Dorothy Warenskjold

Dorothy Lorayne Warenskjold (May 11, 1921 – December 27, 2010 ) 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; other recordings were later released from restored material. She was fully California born, trained, and resident, in an era when the ranks of classical singers were dominated by Europe or New York.

Early Years Born in San Leandro, California, Dorothy Warenskjold (pronounced "Warrenshold") was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. William Earl Warenskjold. Her paternal grandfather, Axel Warenskjold, had immigrated from Norway--travelling alone at age 15 and leaving behind 19 siblings. He became an inventor, industrialist, and arts patron, knighted by Norwegian King Haakon VII.thumb Axel Warenskjold Mansion, 50 Bellevue Ave., Piedmont CA Her mother, Mildred Stombs, was a professional pianist, voice teacher, and operatic coach. She attended the private Miss Wallace's School for Girls, and was active in school music and theater, as well as winning the mathematics prize upon graduation. She was popular for her kindness, and strongly athletic, enjoying swimming, golf, and riding. Her tennis game in her youth approached professional levels; she had trained with the same coach as tennis champion Don Budge. She graduated from Mills College in 1943 with a BA in languages and a minor in music.

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

Career One of Warenskjold's first significant performances was on September 18, 1943, at the Edvard Grieg Centennial Concert in San Francisco, singing in Norwegian. San Francisco Chronicle music critic Alfred Frankenstein attended and noted her for the future. She also sang repeatedly in the city for religious holidays and services at St. Luke's Church and Temple Emanuel (singing in Latin and phonetically-learned Hebrew, respectively). In 1947, the soprano was hired for The Standard School Broadcast, an association that would span 22 years; this was soon followed by performances on The Standard Hour evening broadcast.

San Francisco Operatic Career As an opera singer, Warenskjold worked mainly with the San Francisco Opera (SFO). Founder Gaetano Merola had spotted her while conducting a broadcast of The Standard Hour from the California State Fair, in Sacramento. The soprano made her debut on October 7, 1948 as Nannetta in Giuseppe Verdi's Falstaff. Her debut had ended up being accelerated, on short notice, related to a potential casting emergency at the opera—and in the musically more difficult (though less exposed) Nannetta, compared with the originally announced Micaela in Carmen. William Steinberg from the New York Philharmonic was conducting; she had not previously either studied Nannetta or stood on a professional opera stage. Critical response was strongly positive. thumb San Francisco War Memorial Opera House at night She performed Micaela on October 17 as originally scheduled; San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Alfred Frankenstein wrote, "Seldom has an audience given Micaela so marked an ovation". She sang with the SFO for the next eight consecutive seasons (1948-1955), performing such roles as Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Marzelline in Fidelio, Micaëla in Carmen, Mimì in La Bohème, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Sophie in Werther, Liù in Turandot, and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier.

A notable event occurred in Turandot, on October 11, 1953, when Warenskjold disciplined herself to perform the slave girl Liù 14 hours after her father's midnight death from a sudden heart attack. and drew mention by over 150 newspapers , including on the East Coast. A house transcription recording was made, which was also distributed by Armed Forces Radio Network; Liù's grim final aria Tu, che di gel sei cinta from this performance appears on the Cambria CD "A Treasury of Operatic Heroines" (see Discography below).

The soprano's next-to-final appearance at the SFO was in October 1955 as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (in Schwarzkopf's North American operatic debut) as the Marschallin and Frances Bible as Octavian. Erich Leinsdorf conducted. Critic and opera historian Arthur Bloomfield wrote, "...this was a Rosenkavalier which set a standard for seasons to come." Images from it are sold to the present day at the SFO bookstore. thumb Dorothy Warenskjold as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Alfred Frankenstein had previously written, "Miss Warenskjold is one of the most heart-breaking interpreters of Sophie's music that it has been my privilege to hear."

Warenskjold later stated that she left the SF Opera due to new SFO General Director Kurt Herbert Adler proving to be much harder to work with than founder Gaetano Merola. The preponderance of stayers would reap the benefits of Adler's enormous, successful, expansion of programs in the ensuing decades; she would not. She left on polite terms, and was later to collaborate repeatedly with him in adjudicating major opera auditions, as well as being invited by him to sing at the 50th anniversary celebration of the SFO and announced as one of the honored guests at Adler's own 25th/50th Jubilee gala in 1978. The soprano's sudden disappearance from the SFO caused a degree of puzzlement and sense of loss among opera cognoscenti. Longtime operatic scholar and reviewer James Forrest, referencing Rosenkavalier, later wrote of "... the beloved California soprano Dorothy Warenskjold, my first Sophie (1955) whose SFO career inexplicably ended that year only a performance or two after I heard her in Los Angeles. She sang four Micaëlas in Chicago in 1959 (critics raved; I’ve never heard better). I never heard her in person again; she was not yet 40."

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 tenor Jussi Bjorling's last leading lady, Marguerite to his Faust, in his final operatic performance before his death at age 49. San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Dean Wallace wrote: "Bjorling was in splendid voice...one of his finest seasons...but in no way did he outshine Miss Warenskjold." Dorothy Warenskjold, age 5, wolfing cherries at San Leandro Cherry festival. The Oakland Post-Enquirer, May 27 1926.

Voice and Stage Presentation

Warenskjold was a pure lyric soprano. SF Opera founder Gaetano Merola liked to compare her to Claudia Muzio. She was noted for her crystal clarity of line, purity of tone, and meticulous technique, combined with instinctive artistry. At the same time she was capable of a pleasant conversational affect in her singing when wanted. The soprano had been trained with the Vaccai exercises by her teacher, Mabel Riegelman. Her surviving recordings show remarkable consistency over a span of several decades; she was also a non-smoker. The size of her voice has generally been characterized as "medium". One reviewer had described her voice during her Nannetta debut as "a bit light at this first appearance", However, in August 1952, she had also sung a concert 2nd act of La Traviata outdoors at the Hollywood Bowl (with its seating capacity of over 17,000). She reported that her voice had no difficulty filling the Bowl without amplification, in its acoustic golden era before the hillsides were cut back to supply extra parking.

The soprano was noted for her "delightful" stage presence, coupled with appearance and personal charm. thumb Dorothy Warenskjold in her 3rd Act riding costume, probably personally owned, from the opera Martha.Her lithe, athletic figure was a help in youthful roles; for example, she wore the Act Three riding habit in Martha easily and convincingly, being in fact an actual horsewoman. She stated that her emphasis was on traditional stagecraft, using a repertoire of practiced moves applied with an intelligent awareness of the character;

Standard Hour broadcast from the War Memorial Opera House. San Francisco Symphony in the pit, often Pierre Monteux on the baton, 10 ft concert grand stage left, Dorothy Warenskjold at the mike. America west of the Rockies listening on AM radio via high-powered telephone lines.thumb Dorothy Warenskjold with Walt Disney and tenor James Melton on the set of Melton's "Ford Festival" show. She was frequently heard on the programs Harvest of Stars, Ford Festival, The Standard Hour, The Standard School Broadcast, The Voice of Firestone, The Railroad Hour, Family Theater, and also on Armed Forces Radio Network. A restored kinescope of her April 26, 1951 appearance on episode 4 of James Melton's Ford Festival TV show (alongside Victor Borge and Joan Bennett) is viewable online. In 1950, she performed the roles of Antonia and Stella in the NBC Opera Theatre's television production of The Tales of Hoffmann. Warenskjold stated that in 1951—at the peak of her RTV success—she had declined an offer from the Metropolitan Opera, she did considerable research into finding song repertoire. Mostly under the Community Concerts program of Columbia Artists Management (CAMI), she maintained a level of 35-40 touring recitals a year for many seasons, with ticket sales aided by audiences having heard her on the radio. Her predominant piano accompanist was Rollin Andrew Jensen, but she also worked with Jack Crossan, her mother Mildred, and others. A "first in her career" occurred in the Pacific coast village of Port Townsend, Washington, in 1953, when she shattered the eyeglasses of a 12 year old child in the audience during a high note; the soprano said she had never succeeded when deliberately trying at home. Her mid-American recital touring was appreciated. In Monticello, Utah, then a town of 1,100 people, over 600 subscribed to her appearance in the opening of their new concert series.

However, during the 1960s, changing tastes and increasing prosperity shifted audience demand towards group acts, causing a steady decline in the solo recital market. The cast comprised Warenskjold, 8 additional (mostly younger) singers, and a veteran pianist, Raymond McFeeters (who had also been accompanist to Lily Pons, Marian Anderson, and Lawrence Tibbett). The first half of the program was an abridged Gounod Faust (opera), with Warenskjold singing the role of Marguerite, and the second half was a history of the American musical theater, "From Minstrel to Musical". The group toured the U.S. and Canada for 3 seasons (1969-1971), averaging 45-50 performances per season. Critics and audiences were enthusiastic, but after the 1971 season, she discontinued the production due to exhaustion from running it.

Warenskjold did not sing again in public afterwards.

Post-retirement Royce Hall, Performing Arts Auditorium at UCLA She continued and expanded her audition adjudicating, including for the Metropolitan Opera. 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 Dorothy Warenskjold never married. Her fiance had been shot down during World War II, over the German fleet base at Kiel 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. thumb Dorothy Warenskjold in Lilian Barber's home at age 87, August 2008. Courtesy of Lilian Barber.In 2004, she moved to Lenexa, Kansas to be near remaining family. She died there two days after Christmas, 2010, at age 89. James Forrest wrote, "Another under-utilized American artist; a lovely voice."

Discography Few recordings were released of Dorothy Warenskjold during her career. Los Angeles Times reviewer Allan Ulrich wrote: "In her prime...the California-born and trained soprano was flagrantly ignored by commercial record companies." However, digital restorers commenced additional archival releases after her retirement.

Warenskjold's intra-career releases totalled three—one as sidekick to Hollywood and Broadway star Gordon MacRae (who had been her leading man on The Railroad Hour radio show), and two in her own right:

Songs from “The Student Prince”, 1953, LP, Capitol (L-407), with Gordon MacRae, George Greeley conducting. Songs of Grieg and Dvořák, 1954, LP, Capitol (P-8247), George Greeley again conducting, with the Concert Arts Orchestra. Eight Grieg songs; seven gypsy songs and 4 love songs by Antonín Dvořák. "On Wings of Song", 1955, LP, Capitol (P-8333). Solo, with Jack Crossan on piano.

Used availability of these Capitol discs is uneven. Variants included overseas releases, bundlings, and a cut-down 45 RPM "extended play" (EP) of the Grieg/Dvořák songs (Capitol FAP-8250).

Commencing in 1979, seven years after Warenskjold's retirement, a series of audio and video restorers—Steve Markham (Grand Prix Records), Lance Bowling (Cambria Master Recordings), Richard Caniell (Immortal Performances), Allan Altman/Edward Cardona (Video Artists International, VAI) and staff at OTRCAT (Old Time Radio Catalog)--began releasing discs from her archival performance and broadcast material. Los Angeles Times reviewer Allan Ulrich further wrote of the second of the Grand Prix discs: "A revelation and a confirmation of native vocal talent...golden-throated." A highlight of the Warenskjold archival releases, is a number of tracks with Pierre Monteux as conductor.

Seven archival releases have occurred as of late 2025; the first four were done in cooperation with Warenskjold herself:

"A Recital Experience with Dorothy Warenskjold", 1979, LP, Grand Prix Records (GP 9003). Rollin Andrew Jensen at the piano. "Mozart and other Opera Arias", 1984, LP, Grand Prix Records (GP 9010). "A Treasury of Operatic Heroines", 1999, CD, Cambria Master Recordings (CD-1111). "The Golden Years of Broadcast Music", 2009, CD, Cambria Master Recordings (CD-1192). "Der Rosenkavalier", 2016, 4 CD set, Immortal Performances (IPCD 1050-4). Disc 4 features Warenskjold as Sophie in Scenes from Der Rosenkavalier, recorded outdoors at the Hollywood Bowl in 1959. Co-stars are Lisa Della Casa and Mildred Miller. Three unrelated solo Warenskjold arias are also included. The first three disks of the set comprise a complete Rosenkavalier with a different cast—Della Casa and others (Immortal Performances in Canada, as opposed to a similarly-named audio restorer in Texas). "The Golden Age of Singing", 2024, DVD ongoing series, VAI. Warenskjold sings the Charpentier aria Depuis Le Jour on one track of Vol. 3, "The Scandinavians", ( VAI 4703), and the final trio from Faust in Vol. 4, "The Italians", ( VAI 4704), with Cesare Valletti and Cesare Siepi. These are restored from Voice of Firestone archival kinescopes. "The Railroad Hour", 2025, 6 MP3-CD set (or 138 audio CD), OTRCAT Old Time Radio Catalog. Warenskjold appears as the female lead in over 60 episodes. Show scripts were miniatures of historical themes or much-loved operettas, with music arranged and conducted by Carmen Dragon. This comprises the largest mass of publicly available Warenskjold recorded material.

The Grand Prix LP's are difficult to find. However, they are also digitally available from the Cambria Master Recordings Amazon store (though not at present on the Cambria website) in MP3 format, and from eClassical in the higher-fidelity FLAC 16. All CDs and DVDs are still (late 2024) available from the respective websites.

Other pieces of Warenskjold recorded material are variously available. Several Voice of Firestone song tracks are available on YouTube, often with unrestored sound but visual stills added, as are several Railroad Hour episodes. Warenskjold also sings The Star Spangled Banner in the opening track of "Hail America", LP, RCA Custom Records (RR3S-1430), Carmen Dragon conductor and arranger. This recording of patriotic songs, featuring various well-known singers, was given out to children participating in the school version of the Standard Hour radio program. Numerous examples are available used. A tribute to George London (bass-baritone), featuring Warenskjold in no fewer than 4 duets and 2 solos, was released on VHS in 1990 (and later on DVD) by the now-defunct Kultur in New Jersey. It is based on Voice of Firestone video originally restored by VAI. Copies are vanishingly rare.

Copies of a 1954 New Orleans Opera Carmen featuring Warenskjold are available on eBay. The sound, unrestored, is from a primitive house wire recorder. But this 2 CD set remains the only publicly available complete Warenskjold operatic performance--and in one of her signature roles as Micaela.