139:, the Chicago affiliate of the CBS network. Her prize was a $ 100 a week contract to appear on thirteen weekly radio programs. These appearances led to an invitation from Paul Longone, the impresario of the Chicago Opera, to audition. Della Chiesa obtained an engagement with the company for three years. Her Chicago debut occurred on November 15, 1936, as Mimi in
223:. Her career eventually made the transition into featured attraction at supper clubs such as the Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria (New York) and night clubs. “Vivienne Della Chiesa” is listed among celebrity performers at the Deauville, a Miami Beach hotel, in 1970. In retirement, she was active in community musical affairs and taught voice.
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Radio was an important part of Della Chiesa's career. An offer of sponsorship appeared early in the series of radio broadcasts resulting from the CBS contest of 1935. Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s she sang a mixture of popular and classical music on shows such as the
Carnation Hour, the Magic
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album. Garland says, “I must tell you one more thing, about, in Paris again. I got to the intermission, and I changed my dress and got into my pants and in my slacks, and the zipper in the back wouldn’t stay zipped. And so, just before I went on, I put a great big safety pin, you know, so my act
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Della Chiesa also appeared as a soloist with the
Chicago Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Her appearances with the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini in 1943 were a high point in her career. Opera News considers her to be “best remembered for her 1943 radio concert of
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Della Chiesa moved to
Huntington, Long Island in the late 1950s, bringing her widowed mother with her. She shared her home with her widowed sister, niece and nephew for an extended period of time. She married three times. Her third husband, Alfred J. RĂ©, predeceased her.
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in Italy., and who initiated
Vivienne's training in piano at an early age. Vivian Della Chiesa also studied singing and violin and was, by age 10, interested in opera. She also studied foreign languages, gymnastics and dancing. She attended the Roosevelt High School in
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Key, the
Firestone Hour, Album of Familiar Music (Bayer Aspirin), American Melody Hour and Standard Hour. At one point “I was on CBS, NBC and Mutual at the same time,” she told Diane Ketcham. She performed the national anthem before the sixth and final game of the
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wouldn’t get too gay in the middle of it, and I strolled over to the piano at this point and sat down and the pin . . . came undone, and into my derrière. I’ve never sung so high and so fast in my . . . I sounded like Vivian, Vivian Della Chiesa.”
127:. These lessons were financed by "a rich woman who was a philanthropist.". Studies began with Forrest Lamont, formerly a leading tenor of the Chicago Opera, in 1934, and continued until his death at the end of 1937.
195:- Mimi). Della Chiesa also appeared with the St. Louis Opera, the Cincinnati Opera Company and the Havana International Opera. She appeared with the New York City Opera in 1947 as Maddalena in
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Della Chiesa performed a wide variety of classical and popular works from opera to musical theatre, jazz, and popular songs. She sang on a number of radio programs during her career, including
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388:"Obituaries: Sopranos Vivian Della Chiesa and Janet Pavek; arts patron Betty Freeman; Dorothy Sarnoff, lyric soprano turned image-maker; cellist Jascha Silberstein"
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at
Comiskey Park in Chicago, not far from where she resided at the time. During the late 1960s, she spent a brief time as an afternoon television show hostess on
95:, and in major venues in other cities throughout the United States. After her singing career ended she worked as a voice teacher and a fundraiser for charity.
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Della Chiesa was born into an
Italian family in Chicago. Her mother, Dulia (Morelli) Della Chiesa, was an accomplished pianist, whose father had been a
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414:”DELLA CHIESA, VIVIAN,” Current Biography 1943. Maxine Block, ed.; The H.W. Wilson Company: New York, NY (1944)), pp. 164-5.
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Olin Downes, "Montemezzi Opera in Radio
Premiere", New York Times, October 10, 1943, p. 48 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers).
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Diane
Ketcham, “In a Master Class, a Diva, 82, Teaches the Essence of Feeling”, New York Times, August 3, 1997, p. LI 1.
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who achieved a high level of popularity in the United States singing on the radio during the 1940s and the early 1950s.
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Michael F. Bott, "Mario Berini - A Tenor
Remembered" The Record Collector, Volume 54 No. 1 (March, 2009) pp. 50-51.
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Celeste Hadrick, “Vivian Della Chiesa, star soprano, dies at 94,” Newsday (newspaper, Long Island, New York)
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In addition to her radio career, Della Chiesa performed actively on the opera stage, mostly at the
159:). In 1943, she twice sang under the baton of the composer Italo Montemezzi in his own works -
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among others. A particularly important triumph for her radio career was a 1943 radio concert of
302:, baritone, Vivian Della Chiesa, soprano. Guild, GHCD 2290 Live broadcast of January 24, 1943.
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Michael F. Bott, “Forrest Lamont,” The Record Collector, Volume 48 No. 3 (Sept. 2003) p. 231.
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http://archive.sfopera.com/qry3webcastlist.asp?Submit=GO&psearch=Vivian%20Della%20Chiesa
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470:”VIVIAN DELLA CHIESA” (obituary) Opera News, Vol. 73, No. 10 (April, 2009) p. 69.
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While in her teens Della Chiesa studied for three years with Marion Claire of the
167:(Giselda) with the NBC Symphony. She sang with the San Francisco Opera in 1944 (
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338:. World premiere recording with the NBC Symphony under the composer's baton.
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In 1935, Della Chiesa entered and won a large contest sponsored by
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244:. She is buried in the St. Patrick Cemetery in Huntington.
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Advertisement, New York Times, March 8, 1970, section XX.
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Come Rain, Come Shine. 20th Century Fox Records TFM 3140
163:(Fiora) and, on October 9, in the first performance of
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as Falstaff, Vivian Della Chiesa as Alice. VAI Audio
29:(October 9, 1915 – January 6, 2009) was an American
575:. Library of American Broadcasting. Archived from
240:She died on January 6, 2009, at a nursing home in
143:. She also appeared with the company as Adina, (
264:concert of January 23, 1961, preserved in the
260:mentioned Vivian della Chiesa by name in her
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359:; Vivian Della Chiesa, soprano, as Giselda;
635:20th-century American women opera singers
497:San Francisco Opera Performance Archive.
562:National Library of Australia biography
510:Aggerholm, Barbara. (13 November 2010).
396:. Vol. 73, no. 10. April 2009
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443:"Vivian Della Chiesa in Summer Series"
340:Souvenirs from Verismo Operas Volume 4
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175:- Marguerite) and in 1945 (
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179:- Marina (in Italian with
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45:The American Melody Hour
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290:. Arturo Toscanini,
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579:on 7 February 2012
342:on the IRCC label.
253:In popular culture
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181:Ezio Pinza
116:, and the
566:Photo of
203:Brahms’s
193:La Bohème
171:- Alice;
141:La Bohème
105:conductor
89:Las Vegas
515:Archived
311:Falstaff
169:Falstaff
157:La Juive
79:and the
68:and the
456:26 June
400:May 21,
288:Requiem
114:Indiana
248:Legacy
149:Carmen
131:Career
56:Brahms
48:, and
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