Marguerite Piazza (May 6, 1920* – August 2, 2012) was an American soprano, entertainer and philanthropist from New Orleans, Louisiana.
Marguerite Piazza had a voice that could pack a concert hall
and a figure that transfixed television audiences. She was sought out for
ribbon cuttings and commercial endorsements and once performed as part of a
Super Bowl halftime show.She was a pop star, in other words, just one among the
ever-changing panoply that graces the glossies, except that she gained fame for
singing opera.
Her life and career evoke an era when the gap between pop
culture and high art was more easily bridged, when what audiences watched on
television was similar in many ways to what they saw at the theatre or concert
hall.
Marguerite Claire Luft was born in New Orleans. She attended
fine arts programs at Loyola University and Louisiana State University, where
she was a student of the baritone Pasquale Amato, before taking off to pursue
her dream in New York, where her teacher suggested she adopt her mother’s
maiden name, Piazza, because he thought an Italian-sounding name would boost
her operatic credibility.
She joined the New York City Opera in 1944 as the youngest
member of the company. Her first role at the City Center was Nedda in
"Pagliacci," which was followed by "La bohème" (as
Musetta), "Der Zigeunerbaron" and "Don Giovanni" (as Donna
Elvira), among others. She made her first appearance with the New
Orleans Opera Association in Martha (in 1945), followed by Hänsel und Gretel, as well as the title role in Il Segreto di Susanna. In 1950, Piazza made her Broadway debut, in Happy as Larry, with Burgess Meredith directing and starring in the title rôle, and Alexander Calder designing.
Orleans Opera Association in Martha (in 1945), followed by Hänsel und Gretel, as well as the title role in Il Segreto di Susanna. In 1950, Piazza made her Broadway debut, in Happy as Larry, with Burgess Meredith directing and starring in the title rôle, and Alexander Calder designing.
She began her career on radio, but moved into television in
its earliest days, where both her good looks and her soaring soprano quickly
made her a star. In the early 1950s she performed opera and other music on
“Your Show of Shows,” the popular variety program which starred Sid Caesar and
Imogene Coca.
Only after she had become a television success did she
appear at the Metropolitan Opera, where in 1951 she had 14 performances as
Rosalinde in “Die Fledermaus.” Then she traded ball gowns for cocktail dresses
and joined the supper-club circuit, performing jazz and pop in spots including
the Plaza in New York, the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles and the Sands in Las
Vegas. She also performed in the nightclubs of Havana before Fidel Castro came
to power.
Here's "You'll Never Walk Alone" from above 1959 album.
Along the way she appeared in commercials. Before the
dangers of cigarette smoking were made public a bejewelled Ms. Piazza said “I
find Camels have a mildness that agrees with my throat.” in a
cigarette
commercial in the 1950s. Bloomingdale’s once invited her
to be a celebrity chef for free cooking classes it offered at its New York location.
Piazza & Presley |
to be a celebrity chef for free cooking classes it offered at its New York location.
In 1968, she recovered from three operations on her face to
remove cancerous growths, and in 1973 was treated for cervical and uterine
cancer. She was honoured by then President Richard M. Nixon for her courage in
fighting the disease. Despite her struggles with the illness, Piazza continued
to perform throughout much of the 1970s. Piazza was one of the halftime
performers at Super Bowl IV in New Orleans. She also produced and recorded
"The Marguerite Piazza Christmas Sing-a-Long" during this time, which
has remained a holiday season standard.
In 1975, Piazza began the Marguerite Piazza Gala for the
benefit of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in partnership with her friend
Danny Thomas. The gala proved to be a major success and continued annually
under her name for 35 years. Ms. Piazza attended the gala every year and was a
frequent performer, along with the likes of Nancy Wilson and The Fifth
Dimension. Over the years, the Marguerite Piazza Gala helped to raise millions
of dollars for the historic children's hospital, which may ultimately be her
greatest legacy.
Heriazza's autobiography (co-authored with her daughter,
Marguerite Bonnett), Pagliacci Has Nothing on Me!, was published in 2007. “She
loved to sing for charities and volunteered occasionally to sing for prison
inmates and also sang at the funeral of the woman who cleaned her house. She
sang for whoever asked her,” Ms. Bonnett said.
Piazza died of congestive heart failure on August 2, 2012 at her home in Memphis. She was 92. She was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2016, becoming the first opera singer to be honoured by the organization.
Piazza died of congestive heart failure on August 2, 2012 at her home in Memphis. She was 92. She was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2016, becoming the first opera singer to be honoured by the organization.
(Edited from the New York Times, Memphis Music Hall of Fame &
Wikipedia)
(* Piazza's year of birth had traditionally been given as
1926, but census records and genealogy sites later disproved that year.)
4 comments:
I have downloaded her “Sings Torch” album from Amazon which has omitted the track “The Man I Love” for some reason. Can’t find a digital copy of “Memorable Moments of Music” but I did find a vinyl rip. I have put both in a folder here:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/HtgyheCa
Sings Torch (1956)
1. Once In A While
2. Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
3. Miss You
4. I Can Dream Can't I
5. I Understand
6. Among My Souvenirs
7. Body & Soul
8. Music Maestro Please
9. Where Are You
10. Don't Take Your Love From Me
11. I'll Never Smile Again
Memorable Moments of Music (1959)
1. I Could Have Danced All Night - From The Musical Production "My Fair Lady"
2. Come Back To Sorrento
3. Swing Low Sweet Chariot
4. You'll Never Walk Alone
5. Vesti La Giubba - From "Pagiacci"
6. When The Saints Go Marching By
7. Un Bel Di Vedremo (One Fine Day) - From "Madame Butterfly"
8. Sonny Boy
9. All Alone
10. Hush A Bye Baby
11. Till We Meet Again
12. The New Stars And Stripes Forever
A big thank you to Gazz Gazeer @ Wings of Dream blog for vinyl rip.
I'll take the opportunity to thank you for your great work here in posting these worthy forgotten/almost forgotten artists. I've been working my way back through the posts from current to now and have just started running into dead pixeldrains, a pretty good file host to download from if alive, but unfortunately with a short-lived file life. Could you repost this one?
Hello CH, I couldn't find the "Sings Torch" mp3's but here's the link for Memorable Moments
http://www.mediafire.com/file/bl9mq8u49bpk5yo/MPMMM59.rar/file
which I've borrowed from allmusic-wingsofdream.blogspot
Also found since this post from last year is
Christmas At Home With Marguerite Piazza
http://www.mediafire.com/file/aw8xhp9yze3dinw/Marguerite_Piazza-Christmas_At_Home_With_Marguerite_Piazza.rar/file
Regards, Bob
Thanks, Mr. Bob ...Much appreciated.
Post a Comment