On January 3, 1931, Lily Pons made her debut with the
Metropolitan Opera in New York. The role was Lucia, and the results were
sensational. A new and
great coloratura had appeared. But few in that first glittering audience
in America would have guessed, even as they cheered, the brilliance of
the career
that awaited her or that she was destined to be—to put it simply—the
favourite singor of an age.
The first indications were not long in coming. The summer following her
debut Miss Pons made her first tour of South America and then returned
to France,
where she was awarded the ribbon of the Legion of Honour. Soon she was
decorated by King Leopold of Belgium as well, while in this country we
named a
community after her ; there is now a Lilypons, Maryland.
As her opera career continued, the Metropolitan revived works that had
been long neglected for lack of an artist who could sing the soprano
roles : Lakmé,
La Sonnambula, Le Coq D'Or, Linda di Chamounix, and La Fille du
Regiment. Her brilliance in this last, The Daughter of the Regiment,
caused an imitation
of her costume to be introduced into feminine fashions, and Fort Dix's
71st Regiment, U.S. Army, adopted Miss Pons officially as its regimental
Daughter.
Later on Hollywood beckoned and Lily 'Pons became a movie star. There
were " I Dream Too Much ", " The Girl from Paris ", " Hitting a New High
", and "
Carnegie Hall.
Her fame spread to completely nonmusical fiejds. Two giant locomotives
were named after her, one on the Boston and Maine R.R., the other on the
Central
Railroad of New Jersey. The Olympic Hotel in Seattle began to calure "
duck a la Lily Pons " while thy. Hampshire House in New
York offered " Chicken Lily Pons ". Hats, perfumes and drug store
sundaes were likewise dedicated.
Her appearances during these years were not confined to the Met but
ranged all over the world. She has sung at the Colon, Buenos Aires, with
the San
Francisco Opera and in Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia, as well as
Canada, Australia, Europe and the British Isles. Gilda in Rigoletto,
Rosina in II Barbiere,
Olympie in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Philine in Mignon—the list of starring
roles goes on and on. And yet beneath all this glitter and acclaim there
remained
at all times—a warm human being.
• She was born in Cannes, the city of flowers, on the French Riviera.
Her childhood was a period of happy wanderings in elementary piano
music, which she
began to pick out for herself from the age of five. At thirteen she
enrolled in the Paris Conservatory and within two years had .won a first
prize. A piano
career was confidently predicted for her.
During the first World War Lily Pons made her first public appearances,
in Cannes. It is typical of her life that these were before the wounded
veterans in
the hospital at which her mother served as a volunteer nurse. These
unfortunates, the first of many toward whose welfare Lily Pons has
devoted large
amounts of her time and energy, changed her career. They applauded the
little piano pieces she played them—but they begged her for songs !
Little by little the songs became predominant and Miss Pons decided to
train her voice. Within six weeks she had encompassed the teaching
available in
voice at Cannes. She decided to try her luck as a singer in Paris, where
she got an ingenue role in a new show almost at once. Then she
sang an audition for the famous teacher Alberti di Gorositiaga, who
immediately pronounced her voice phenomenal and made her a solemn
promise—she
would sing at the Met within five years.
After conquering a half dozen coloratura roles, she made her debut in
provincial opera houses in France. In the spring of 1930, after an
exchange of letters
between her teacher and the General Manager of the Metropolitan, she set
sail for America. The crossing was stormy and, as she relates in her
preface to the
complete recording of Lucia, she lost fou - of her 109 pounds " in
transit ".
Nevertheless, after two days rest in her hotel room, she was ready for
her addition, almost five years ,to the day from hér first meeting with
Gorositiaga. On
the vast, empty stage of the Metropolitan that morning she experienced
her first serious " butterflies in one's tummy ", a pre-performance
condition she since
has come to regard as standard equipment for Metropolitan appearances.
The audition she sang was a " killer ", designed to demonstrate as
forcibly as possible that she was not, as the Metropolitan's General
Manager had feared on
first sight, simply too small to be an opera singer. With the thought in
mind that she had, after all, come 3,000 miles for that moment, she
decided to " shoot
the coloratura works ". "I sang the Bell song from Lakm<", ", she
writes, " the Caro Nome, from Rigoletto, Olympia's Aria from The Tales
of Hoffmann, " Una
voce poco fa " from The Barber, and—just for good measure ... I ended
with the long Mad Scene."
Enough to exhaust the voice of many a vocalist for a week, the repertory
had to be repeated that afternoon for the benefit of the president of
the
Metropolitan Opera Board.
However, midway through, she was suddenly stopped and told : " We've
heard enough." " Oh, mon Dieu", she thcught, " I didn't concentrate.
It's all over ..."
But it wasn't. It was only the beginning. They had simply heard enough
to know that' she belonged among the stars. Her contract was signed that
day.
• The full story of her career since her debut could, obviously, be
written entirely in box office statistics and the quotes of ' marvelling
critics. More
importantly, it can also be written in terms of Lily Pons' service to
others.
In June of 1938 Miss Pons received the first annual award of the
National Bureau for Blind Artists for her work on behalf of the blind.
At the outbreak of World War II, she turned her back completely on
footlight glamour and toured the globe singing to American G.I.s. Today
millions of
long-discharged soldiers and sailors still remember their petite friend
from her plucky performances in the torrid sun of the Persian Gulf or
the bitter cold of
the Belgian front. She was the first woman performer to visit many a
remote base, among them those in western China, which she could reach
only be. being
flown over the perilous Assam " Hump " chained to a bucket seat in a
B-29.
The countless decorations bestowed on her by dozens of countries,
including the United States, of which she became a citizen in 1940, are
a source of pride to Lily Pons. But they can be only a token of the
esteem of a world to which she has brought so much pleasure and joy.
The image of her gracious person and the sound of her glorious voice are
treasured by all who have known her or who have ever heard her sing.
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