A Grateful "Thank You" to Deanna Durbin, Who Turns 89 Today

Singer Deanna Durbin celebrates her 89th birthday today! One of my all-time favorite singers, she has a beautiful lyric soprano voice. She appeared in her first film Every Sunday, a short which costarred the then-unknown Judy Garland, when she was only fourteen. The same year she starred in her first feature film, becoming an overnight success. Her career lasted twelve years, in which she produced 21 films and a handful of shorts. In 1949, at the age of 27, she suddenly retired and continues to live privately in France. She had a classically trained voice, usually singing opera-style songs, although she did do some pop numbers. Her films were usually a little light on plot with the accent being on the music (she described her roles as Little-Miss-Fix-It who suddenly bursts into song), although she did try her hand at serious drama later on in her career. It was actually one of her movies that got me started on opera!

Mom found a a tape of her film, Because of Him, at the library one day. We had never heard of her, so she got it to try. Well, we tried it and the film wasn't good (we actually didn't even finish it) but I fell in love with her rendition of the classic song "Danny Boy". So, back to the library we trundled and this time got two more. The next one we tried was It Started with Eve, which costars Charles Laughton. It was hilarious and even Dad liked it, although she actually doesn't sing much. The second was First Love, which I fell in love with. For the finale, she sings Puccini's "One Fine Day" (with a wonderful English translation) from the opera Madame Butterfly. I was really interested. Back to the library again, this time for For the Love of Mary. A fantastically funny film, this is still one of our family favorites (it was also her final film before she retired). Here she sings "Largo al Factotum" from The Barber of Seville and I really, really liked it. So, I got a recording of the entire opera. I started listening to it, but it was slightly daunting and it went back to the library unfinished.



However, it doesn't stop there. The next one was His Butler's Sister, which has her singing "Nessun Dorma" at the climactic ending. I was really smitten. This was too beautiful to ignore! We went back to the library and got two cds, The Three Tenors 1994 Concert and The Ultimate Opera Divas Album. Driving home we listened to the Three Tenors, and I was amazed that Mom could tell who was singing by just listening - not even looking at the disc booklet! They all sounded the same to me, I certainly couldn't tell! I liked it, but I was really interested in hearing "One Fine Day", which was so far my favorite opera song (still is one of my favorites). So, that week while I was cleaning our room, I listened to the Divas cd. "One Fine Day" was beautiful and, feeling adventurous, I decided to start at the beginning and listen to the whole disc. When it came to "Casta Diva", I couldn't believe it. A minute into it and I knew that I had never heard anything quite like that! Looking at the disc case, I found out that it was somebody named Joan Sutherland singing the number. Never heard of her, but . . . WOW! I practically wore the disc out listening to it. When I played it for Mom, she didn't seem half impressed and she told me that Joan Sutherland had been around and she had seen her on TV and everything. I wasn't so easily persuaded that she was something to be shrugged at. So . . . (if you can't guess what came next, you haven't been paying enough attention! )

. . . Back to the LIBRARY! This time for the classic complete recording of Turandot, which features the legendary teaming of Dame Joan, Pavarotti, Montserrat Caballe, and Nicolai Ghiaurov. Still a beginner at the entire opera thing, I sat one evening and listened to the entire opera, waiting to hear "Nessun Dorma". (Imagine . . .I even sat through the entire Act 3! Annoying thing.) Well, it certainly fulfilled all my expectations. That cd set was actually the very first opera item that I purchased.

Ever since, Dame Joan has been one of my favorite opera singers. I have bunches of her records and cds, and several years ago I wrote her a letter and she was kind enough to send back a very wonderful personalized autographed photo. That was the second autograph I ever asked for. The first was . . . Deanna Durbin.

Now, I am an opera nut (and can tell the difference between the Three Tenors myself!), overwhelming the family with opera movies, music, books and magazines. So, "thank you" Deanna Durbin for opening a whole new world of music to,at least one little girl fifty years later!