The 'Adorable Diva' who was born in County Mayo
October 15 marks the anniversary of the birth of Castlebar-born prima donna, Margaret Burke Sheridan – an event, despite the fame she achieved during her lifetime, that will doubtless be ignored once again by Irish music authorities, writes Anne Chambers.
The toast of Italy, feted by English society, from 1918-1930, Margaret Burke Sheridan, sang in a golden era of Italian opera and conquered the hearts and ears of demanding opera audiences and critics throughout Italy.
Born in the Sheridan family home on the Mall in Castlebar and educated initially in the nearby Convent of Mercy, orphaned at 11, Margaret was sent to the Dominican Convent, Eccles Street, Dublin. In 1908 she took the mezzo-soprano gold medal in the Dublin Feis Ceoil. A bursary enabled her to continue her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
There she came to the attention of the wealthy aristocratic English society where in ‘the marble halls’ of the mansions of Belgravia and Mayfair she sang at fashionable parties and soirees. In Seaford House, home of her patron and friend, Lady Howard de Walden, she met the famous inventor Gugliemo Marconi.
“Yours is the voice I have been waiting to hear all my life,” he told her and, in the middle of World War I, agreed to bring her to Italy to pursue her dream of appearing in opera.
On February 3, 1918, Sheridan made a dramatic debut when, at four days' notice, she replaced the indisposed soprano as Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme at the Rome Opera House. The Roman audience rose to ‘this young artist blessed with a wonderful voice who gave an unforgettable performance'.
From Rome to the Dal Verme in Milan to the great San Carlo in Naples, her reputation grew. “Miss Sheridan is Irish but either by luck or instinct she sings as an Italian…”
In Naples she was dubbed ‘Butterfly Insuperabile’.
Drawn by her reviews, Puccini came to hear her Butterfly in Milan. He described it as being ‘full of charismatic intensity and childlike appeal’ and resolved to personally coach her for the title role in his Manon Lescaut.
For her debut in the prestigious carnival season at Rimini in 1922, the famous composer presented her with a magnificent gold and blue silk gown for Act 2. He attended her performance at Cento and afterwards drove in triumph with her through the town in an open carriage.
“She was an unparalleled interpreter of the music of Puccini,” the conductor Vincenzo Bellezza recorded. “The humanity of his characters and the lyricism of his music found a mysterious echo in her.”
On the re-opening of La Scala in 1922, Toscanini cast her in the title role of La Wally, followed by a world premiere as Candida in Respigi’s Belfagor, as Maddelena in Andrea Chenier, and as Anna Maria in I Compagnacci by Riccitelli.
A clash of personalities ensured her relationship with the authoritarian conductor was fraught. She called Toscanini ‘the Whip’; he referred to her as ‘The Empress of Ireland’.
In 1923 she partnered the famous Gigli in Andrea Chenier at Rimini and was chosen by him for his Covent Garden debut later in 1930. At Cremona, Genoa, Turin, Trieste, Brescia, Modena, Piacenza, Bologna, Cascina and also at Monte Carlo, Sheridan triumphed. “Her singing is the kind that rouses our public to the highest pitch of enthusiasm,” L’Avenire d’Italia reported.
In 1929 she made the first ever complete electrical recording of Butterfly (HMV), which was recorded at La Scala. Many more recordings followed, including her enduring duets with tenor Aureliano Pertile and her distinctive rendition of many popular Irish songs.
From 1919 to 1930 she represented La Scala at the annual International Opera Season at Covent Garden. In 1919 she created the title role of Iris there and also replaced the redoubtable diva Dame Nellie Melba as Mimi in La Boheme.
Over the years, through her relationship with the managing director, Eustace Blois (who also had family ties with Mayo), she was instrumental in bringing many of her Italian colleagues to the attention of British audiences.
Her love of Italy, perhaps to the detriment of her career, made her refuse offers from the New York Metropolitan and Chicago Opera. Offers of lucrative concert appearances in America, England and Ireland were similarly refused.
“How can I sing without my cloak,” she once confided – the cloak being the confidence she attained from singing surrounded by the trappings of the operatic stage.
Her retirement in 1932 was as dramatic as her debut. After a long and desultory retirement in Dublin, she died in Dublin in 1958 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.
Anne Chambers is author of La Sheridan: Adorable Diva – Margaret Burke Sheridan 1889-1958