Dorothy Warenskjold

Dorothy Lorayne Warenskjold (May 11, 1921 in Piedmont, California – December 27, 2010 in Lenexa, Kansas ) was an American lyric soprano who had an active career in opera, concerts, radio, television, and recitals from the mid-1940s through the early 1970s. She made several recordings for Capitol Records.

Early years
Born in Piedmont, California, Warenskjold was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. William Earl Warenskjold. Her paternal grandfather immigrated from Norway. Her mother, Mildred Stombs, was a professional musician.

She grew up in Oakland, California. Planning to be an attorney, she pursued pre-legal training at Mills College in Oakland and UC Berkeley, until her junior year, when Mabel Riegelman began giving her vocal lessons. She graduated from Mills College in 1943 with a BA in languages and a minor in music.

Her degree background later enabled her to sing in at least 8 languages.

Career
As an opera singer, she worked mainly with the San Francisco Opera (SFO) where she made her debut in October 1948 as Nannetta in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff. She performed with the SFO for the next eight consecutive seasons, performing such roles as Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Liù in Turandot, Marzelline in Fidelio, Micaëla in Carmen, Mimì in La bohème, Pamina in The Magic Flute, and Sophie in Werther. Her final appearance at the SFO was in October 1955 as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as the Marschallin and Frances Bible as Octavian.

However, she did further sing opera in San Francisco under the auspices of the short-lived Cosmopolitan Opera Company (1954-60), at the War Memorial Opera House as with the San Francisco Opera. It was at the Cosmopolitan, on April 1, 1960, that she sang as Jussi Bjorling's last leading lady, Marguerite to his Faust, in his final operatic performance before his death.

Warenskjold also appeared as a guest artist with several American opera companies and toured the United States with a few traveling opera companies. In addition to her work on stage, she also performed regularly on radio and television during the 1940s and 1950s. She was frequently heard on the programs Harvest of Stars, The Voice of Firestone and The Railroad Hour. In 1950, she performed the roles of Antonia and Stella in the NBC Opera Theatre's television production of The Tales of Hoffmann. After retiring from singing in 1972, she joined the voice faculty of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture where she taught for many years as an adjunct faculty member. During this time, a series of oral history interviews were conducted with her by Sybil Hast, the octolingual vocal diction coach of the department. The interview transcript is available from UCLA online; it runs 481 pages.

Personal Life
Warenskjold never married. Her fiance had been shot down during World War II, in 1943, leaving her devastated. She was a buoyant person and eventually resumed social relations with other suitors, but her constant musical touring and travelling were a complication. When not on tour, she lived with family until her mother's death in 1990. Her many friends included figures such as San Francisco Opera Impresario James Schwabacher, opera journalist Lilian Barber, recorded sound restorer Lance Bowling, and prominent musical names such as Licia Albanese, Lotte Lehmann and James Melton, among others. In 2004, she moved to Lenexa, Kansas to be near remaining family. She died there two days after Christmas, 2010, at age 89.

Recordings
Nine recordings of Warenskjold were released. There were four during her career, and four more based on archival material after her retirement. She also appears in one track of a ninth recording.

She made her first LP recording on Capitol with Gordon MacRae of songs from “The Student Prince” (L-407), with George Greeley conducting. In 1954, Capitol Records followed up with Songs of Grieg and Dvorak, George Greeley again conducting, this time with the Concert Arts Orchestra (P-8247). It contained eight songs by Grieg. and seven gypsy songs and 4 love songs by Dvorak. This recording is extremely hard to find, unlike her other Capitol LP releases. A related EP containing two songs by each composer was also released (Capitol FAP-8250). (Curiously the EP reversed the composers' names.) Capitol also later released an LP of solo songs with piano, "On Wings of Song" (P-8333), accompanied by Jack Crossan.

In 1979, seven years after her retirement, Grand Prix Records released an LP entitled "A Recital Experience with Dorothy Warenskjold", from archival live performance recordings (GP 9003). Grand Prix followed this in 1984 with an album of "Mozart and other Opera Arias" (GP 9010). The original LP's of these are difficult to find. However, they are also digitally available from the Cambria Music Amazon store (though not at present on the Cambria Music website) in MP3 format, and from eClassical in the higher-fidelity FLAC 16. Cambria music themselves released two additional archival Warenskjold CD recordings: "A Treasury of Operatic Heroines" (CD-1111) in 1999, and "The Golden Years of Broadcast Music" (CD-1192) in 2009. These two CDs were from materials digitally restored by Lance Bowling of Cambria Music, in coordination with Warenskjold herself. Both are still available on the Cambria music direct website.

Warensjold is also featured in the opening track of the LP "Hail America", Carmen Dragon conducting, on RCA Custom Records (RR3S-1430). She sings "The Star Spangled Banner." This recording was given out to school children participating in the school version of the Standard Hour radio program. Numerous examples are available used.