Jeanne Jomelli (May 18, 1879 – August 29, 1932) was a Dutch

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

opera singer, concert singer, and music educator.

Early life

Jeanne Jomelli was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. She studied voice under

Mathilde Marchesi Mathilde Marchesi (née Graumann; 24 March 1821 – 17 November 1913) was a German mezzo-soprano, a singing teacher, and a proponent of the bel canto vocal method. Biography Marchesi was born in Frankfurt. Her father's last name was Graumann; ...

in Paris.

Career

Jomelli made her American debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1906. In 1909 an aria, "The Call of Râdha" by

Harriet Ware Harriet Ware (July 12, 1799 – June 26, 1847) was an American teacher. She taught in India Point in 1832 and later founded Children's Friend Society in 1835. Early life Harriet Ware was born on July 12, 1799, in Paxton, Massachusetts. Ware ...

, with lyrics by

Sarojini Naidu Sarojini Naidu (''née'' Chattopadhyay; 13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949) was an Indian political activist, feminist and poet. A proponent of civil rights, women's emancipation, and anti-imperialistic ideas, she was an important person in Indi ...

, was dedicated to Jomelli. Jomelli herself set a

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

poem, "Oft I wept while dreaming", to music in 1912. "Mme. Jomelli had a pure soprano voice of singularly clear, steady, musical quality, and she was an accomplished vocalist," recalled

Herman Klein Herman Klein (born Hermann Klein; 23 July 1856 – 10 March 1934) was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein. His second wife was the writer Kathleen Clarice Louise Co ...

, who worked with her on improving her English diction. She was in Belgium at the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and lost nineteen trunks of costumes and other possessions in the rush to leave ahead of German advances. Instead she toured western Canadian cities with composer Hallett Gilberté during the war, giving benefit concerts for wounded veterans. In 1917, she gave a concert in Los Angeles singing songs by

Charles Wakefield Cadman Charles Wakefield Cadman (December 24, 1881 – December 30, 1946) was an American composer. For 40 years he worked closely with Nelle Richmond Eberhart, who wrote most of the texts to his songs, including ''Four American Indian Songs''. She also ...

, with Cadman himself accompanying her on piano. For the 1917/1918 academic year, Jomelli was engaged to teach at Cornish School of Music in Seattle, Washington. However, she needed surgery for

tonsillitis Tonsillitis is inflammation of the tonsils in the upper part of the throat. It can be acute or chronic. Acute tonsillitis typically has a rapid onset. Symptoms may include sore throat, fever, enlargement of the tonsils, trouble swallowing, and en ...

in September 1917, which brought long-term health complications, and she taught while seated thereafter. Jomelli moved to

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, in 1918, and taught voice at the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. She stayed in the San Francisco Bay area for most of her remaining years, though she also spent significant time teaching in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the

Punahou School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through twelfth grade, 12th grade. Protestant missionar ...

Personal life

Jeanne Jomelli was first married in 1901, to a French tapestry maker, Nicolas Hernance. They divorced amicably in 1913. Her second husband was her manager, W. Orrin Backus. She died in August 1932, aged 53 years, in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Very soon after Jomelli's death, Orrin Backus remarried; when his new wife left him, in fear of his violent threats, he died in November 1932 by suicide."W. O. Backus Kills Himself as Bride Flees"
'' Woodland Daily Democrat'' (November 16, 1932): 4. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

References

External links

*The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

ha
a photograph of Jeanne Jomelli
from the 1910s, in the George Grantham Bain Collection. *The

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonweal ...

ha
a photograph of Jeanne Jomelli
taken by

Aimé Dupont Aimé Dupont (6 December 1841 – 16 February 1900) was a Belgian-born American sculptor and photographer who was best known for his pictures of opera singers when he was the official photographer for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Ear ...

in 1911, in the Philip Hale Photograph Collection. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jomelli, Jeanne 1879 births 1932 deaths 20th-century Dutch opera singers Dutch sopranos Cornish College of the Arts faculty University of California faculty Musicians from Amsterdam Conservatorium van Amsterdam alumni