Mayo diva Margaret Burke-Sheridan achieved the impossible
By Tom Gillespie
ON Wednesday, April 16, 1958, Castlebar-born Margaret Burke-Sheridan, the world-famous soprano, died in a Dublin nursing home after an illness of some duration. She was born on Sunday, October 15, 1889.
This was the introduction to the obituary of the famous diva which appeared in The Connaught Telegraph on April 26, 1958.
It went on: The great singer left Castlebar as an orphan child, and in the course of a number of years climbed to the pinnacle of fame and fortune in the most famous opera houses of the world.
In her day she had no equal, and her story, briefly related below, is like a fairytale - one of a humble country lass who put her country on the operatic map of the world.
Miss Bourke-Sheridan was youngest child of John Burke-Sheridan, postmaster at Castlebar, a member of a very old local family. Her mother was daughter of W. Cooley, a building contractor, who owned property in Castlebar, including in Lucan Street. The singer’s family also owned an estate at Pheasant Hill, Castlebar, and Margaret was born in the house on the Mall, now (1958) owned by Dr. James Ryan.
Fortune did not smile on the Burke-Sheridan family and the estate at Pheasant Hill was purchased by the Faulkner family.
Next, the mother died, and early in the century the father was called to rest. The elder members of the family, Jack, Tom, Paddy and a sister, were forced to emigrate, and Margaret was not only left an orphan but alone in a harsh world in 1893, at the age of four.
Through the influence of the late Canon Patrick Lyons, P.P., Castlebar, and the local Sisters of Mercy, who took a kindly interest in her, Margaret was sent to the boarding school of the Dominican Sisters, Eccles St., Dublin.
During the first Christmas she spent at the Dominican Convent, Miss Burke-Sheridan was chosen as soloist with the choir. Her singing of the Venice Adoremus moved many of the nuns to tears. She was then only five years of age.
Her voice was cared for and trained by such experts as Mother Clement and Dr. Vincent O’Brien. She was 14 when she entered for the Feis Ceoil for the first time and won first prize.
Like Count John McCormack, she began her climb to fame by winning the gold medal at the Feis Ceoil.
A benefit performance at the old Theatre Royal enabled her to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Just before World War l charity concerts provided many platforms for singers, and on these Margaret Burke-Sheridan gave a series of recitals. Soon she became an established favourite despite her youth.
It was at one of these that Lady Millicent Palmer heard her. She marvelled at the Castlebar girl’s voice and decided this was a voice the world must hear.
Soon Lady Millicent was making arrangements, and Rev. Peter Finley, S.J., and a number of other people in Dublin organised a concert to raise funds to enable her pursue her career. It was an outstanding success, and the £600 collected allowed her to go to London, where she stayed with Less Filles de Marie at Vicarage Gate, and from there she was enrolled in the Royal Academy of Music.
She came under the supervision of Madam Olga Lynn, and about this time she saw her first opera in Covent Garden. It was 'Madam Butterfly'.
Her talents brought her to the notice and the homes of the leading patrons of the arts in London. At one gathering Marchese Marconi met her, and she sang for him. Immediately he became interested in her musical career, and in a few days she found herself in Rome, a pupil of Maestro Martin, then teacher of some of the world’s most famous singers.
Against her wishes she made her operatic debut as Mimi in ‘La Boheme’ in the Rome Opera House in 1919, due to the indisposition of the diva Bori.
The golden voiced Mayo girl specialised in Puccini operas, and the composer regarded her as the greatest Madam Butterfly ever.
Miss Burke-Sheridan reached stardom in Milan in the famed La Scala, and sang there for nine consecutive seasons.
When La Scala sent its greatest names on tour, Margaret Burke-Sheridan ranked at the top of the list, and when Crown Prince Umberto married Princess Marie-Jose of Belgium, she was chosen to sing at their Turin wedding.
Puccini wrote in his memoirs that she made Madam Butterfly her very own. Toscanini asked her to launch the posthumous opera of his dearest friend - Catalani’s ‘Wally’ - and Gigli described her as one of the greatest sopranos of all time.
In 1950 she was made a member of the Advisory Committee of Music of the National Arts Foundation, a philanthropic organisation to stimulation, creation, interpretation and appreciation of the arts in the United States, and to increase interchange of arts and artists between the nations.
Miss Burke-Sheridan could converse fluently in German, Italian and French. She attributed her triumphs not merely on her own voice but to the ‘corporate inspiration and atmosphere’ which make opera in Italy what it is.
In an appreciation in the Sunday Independent’ Herbert Caesari of London, the teacher of many renowned singers, who knew Margaret Burke-Sheridan when she was on the threshold of her career in London and with whom she maintained life-long friendship, said: “Margaret Burke-Sheridan is dead: an expertly balanced blending of life, mind, voice and art compounded within the confines of a personable, forceful unit, is torn asunder by the relentless claws of disassociation.
“The spirit of Ireland should mourn with pride the loss of such a daughter.
“Only too rarely is it given in a foreign singer to make good in Italy, and more so then than now. But ‘La Sheridan’, as she was known there, achieved the impossible.
“She became the darling of the Italian opera-going public. Her soprano voice was of exquisite quality: it was a ‘natural’ and quite unspoiled by spurious methods.
“There was intangible and highly seductive timber in her voice that was irresistible, a power of attraction that brooked no demand.
“She had the rare gift of feeling a musical phrase and grasping the composer’s intentions.
“A forceful personality shone through those laughing Irish eyes of blue. She had sparkling wit and the gift of ready repartee. Her’s was a full artistic life.
“She has gone to join her comrades in art, now departed and alas almost forgotten in this world of short memories.
“God rest her soul and bless Ireland for producing such a lovable artist.”