The Chattanooga Opera Association was organized on Aug. 24, 1943 by Dr. and Madame Werner Wolff and a group of civic leaders who loved culture and refinement in the arts. They were Mrs. Stella Ball Wietzal, Colonel Milton B. Ochs, Dr. Edwin Lindsey, Mr. J. Kent Boyd, Mr. R. J. McClellan, Mr. E. Y. Chapin, Mr. Ernest A. Clevenger, Mrs. Morris E. Temple, Mrs. Harold Cadek, Mr. Milton Allen, and Dr. Arthur von Werssowetz. J. Kent Boyd was elected first president of the company. Dr. and Madame Wollf had been famous opera musicians of Europe before their arrival in this country in 1939, escaping the Hitler madness.
I was happy to read on Chattanoogan.com that the local company will perform "Don Giovanni" in the coming season. This is perhaps Mozart's masterpiece and his greatest opera, but when singing some of the others, it is hard to believe anything is greater than the one you are singing. I was fortunate to be able to sing with the company in three Mozart operas: "The Marriage of Figaro," "The Magic Flute." and the powerful dramatic role of Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni." When one sings one aria or chorus of any Mozart opera, one is forever a Mozart lover. When "The Marriage of Figaro" was presented on November 16, 1948, the city was wowed. It was the first time for the local company to perform a Mozart opera. We students who were in the cast worked for over a year learning all of the nuances of such an opera-recitative, double ensembles, acting, makeup, costumes, dealing with scenery, and all of the rest. Let it be understood that most of us had never even seen an opera, let alone starred in one. There is no role in all of opera more beautiful of more beloved than that of the Countess in "Figaro" which I had the honor to sing as my first role.
Dorothy Ward was our makeup artist and she was brilliant but believed in using spit to work the makeup into usable form. Yuck. Madame Woll was stage director and of course she had performed in all of the operas many, many times and was of tremendous help in teaching us how to walk, minuet, bow, use our appendages properly, and to deal with props. She also was responsible for the content of our singing. Dorothy Ward was a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
"Don Giovanni" was the initial opera of the seventh season 1949-50. That year Dr. Joseph Callaway, Professor of Classics at the University, was President and he was always at rehearsals, giving us support and morale. He was a man of true culture and we all loved him. The title role of:"Don Giovanni was taken by a guest singer from New York who had worked with Toscanini and had sung at the Met. His name was Norman Scott, handsome and an excellent baritone. I sang Donna Anna Ellen Hermann sang Donna Elvira, Nancy Haskell sang Zerlina, Kreusi Westbrook, whom Madame Wolff love to call "greasy" sang the comic role of Leporello, James Sasse sang the romantic role of Don Ottavio. I can still hear him singing "O,Mio Tesoro"); Charles Brickell sang Masetto, and Davis Bingham with an astonishingly beautiful bass voice for one so young, sang the Commendatore. Thirty-four fine singers made up the chorus. Helen Jones' dancers danced with the chorus in the famous minuet scene and the beautiful country dance. Lowell Lehman, the Free Press reviewer, gave high praise to all who were involved in the production.
In referring to the production of such a difficult opera as "Don Giovanni," our beloved founder and mentor Dr. Wolff said that we had reached the level of a professional cast. Singers from New York were anxious to perform with us. He said that we were doing something for the country as well as Chattanooga, because the company was giving young singers a chance to sing and act in opera that they would not otherwise have for many years. I look back on those years as the fondest I spent as a student. I continued to sing in the opera even after I had four children, in such roles as the Mother in "Hansel and Gretel," and also as the witch in that opera; I sang a second performance of "Figaro" in1951, and Leonara in"Il Trovatore," and quite a few other roles.
One of the greatest things for us local singers was meeting and getting to know for a time some of the most famous musicians of America. Beverly Sills was one such person and she sang in a second performance of "Don Giovanni" on January 25/27 of 1955. Other well-known stars who came South to sing with us were Inge Borkh of Bayreuth; Ralph Herbert of the Met; Lorenzo Alvary of the Met; Martha Poe Larrimore (a local girl) of the San Carlos Opera; Eva Likova of New York's City Center Opera, as was also Lloyd Leech; Jean Madeira of the Met; Herva Nelli, protege of Toscanini; Angelo Pilotto, of La Scala in Italy; Claramae Turner of the movies and the Met; and Astrid Varnay of the Met, Beyreuth, and most of the world's great opera houses. Once she auditioned a bunch of us and gave me a beautiful autographed picture of herself.
There were many, many local singers who helped make the opera under the Wolff's the great success that it was: Sam Carter, Jo Ann French, Marilyn Harris, Frank Jackson, Ellen Hermann, Margaret Hobday, James E. Mahoney, Charles Meriweather, David Pennebaker, Marea Ransom, Lydia Roberson, Ann Varnadow, Barbara Bouquard, Myra Hamilton, Felix Harrod (from Athens, TN), Jean James who beautifully and wondrously sang the talking doll from "Tales of Hoffman," James Mann, a handsome bass, Annabelle Mansfield, and Ethel Maxwell Taylor, a true prima donna who later moved to Memphis when the war was over.
Madame Wolff died in 1955 and saddened the whole opera scene but Dr. Wollf bravely tried to carry on. He resigned in 1959 and returned to Ruschlikon, Switzerland where he lived with friends until his death in 1960. He was succeeded by Siegfried Landau who was a very fine conductor and had a tremendous career in New York since his retirement from our opera. I sang only one opera under him but it was fabulously great and I learned a lot from him. He was an innovator and conducted many contemporary operas. The one I sang, and my last performance with the company, was "The Ballad of Baby Doe" in the twentieth season and a landmark year. Many letters of congratulation came to the company from such people as Max Rudolph, music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, Beverly, Sills, Eva Likova, and many other of the guest singers who recognized the anniversary celebration. Of course, of great importance to opera is the orchestra and most of the players were local and great. May I recommend to anyone who would like more information about the Chattanooga Opera Association from 1943-1978 the book by Dr. Edwin S. Lindsey entitled Achievements of the Chattanooga Opera Association 1943-1978.
Other people of importance who worked for the opera company from the beginning were Herman Ferger, Sr. and Jesse Gahagan, Mrs. I. G. Phillips, Mrs. M. E. Temple Mrs. Zack Williams and Almeda Schwartzmann. Mrs. J. T. Jones and Mrs. A. J. Moses were hard workers from the beginning, too. Most of what I have written here pertains to experiences with the Opera Company in its first sixteen seasons. This organization was a true prize given to the people of this area by two of the most brilliant, devoted, hard-working people who ever graced our city. Madame Wolff is buried in Forest Hills Cemetery. Dr. Wolff is buried in Switzerland. I revere their names and their work and will never forget them and the life and happiness they brought to this town for a time. I could not name everyone who had a part but they, too, are not forgotten. Dr. and Madame Wolff had worked intimately at the Hamburg Opera with Lauritz Melchior, greatest heldentenor who has not been replaced, and Melchoir invited Dr. Wolff to conduct at Memorial Auditorium the orchestra the singer had brought with him. That is the only time I have known an opera star to travel with his own orchestra. That is the kind of thing that made our time in the opera world so meaningful and exciting.
Mildred Perry Miller
Millermaj@aol.com