Claramae Turner was an American operatic contralto, perhaps best known for her appearance in the film Carousel, adapted from the Rodgers and Hammersteinstage musical of the same name.
Early life and career
Born in the high desert, outside Dinuba, California, she began her career at the Bush Street Music Hall in San Francisco, where she sang the contralto leads in Gilbert and Sullivan operas; at the same time she joined the chorus of San Francisco Opera. She made her San Francisco Opera principal debut as The Voice in Les contes d'Hoffmann in 1945, and sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1946 to 1950, appearing in Faust, Boris Godunov, Aïda, Hänsel und Gretel, Roméo et Juliette, Le nozze di Figaro, Siegfried, Cavalleria rusticana, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Peter Grimes, and Gianni Schicchi. Turner then sang with the New York City Opera from 1953 to 1969, in The Medium, Hänsel und Gretel, Œdipus rex, Suor Angelica, Carmen, Louise, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Dialogues des Carmélites, Bomarzo, Iolanthe, Lady Jane in Patience and The Mikado, among others. She created the role of Madame Flora in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium, in 1946 at its first performances at Columbia University. She reprised the role in an episode of Omnibus on television, conducted by Werner Torkanowsky. She also recorded the role of Ma Moss in Aaron Copland's The Tender Land, Bomarzo, and Gertrud in an English version of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, starring Risë Stevens and Nadine Conner. This performance was one of the first Metropolitan Opera record albums of a complete opera ever released. Miss Turner reprised the role on television in a performance on NBC Opera Theatre. For radio, she sang the role of Ulrica in Arturo Toscanini's 1954 legendary concert version of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, co-starring Herva Nelli, Jan Peerce, and Robert Merrill, in the Maestro's final complete operatic performance. This performance was later released on LP and CD by RCA Victor. In 1956, Turner appeared in her only film, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, based on the successful stage musical. In the film, she played the role of Nettie Fowler. She sang the role of Nettie again in a Command Recordsstudio cast recording of Carousel, starring Alfred Drake and Roberta Peters, recorded in 1962. The song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" was written for Turner, and it was she, not Tony Bennett, who originally sang it. However, it was Bennett who first recorded it. In 1965 Turner sang the role of Ma Moss in an abridged recording of Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land with the New York Philharmonic conducted by the composer. In 1970, Turner collaborated with Scott McKenzie, making a cameo appearance while McKenzie was performing at the Great American Music Hall. Together, they sang "San Francisco " as a duet. Fans praised Turner's version of the song, prompting her to record her own version in 1971, making it her first, last, and only pop tune. Albums have recently been released of Turner in complete live recordings of Verdi's La forza del destino, starring Zinka Milanov, Mario del Monaco, and Leonard Warren, in a New Orleans performance conducted by Walter Herbert, and the VerdiRequiem, conducted by Guido Cantelli.
Death
Turner retired in the 1980s and moved to a rural area, where she lived for the rest of her life. She died of natural causes on May 18, 2013, at her home in Santa Rosa, California. She was 92 years old.
