An exhibition of Margaret Burke Sheridan's personal effects, curated by Anne Chambers (left), gives glimpses of the great singer's exotic life, writes Deirdre McQuillan
WHEN ANNE Chambers was growing up in Castlebar, Co Mayo, and a great Beatles fan, her father would ask her why she didn't listen to her famous neighbour, the diva Margaret Burke Sheridan, instead. "I would occasionally hear her voice on scratchy old records," recalls Chambers, little realising then that she would later become the biographer of the legendary soprano, a past pupil like herself of the Convent of Mercy in Castlebar.
Chamber's book, Adorable Diva, was published in l989 to coincide with the centenary of Burke Sheridan's birth. It took years of research retracing the singer's footsteps around the opera houses of Italy and London and interviewing more than 60 people who remembered the remarkable "Maggie from Mayo", a bigger star in opera than John McCormack.
Chambers discovered the artist that so enthralled audiences and critics, but the woman behind the voice remained enigmatic, her personal life "always under a cloak of secrecy". It was only when she came across a collection of Burke Sheridan's personal effects and memorabilia in boxes rescued from a London auction in l962 by the late Lord Oranmore and Browne, that a real picture of the diva began to emerge. Letters, invitations, contracts, photographs, including a telegram from Eustace Blois, managing director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with the words "ti adoro", told their own story of her private life.
Next Wednesday, as part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Burke Sheridan's death in 1958, a selection of items from this collection, including some historic operatic costumes, goes on display at the Italian Institute. From her renowned roles in Puccini's operas such as Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut and La Boheme, the costumes include a number of kimonos, the most outstanding being one in silk with detailed gold embroidery depicting scenes from Japanese life, which was a gift from the Emperor of Japan to the famous Italian soprano, Maria Farneti. Farneti in turn presented it to Maggie in Milan in 1919.
Chambers says she feels "responsible" for keeping Burke Sheridan's memory and achievements alive. "I discovered her hidden in these boxes. When you think of her lonely death, you realise that she was living the Puccini roles she performed on stage in her personal life. I could see where the mirror cracks a bit from living so long with her personal effects. "
The exhibition is part of a number of commemorative events taking place, concluding with a special musical tribute in the National Concert Hall on May 14th.
Burke Sheridan's rise to fame and international success is the stuff of melodrama, a story of triumph and tragedy. Daughter of a postmaster who died when she was 11, she was sent to boarding school in Eccles Street, Dublin, where she studied singing, won a gold medal in the Feis Ceoil and later a bursary to continue her studies in London. She became a popular soirée songstress in smart London circles and was spotted by the celebrated inventor Marconi, who took her to Italy to pursue her operatic ambitions.
Her big break came in l918 when, with only four days' notice, she made her dramatic debut in Rome as Mimi in La Boheme. Thus began a stellar career that led to La Scala, where she was conducted by Toscanini, trained by Puccini, partnered Gigli and to Covent Garden where she replaced Dame Nelly Melba. The Italians called her "Butterfly Insuperabile" and she fell in love with Italy as much as it did with her. Lucrative US offers were declined, decisions which she later regretted. "I remember standing in the wings of La Scala in the same position as she would have been before her debut in 1918 and looking out at the huge crimson and gilt seating all banked up and the baroque ceilings and the lights, and I thought about this girl from Mayo seizing her chance after four days' training going like a Christian to the lions in a musical sense. Imagine the sheer terror of somebody whose confidence was not high." Chambers brings the moment alive with feeling.
Burke Sheridan was famously tempestuous and headstrong, a real prima donna known for her sense of humour and caustic wit, but she was also lonely and spent her life in rented accommodation and hotel rooms, dependent on rich US benefactors, particularly after medical and emotional problems brought the curtain down on her career. "There's no place like home," she used to say, "especially when you don't have one."
Her abrupt retirement from the opera stage in 1932 was as dramatic as her debut, according to Chambers. "She had a lot of the butterfly about her, she flitted around, and the only constant in her life was Italy. She had a long and lonely return [to Ireland] and a long drawn-out illness [from cancer], but she really faced up to herself when she was dying."
Burke Sheridan made her final exit on April 16th, l958 in the Pembroke Nursing Home, Dublin, on the eve of the opening of the Dublin Grand Opera Society's presentation of Manon Lescaut by the visiting Italian Opera Company. The timing was perfect. She is buried in Glasnevin.
La Sheridan Adorabile Diva(March 19th-April 19th) is at the Italian Cultural Institute, 11 Fitzwilliam Square East, Dublin