Enrica Clay Dillon

Enrica Clay Dillon
Born
Florence Ada Dillon

(1878-06-22)June 22, 1878
Denver, Colorado, U.S.
DiedOctober 9, 1946(1946-10-09) (aged 61)
Harrison, Maine, Dillon
Other namesEnrica Dilli
Adele Dilli

Enrica Clay Dillon (born Florence Ada Dillon,[1] June 22, 1878 – October 9, 1946) was an American opera singer, opera director, and voice teacher.[2] She was known on the stage in Europe as first Adele Dilli and later Enrica Dilli. In the United States she eventually became known as Enrica Clay Dillon; taking the name as homage to her father, the California judge Henry Clay Dillon (Enrica is the feminine version of Henry in Italian).

Early life and family

Henry Clay Dillon (1846–1912) in 1909. The father of Enrica Clay Dillon.

Florence Ada Dillon was born in Denver, Colorado on June 22, 1878.[A][4] She was the daughter of Henry Clay Dillon and Florence (née Hood) Dillon.[1][5] She had five siblings,[6] and was the older sister of composer Fannie Charles Dillon.[1] Her other sister was the actress Josephine Dillon who was the first wife of Clark Gable.[7]

Dillon's father, Henry, was a native of Lancaster, Wisconsin.[8] He was a graduate of Racine College and a lawyer in Colorado.[9] He left his position as a name partner in the Denver law firm of Markham & Dillon in 1889 when he moved the Dillon family to Long Beach, California and opened a law practice in Los Angeles.[10] He succeeded James McLachlan as Los Angeles County District Attorney in 1892.[11] In 1904 he was the Democratic Party candidate for California's 35th senatorial district.[12] He also worked as a municipal judge in Los Angeles, and taught at USC School of Law until his death in 1912.[13]

Education

After moving to California, Dillon attended public schools in the Long Beach Unified School District.[14] She received her high school education in the college preparatory division of Pomona College (PC).[15] While a student at PC she studied singing with Mrs. E. W. Hardon.[16] When she graduated from PC in 1896, she sang at the commencement ceremony.[15]

Dillon left California for Massachusetts to train as a singer;[17] studying voice at Mount Holyoke College (MHC).[7] She studied in Massachusetts for two years in the late 1890s,[17] but did not complete her music degree.[7] Her voice teacher was Charles R. Adams.[14] In February 1898 she performed a minor part in Bibi—A Comedy of Toys at Association Hall in Boston as a fundraiser for the Boston Teachers' Mutual Benefit Association.[18] In June 1899 she sang as a soloist in the concert of MHC's glee club,[19] and that same month she performed Arthur Foote's "A Song of Four Seasons" and Edward MacDowell's "Ye banks and braes o' Bonnie Doon" at MHC's commencement ceremony which was attended by American president William McKinley.[20]

By June Dillon was back in California and was involved with the music at Long Beach Congregational Church.[21] In October 1900 she traveled with fellow aspiring California singers Marcella Craft, Mona Rockhold, and Floy Bradshow on a steamship operated by Norddeutscher Lloyd from New York to Genoa, Italy.[22][14] These women were all previously students of Charles R. Adams in Boston who had recently died, and planned on living together in Milan while furthering their training in opera.[14] In Milan she studied voice for several years with Vincenzo Sabbatini and dramatic acting/ stage movement with baritone Francesco Mottino while simultaneously teaching her own voice students.[23]

Performance career

Dillon made her professional opera debut as Amina in Vincenzo Bellini's La sonnambula at the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi, Italy on January 28, 1904.[24] She was initially billed in Italy under the stage name Adele Dilli which she used she appeared as Violetta in La traviata in Milan in 1905.[25] She later adopted the stage name Enrica Dilli while in Italy. She chose Enrica, the feminine version of the Italian name for Henry, after her father, and Dilli as a latinized version of her last name.[26]

She had a prolific career as a dramatic soprano in Europe during the first decade and a half of the 20th century, giving more than 1,800 opera performances.[2] She was especially active in Italy and sang at most of the principle houses in that country, including La Scala. She was particularly known for her portrayal of the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida.[27] Some of the other roles in her repertoire included Amelia in Un ballo in maschera,[28] Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chénier,[29] and the title roles in Fedora[30] and Tosca.[28]

Opera director and music educator

Dillon abandoned her singing career shortly before the outbreak of World War I; largely due to continual bouts with illness. She then served as the first director of the Washington Opera Company from 1919 to 1927. She moved to Philadelphia in 1927, where for three years she taught singing and was director of the Philadelphia Operatic Society. From 1930 to 1935, she worked for Herbert Witherspoon as a vocal coach and stage director at first the Chicago Civic Opera and then the Chicago Grand Opera Company. She also maintained a home in New York City during the 1930s where she had a voice studio and directed operas for the New York Singing Teachers Association and the New York Opera Guild.[2]

Beginning in 1916, Dillon spent her summers in the state of Maine where she ran an opera and voice training program for aspiring singers at Frederick Bristol's music camp just outside Harrison, Maine. Her regular students from Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City would often come up with her to study at the school. Among her notable pupils were Richard Crooks, Marie Sundelius, Kathryn Meisle, and Frederick Jagel, and musical theatre actress Evelyn Herbert.[27]

In 1936, Dillon founded the Deertrees Theatre in Harrison, which was later the home of Dillon's Deertree Opera Company (DOC). The DOC presented its first season in 1940. Many theatres were closed down during World War II, and the opera company only presented three seasons of performances before the theatre was closed in 1942. Metropolitan Opera conductor Karl Kritz served as the company's music director and primary conductor. Hermann Weigert also served on the company's conducting staff. Notable singers to have performed with the company included a young Astrid Varnay just prior to her triumphant Met debut and soprano Elisabeth Carron in her professional opera debut.

Death

At the time of her death in Harrison, Maine, Dillon was in the midst of organizing a summer opera festival to be held in July 1947, after already presenting a summer opera festival in 1946, at the re-opened Deertree Theatre.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ Social Security records under the name Enrica Clay Dillon give her birth date and place as June 22, 1885 in Denver, Colorado.[3] However, this was not her birth name which was Florence Ada Dillon.[1] Her passport application under her birth name of Florence gives her date and place of birth as June 22, 1878 in Denver.[4] This date matches the 1880 United States census where her age is given as two years old, and both of her parents names are listed with hers in the same household in Leadville, Colorado.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Alliot, Hector (October 25, 1913). "Musical Family. Dillon Sisters' Achievements". The Los Angeles Times. p. 17.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Enrica Clay Dillon, Sang in 1,800 Operas". The New York Times. October 10, 1946. p. 27.
  3. ↑ Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007. Date: Oct 1940; Name: Enrica Clay Dillon; Birth Date: 22 Jun 1885; Birth Place: Denver, Colorado; Father: Henry C Dillon; Mother: Florence Hood
  4. 1 2 The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Passport Applications, 1795-1905; NAI: Arc Identifier 566612 / Mlr Number A1 508; Record Group: General Records of the Department of State, 1763-2002; Record Group Number: 59; NARA Series: M1372; Roll #: 564; Series Title: Passport Applications, 1795-1905
  5. 1 2 Florence Dillon in the 1880 United States Federal Census; Census Place: Leadville, Lake, Colorado; Roll: 91; Page: 431d; Enumeration District: 081
  6. ↑ "Hon. Henry Clay Dillon". Downey Champion. October 22, 1892. p. 2.
  7. 1 2 3 "Deaths. Miss Enrica C. Dillon, Opera Star, Teacher, Dies in Maine". Transcript-Telegram. October 11, 1946. p. 18.
  8. ↑ "Local News". Lancaster Teller. June 28, 1906. p. 5.
  9. ↑ "Personal". Grant County Herald. June 25, 1874. p. 3.
  10. ↑ "Personal". Los Angeles Life. February 23, 1889. p. 4.
  11. ↑ "Hon. Henry Clay Dillon". Downey Champion. October 22, 1892. p. 2.
  12. ↑ "For State Senate. H. C. Dillon a Candidate". The Los Angeles Times. September 29, 1904. p. 6.
  13. ↑ "Judge H.C. Dillon Goes to Reward". Los Angeles Morning Tribune. April 11, 1912. p. 3.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "Music. Local Notes". The Los Angeles Times. September 16, 1900. p. 26.
  15. 1 2 "Claremont. Pomona College Commencement Exercises". Los Angeles Times. June 25, 1896. p. 6.
  16. ↑ "Comes Sailing Down the Pike". The Pomona Progress. November 6, 1901. p. 3.
  17. 1 2 "Claremont Brevities". Los Angeles Times. May 1, 1900. p. 15.
  18. ↑ "Bibi Reproduced". The Boston Globe. February 26, 1898. p. 10.
  19. ↑ "Glee Club Concert". Transcript-Telegram. June 17, 1899. p. 8.
  20. ↑ "A California Girl. Miss Florence Dillon Sings Before the President". Los Angeles Herald Examiner. June 21, 1899. p. 8.
  21. ↑ "Long Beach Congregational Church". The Los Angeles Times. June 24, 1900. p. 20.
  22. ↑ "All Breve". Oakland Enquirer. October 6, 1900. p. 3.
  23. ↑ "Brilliant Angelenos". Los Angeles Times. October 11, 1903. p. 2, section VI.
  24. ↑ "To Honor Long Beach Girls". Press-Telegram. March 3, 1904. p. 1.
  25. ↑ "Social Events. Daughter of Long Beach Wins Musical Laurels at Milan". Long Beach Tribune. December 19, 1905. p. 6.
  26. ↑ Taylor-Hallock, Grace, ed. (February 1914). "Alumna Notes". The Mount Holyoke. XXIII (6): 411–412.
  27. 1 2 Enrica Clay Dillon obituary, Variety (October 16, 1946), p. 62.
  28. 1 2 "Miss Dillon Wins Fame in Night as Singer". Los Angeles Morning Tribune. January 5, 1913. p. 1.
  29. ↑ "Echoes of Music Abroad". Musical America. October 24, 1908. p. 10.
  30. ↑ "Long Beach Girl Famous". The Long Beach Telegram and The Long Beach Daily News. August 21, 1908. p. 5.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.