Christine Johnson Smith (September 8, 1911 – June 9, 2010), usually credited as Christine Johnson, was an American

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...

opera singer Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libretti ...

and actress who sang at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

and other opera houses. She is best known, however, for creating the role of Nettie Fowler in the original

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

production of ''

Carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in SA) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular pl ...

''.

Life and career

Johnson was born in

Hopkinsville, Kentucky Hopkinsville is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Christian County, Kentucky, United States. The population at the 2010 census was 31,577. History Early years The area of present-day Hopkinsville was initially claimed in 1796 ...

, and moved to

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of L ...

after her freshman year of high school, graduating from Owensboro High School in 1929. She showed early promise, starring in school plays and singing in churches.1998 Kentucky Governor's Awards in the Arts nomination, on file in the Kentucky governor's office. After high school, she studied voice at the Nashville Conservatory of Music and sang for radio station WSM in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...

. Johnson moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1937 and began to work with NBC's

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and theater at 1260 Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplace of the Nation", it is the headquarters for ...

and

Lyn Murray Lyn Murray (born Lionel Breeze, August 13, 1909 – May 20, 1989) was a composer, conductor, and arranger of music for radio, film and television. Early years Born in London, Murray was the son of a violinist. Before entering a career in music ...

and the

Columbia Symphony Orchestra The Columbia Symphony Orchestra was an orchestra formed by Columbia Records strictly for the purpose of making recordings. In the 1950s, it provided a vehicle for some of Columbia's better known conductors and recording artists to record using o ...

at CBS, sometimes touring in concerts in North America. She studied voice and operatic repertoire in New York with Ernst Knoth and Sidney Dietch. In 1941, she sang Dorabella in ''

Così fan tutte (''All Women Do It, or The School for Lovers''), K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte ...

'', opening the

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

opera house at

Lenox, Massachusetts Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The town is based in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 202 ...

. In 1942, she received good notices for the role of Mrs. Page in ''

The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

''. Other roles followed for her, with the New Opera Company of New York under

Emil Cooper Emil Albertovich Cooper (russian: Эмиль Альбертович Купер, ), also known as Emil Kuper (December 13 S December 1 1877, Kherson, Ukraine, then in Russian Empire – November 16, 1960, New York) was a Russian conductor and viol ...

, at

San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when h ...

and elsewhere, in ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'', ''

The Fair at Sorochyntsi ''The Fair at Sorochyntsi'' (russian: Сорочинская ярмарка, ''Sorochinskaya yarmarka'', ''Sorochyntsi Fair'') is a comic opera in three acts by Modest Mussorgsky, composed between 1874 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The compo ...

'', '' The Queen of Spades'', ''

Cavalleria rusticana ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play ...

'', ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the ...

'', ''

La forza del destino ' (; ''The Power of Fate'', often translated ''The Force of Destiny'') is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, ' (1835), by Ángel de Saavedra, 3rd Duke of Rivas, wi ...

'', '' The Girl of the Golden West'', the title role in '' Roberta'', Azucena in ''

Il trovatore ''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...

'' and Maddalena in ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...

''.Kentucky Stars profile of Christine Johnson Smith
During this period, she also sang at New York's

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

. In 1943, Johnson won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air which led to her becoming the youngest person ever to sing the role of Erda in

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

's ''

Das Rheingold ''Das Rheingold'' (; ''The Rhinegold''), WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National ...

'' at that opera house. She appeared on CBS radio's ''The Squibb Show'' twice in 1944. There she sang "It's A Lovely Day" and "My Heart's in the Highlands" with Lyn Murray and His Orchestra. In 1945, Johnson created the role of Nettie Fowler in ''

''.

Rodgers and Hammerstein Rodgers and Hammerstein was a theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960), who together created a series of innovative and influential American musicals. Their popular ...

wrote "

You'll Never Walk Alone "You'll Never Walk Alone" is a show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical ''Carousel''. In the second act of the musical, Nettie Fowler, the cousin of the protagonist Julie Jordan, sings "You'll Never Walk Alone" to comfort and enco ...

", which has become a standard, and "June is Busting Out All Over" especially for her. She also sang the role on the show's

original cast album A cast recording is a recording of a stage musical that is intended to document the songs as they were performed in the show and experienced by the audience. An original cast recording or OCR, as the name implies, features the voices of the sho ...

. Johnson stayed with the show for hundreds of performances and then toured and studied in Italy for a time. She rejoined ''Carousel'' during the national tour and continued as Nettie through its Broadway revival in 1949. After ''Carousel'' closed, Johnson moved back to Owensboro, where she married surgeon Robert Smith in 1950 and raised two daughters, Robin and Nancy. She taught voice for many years, and one of her pupils was

Florence Henderson Florence Agnes Henderson (February 14, 1934 – November 24, 2016) was an American actress. With a career spanning six decades, she is best known for her starring role as Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom ''The Brady Bunch''. Henderson also appeare ...

. She also served on local arts committees and participated in some local productions. Johnson's husband died in 1959, and she later worked for Texas Gas Transmission Corporation until her retirement. Johnson died on June 9, 2010 at the age of 98, and was buried at

Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery is located at 1300 Old Hartford Road Owensboro Daviess County Kentucky. There are about 55,000 interments. It is officially recognized as a historical landmark by the state of Kentucky. Notable people buried in the ceme ...

Notes

External links

* *
Williamson Music

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Christine 1911 births 2010 deaths Actresses from Kentucky American operatic contraltos American musical theatre actresses People from Hopkinsville, Kentucky Voice teachers Singers from Kentucky Kentucky women musicians Winners of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air Women music educators 21st-century American women