, 1918), Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne (New York, 1915), and the Goosegirl in Humperdinck's Königskinder (New York, 1910), for which she trained her own flock of geese. At the close of the first performance, the New York Tribune reported, "Miss Farrar caused 'much amusement' by appearing before the curtain with a live goose under her arm."

Reader's Guide

Geraldine Farrar's significance lies in her dual success in grand opera and silent film. At the Metropolitan Opera, she was a major draw, especially among New York's young female opera-goers, known as "Gerry-flappers." Her approach to opera emphasized dramatic ability over pure vocal perfection; according to her biographer, she believed "until prime donne can combine the arts of Sarah Bernhardt and Nellie Melba, dramatic ability is more essential than perfect singing in opera." Her film career, launched by producer Jesse Lasky in 1915, was regarded as "the most sensational coup in motion-picture history" at the time. All six of her Lasky films were directed by Cecil B. DeMille, with whom she hit it off perfectly. She starred in more than a dozen films from 1915 to 1920, including DeMille's 1915 adaptation of Carmen. For her performance, she came in first among women in the 1916 "Screen Masterpiece" contest held by Motion Picture Magazine. She personally ranked her finest screen role as Joan of Arc in the 1916 film Joan the Woman. Farrar recorded prodigiously for the Victor Talking Machine Company and made her debut radio broadcast over NBC's nationwide "Red" network in June 1931. In 1960, she was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the music and film categories.

Did You Know?

• Farrar trained her own flock of geese for her role as the Goosegirl in Humperdinck's Königskinder, and at the first performance appeared before the curtain with a live goose under her arm.
• She created the title role in the first Met performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1907.
• Her marriage to actor Lou Tellegen on February 8, 1916, ended in a very public divorce in 1923 after his numerous affairs; when told of his suicide in 1934, she reportedly said, 'Why should that interest me?'
• Farrar gave between 25 and 35 performances each season at the Met alone, including 95 appearances as Madama Butterfly and 58 as Carmen in 16 seasons.
• She published an unusual autobiography in 1938 titled Such Sweet Compulsion, written in alternating chapters purporting to be her own words and those of her deceased mother.