Edward Patrick Johnson

Edward Patrick Johnson, CBE (22 August 187820 April 1959) was a Canadian operatic tenor who was billed outside North America as Edoardo Di Giovanni. He became general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan, New York City from 1935 to 1950.

Early life Born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, Johnson was the son of James Johnson and the former Margaret Jane Brown. The young tenor sang in his local church choir and at events in the Guelph area. At a concert in Stratford, Ontario in 1897, contralto Edith Miller encouraged him to move to New York and pursue a singing career. He sang as a soloist with several church choirs in the New York area. After this period he did much concert work, touring through the Mid-West with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and singing in many Music Festivals throughout the country. After a peripatetic existence for some years, working in a variety of venues and training with several masters, he made his concert debut at Carnegie Hall in 1904.

Johnson sang the lead role in the North American premiere of Oscar Straus's A Waltz Dream in 1907. In 1908 he moved to Paris, France and began training under Richard Barthélemy. He married Beatrice d'Arneiro, in London, in August 1909. His only child, Fiorenza, was born 21 December 1910. She married George Drew who later became Premier of Ontario and Federal Leader of the Opposition, and died in 1965.

Opera career

Johnson went to Italy in 1909, studying voice with Vincenzo Lombardi, in Florence. In 1914 he sang the title role in the first performance in Italian of Richard Wagner's Parsifal, under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. He sang in Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Buenos Aires. His London debut was in Gounod's Faust, alongside Nellie Melba. Performing "coast to coast", the duo gave concerts of operatic arias and duets. The pair wore costumes in presentation of scenes from various operas; including scenes from Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto. In the midst of their tour, they were told by representatives of Giacomo Puccini's estate that they were not allowed to perform his music from La bohème in costume unless they were accompanied by a full orchestra. Since they did not have a large orchestra with them on tour, Johnson and Ruth changed into concert dress for those selections beginning with their stop in Washington D.C. Garden City, New York, Washington D.C. (Washington Auditorium), Toronto, Canada, Los Angeles (Shrine Auditorium), Oakland, California (Oakland Civic Auditorium), Portland, Oregon (Portland Civic Auditorium), Oak Park, Illinois, Cleveland (Masonic Hall), and Akron, Ohio. In the midst of this tour Ruth, Johnson, and the pianist Elmer Zoller performed a concert of music broadcast nationally on radio across fifteen different radio stations on March 14, 1926.

As an opera director In May 1935, Johnson became general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, succeeding Herbert Witherspoon, who died just six weeks into his tenure. Johnson held the position for fifteen years. During this time, in 1943, he became a member of The Lambs.

Retirement Johnson retired from the Met on 15 June 1950 and was succeeded by Rudolf Bing. He returned to Guelph, promoting musical education and serving as chairman of the board of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He established the Edward Johnson Music Foundation, sponsor of the annual Guelph Spring Festival.

He suffered a heart attack and died while attending a National Ballet recital at the Guelph Memorial Gardens.

Thoughts on singing Not many rules "If you get right down to the bottom, there are in reality not so many singing rules to learn. You sing on the five vowels, and when you can do them loudly, softly, and with mezzo voce, you have a foundation upon which to build vocal mastery. And yet some people study eight, ten years without really laying the foundation. Why should it take the singer such a long time to master the material of his equipment? A lawyer or doctor, after leaving college, devotes three or four years only to preparing himself for his profession, receives his diploma, then sets up in business. It ought not to be so much more difficult to learn to sing than to learn these other professions." Edward Johnson 1934: Doctor of Music (D.Mus.) – University of Toronto. 1943: Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) – Union College, New York.