Nightingale who could sing in four languages

That Florence Easton lost the money almost as soon as she arrived in the big city mattered not. She was already on her way to becoming one of the world’s biggest opera stars of the first half of the 20th Century, and when she sang in New York she was known as the “Nightingale of South Bank”.

Next Friday, selections from her extensive repertoire will be sung by professional soprano Helena Leonard at a church hall in her home town.

It can only be a selection. As The Northern Echo said in her obituary in 1955: “She was one of the most outstanding and versatile singers of her generation.

At the height of her career, she could sing well over 100 roles at a moment’s notice.”

Florence was born in 1882 in Napier Street in South Bank.

Napier Street still survives in the shadow of the A66, although everything from Florence’s day has been cleared, except a Catholic church and a pub.

Her father, John, seems to have been a reporter for the North Star newspaper – a Conservative rival to The Northern Echo which was printed in the fruit-and-veg shop which today is opposite Wilkinson’s in Darlington town centre. He also worked for the Exchange paper in Middlesbrough and taught shorthand as a sideline.

Indeed, shortly after Florence’s death, F Pallister of Middlesbrough wrote to Hear All Sides recalling how he had visited John as a 14-year-old for some tuition. “His wife asked me to nurse her baby while she attended the kettle,” remembered Mr Pallister. “The baby was Florence.

“Mrs Easton was herself a soprano singer and I saw her faint on the platform of South Bank Town Hall.”

When the family emigrated to Canada in 1887, it became clear that Florence – or Flossie, as she was then known – had inherited her mother’s musical talents and she began appearing publicly as a pianist.

Flossie also became “violently ill”, underwent an operation and ended up in a body splint, although her disability was concealed from her legions of fans.

IN 1899, her mother, Isabella, died and the family returned to South Bank where Flossie’s paternal grandfather still ran a wholesale fruit merchants.

Florence Easton at the world premiere of Gianni Shicchi at the New York Met in 1918

She won a couple of local competitions and became the apple of the eye of local people who raised enough money for her to attend the prestigious academy in London.

However, she seems to have mislaid her fees on the day she arrived and needed to be baled out.

In 1902, she suffered a further setback. Her father died, and her grandmother summoned her back from Paris, where she was studying and singing, to South Bank.

“My grandparents had good old-fashioned ideas that a woman’s place to sing was in the home, and discouraged my efforts,” she later said. “They even selected a husband for me. When this point had been reached, I quietly disappeared, and once more went back to my vocal work.”

She made her operatic debut in Newcastle in 1902 and by 1905, aged 23, she was in north America where critics hailed her as the “voice of girlish romance”.

One of her biggest breaks came in 1906 when she was asked to play the lead in the US premiere of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.

Her career then took her to Berlin, where she became a firm favourite of Kaiser Wilhelm.

He personally kept her safe during the first year of the First World War, but she fled Germany in 1915 for Chicago.

Her dalliance with the enemy did not harm her reputation.

The Northern Echo’s obituary, August 15, 1955

At the Metropolitan Opera in New York, she was paid $900-a-performance.

On December 14, 1918, at the Met she starred in the world premiere of Puccini’s latest work, Gianni Schicchi, which was hailed as an “uproarious delight”. She played the lead role of Lancetta and, according to one critic, “the undoubted pearl of the evening” was when she sang O Mio Babbino Caro (My Beloved Papa).

This is one of Puccini’s bestloved arias. Even the untuned ear will recognise it, and it became her signature tune.

For the next 20 years, twice-married Florence was a world star. “She had her greatest triumphs in the opera houses of Germany and America,” said the Echo in its obituary.

“Her repertoire was exceptional, and she sang in four languages.”

But not very well. Her Italian pronunciation was, apparently, appalling.

That, though, was her only drawback. Her beautiful, light voice could fit any role and she had a superb memory for her parts.

Her co-star, Enrico Caruso, said: “Her head is like a music box. She takes off the lid, takes out one record and puts on another.”

“The Nightingale of South Bank” retired gradually during the Second World War. She died in Montreal in 1955, aged 72, although next week her songs will come back to life in her hometown.

Florence Easton as Cia-Cia San – Madame Butterfly – which was one of her greatest roles