Bertha May Crawford (June 20, 1886 – May 26, 1937) was a Canadian opera singer. She built an international reputation as a lyric coloratura soprano in the early 20th century in eastern Europe, performing prima donna roles with opera companies in Russia and Poland between 1914 and 1934. At her death in 1937, music critics considered her the most distinguished soprano produced in that century in Canada.Canadian Prima Donna Dead. (1937, May 29). The Leader Post, Regina, Saskatchewan, p.2. She is remembered as having "a high lyric soprano of great beauty and agility" and was best known for her performances as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Violetta in La traviata, and Gilda in Rigoletto.McPherson, James B. "Crawford, Bertha".The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.
Early days in Canada Crawford was born in the small rural community of Elmvale, Ontario on June 20, 1886, the second daughter of John Crawford, a tailor of Scottish Presbyterian descent, and Maud Robertson.Ontario Census, 1901 and 1911 She grew up singing in trios and quartets with her parents and older sister.Canadian Girl Sings Opera in Petrograd. (1915, September 22). Christian Science Monitor p.4. The Crawford family moved to Toronto just after the turn of the century where Bertha became a student of Edward W. Schuch, Choirmaster at the Church of the Redeemer (Toronto).Lock, William. "Schuch, Edward" The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.
In the early part of the decade, Crawford performed as a solo soprano in local church concerts, benefits and entertainments in Toronto. In 1904, aged 18, she sang at a benefit for the Willard Home for Girls at the Guild HallFor the Willard Home. (1904, August 24). The Globe, Toronto, p.12. and by 1905 she was the lead soprano at the Erskine Presbyterian Church.Mr. E.W. Schuch - Voice Culture and Expression in Singing. (1905, September 5). Toronto Daily Star, p.19 In 1906 she was appointed to sing at the Sherbourne Street Methodist Church. She sang on the stage of Massey Hall at a fundraiser for the Grace Hospital in 1905 Music and the drama. (1905, January 21). The Globe, Toronto, p. 10. and at a meeting of the Canadian Temperance League in 1906.Sunday at Massey Hall. (1906, November 3). The Globe, Toronto, p. 13. In 1907 she was the "chief triumph" in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance put on by the E.W. Schuch Opera Singers,An Operatic Month. (1907). Musical Canada, 2(1), p.33. and in November 1907 she entertained at the annual concert of the Loyal Orange County Lodge of Toronto at Massey Hall.Music and the Drama. (1907, November 6). The Globe, Toronto, p. 12. During the summer of 1907 she appeared at the Jamestown Exposition in Norfolk, Virginia,At the Theatres. (1909, November 6). Brandon Daily Sun, p.4 and she toured briefly with a concert party on the lyceum circuit in the southern United States in the spring of 1907.
From 1908 when she was only 21, Crawford achieved the pinnacle of church singing in Canada, signing annual contracts for three years as a soprano soloist with the Metropolitan Methodist Church of Toronto, one of the most prominent Protestant churches in the country. She also performed in other churches, for instance in October 1909 she was one of the 'professional talent' who performed at a concert at the Victoria Presbyterian Church in Toronto.Parkhurst, E.R. (1909, October 22). Music and Drama. The Globe, Toronto, p.14.
In the latter part of the decade she began to travel extensively as a performer. During the fall and winter of 1909-10 and 1910–11, Crawford joined the H. Ruthven MacDonald Concert Party for five-month tours of the cities and small towns of western Canada. Crawford sang solos and performed duets with baritone MacDonald, while Mrs. MacDonald accompanied on the piano and an elocutionist provided complementary interludes. The company criss-crossed the Prairie Provinces appearing in halls, churches and theatres in communities from Winnipeg, Manitoba,Music and Drama. (1910, November 1). Manitoba Free Press, p.9. to places like Lethbridge,Theatrical. (1911, January 28). Lethbridge Daily Herald, p.8. Red Deer,Local and General. (1911, January 18). Red Deer News. Crossfield,Local and General. (1911, January 6). Crossfield Chronicle. ClaresholmRuthven MacDonald Coming. (1911, January 19). Claresholm Review. and Frank, in Alberta.Happenings in and Around Frank. (1911, April 27). Blairmore Enterprise.
European career launched Crawford left Canada in 1911 to pursue studies in London.Bertha Crawford and Les Grenadiers. (1922 Janvier 21). Le Canada Musical, p.15 There she studied under a Czech tenor, Otto Morando, who later became the senior voice teacher at the Canadian Academy of Music in Toronto.The Canadian Academy of Music Limited Toronto. Toronto, ON: Canadian Academy of Music, 1914. She also studied with Olga de Nevosky, and was a featured concert soloist in performances at the Queen's Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.Berta M. Crawford, Once an Opera Singer. (1937, May 28). The New York Times. With the support of Signor Morando, she went on to Milan to study with Italian soprano Emilia Corsi.
In May 1913, aged 27, Crawford made her Italian debut in Pagliacci, in Salo, Italy under the stage name of Berta de Giovanni.Toronto Prima Donna Makes Italian Debut. (1913, May 4). The Toronto Sunday World, p. 5. She also performed as Gilda in Rigoletto in Venice the same year, and toured provincial opera houses across Italy.
In December 1913, Crawford debuted with the Polish National Opera. She sang as a guest performer opposite Riccardo Stracciari, Romano Charini and Dmitri Smirnov. However, her first spell in Poland was interrupted by the First World War and Crawford left Warsaw for Russia ahead of the German advance on the Eastern Front in late 1914. In February 1915 she debuted at the Narodny Dom (People's House) in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) in a performance of Rigoletto opposite baritone Jacob Lukin.Parkhurst, E.R. (1915, July). Bertha Crawford's Success. Musical Canada 10(3), 64. She sang in Petrograd through to April 1914, performing in Rossini's Barber of Seville, and in La Traviatta singing in both Italian and Russian and audiences found her voice "rich, melodious and ringing" and her acting "bright and spontaneous". She returned to Warsaw briefly in the summer of 1915 where she sang in La Traviata at the summer theatre in the Saxon Garden, before escaping back to Russia again before the Germans took Warsaw in August 1915. In the fall of 1915, she made guest appearances with the S.I. Zimin Opera Company in Moscow.
During the First World War she represented the Allies in a number of charity concerts including one organized by the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, and she received an award from the Grand Duchess Tatiana at the Winter Palace. In the summer of 1916, she toured with a five-member concert party in the Caucuses, and also performed in Petrograd and traveled south to Odessa where she sang in a concert honoring Nikola Pašić the Premier of Serbia at the Odessa Opera.Parkhurst, E.R. (1916, August). Toronto Singer In Russia. Musical Canada 11(4), 59. By March 1917 when the Russian revolution broke out, Crawford had come back west to Helsinki, Finland and she did not return to Petrograd until after the Bolsheviks took power in the fall of 1917. During 1917 she joined a cross-country tour which took her as far east as Vladivostok before returning to Finland. During her time in Russia she sang with such major Russian opera stars as a bass Feodor Chaliapin, tenor Leonid Sobinov, and tenor Dmitri Smirnov.
Success on Stages Across Poland After the end of the First World War, in late 1918 Crawford returned to Warsaw. She appeared with the Warsaw Philharmonic in a concert in honor of the victorious allies at the end of January 1919 under the baton of Emil Mlynarski. In addition to performing opera in Warsaw, during the 1920s Crawford sang regularly with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra(1919). Kurier Warszawski No. 26, p. 10.(1920). Kurier Warszawski No. 282, P. 5.(1920). Gazeta Warszawska, No 273, p.2.(1922). Gazeta Warszawska, No. 442, p.2. and the Warsaw Symphonic Orchestra(1927). Gazeta Warszawska poranna, No. 272, p.4. under conductors such as Grzegorz Fitelberg and Zdzisław Birnbaum.
She also performed widely in the provinces of what was then Poland. She made occasional appearances in Łódź in March 1919,Halpern, F. (1919, March 15). Korespondencje. Łódź, w lutym. Przegląd Muzyczny No. 6(146), p. 10. 1926, and 1928 and at the Lviv Grand Theatre in October 1920. She also appeared with the Kraków Opera in 1920 and the Lublin Music Society in 1924. She was a frequent guest performer at the Poznań Opera in 1921 and 1922, and she sang regularly with the Opera Pomorska in 1926 and 1927, which performed in the municipal theatres of the three cities of Toruń, Bydgoszcz and Grudziądz, in the province of Pomerania.Komorowska, Małgorzata. (2008) Za kurtyną lat: polskie teatry operowe i operetkowe. Kraków: Impuls. She held recitals in Vilnius in early 1927 and in 1930.Szliegowski, T. (1927, March). Muzyka.
During her career on the opera stage in Europe Crawford specialized in the classic coloratura roles, particularly roles by Verdi, such as Gilda in Rigoletto ('Caro Nome' was one of her favorite recital pieces); Violetta in La Traviata; and Rosina in Rossini's Barber of SevilleKutsch, K.J. and L. Riemens. (1997). Gross Sangerlexikon, Band 1: Aarden-Devais. Bern und Munchen: K.G. Saur. and Marguerite in Gounod's Faust.(1924). Kurier Warszawski No. 169, pp. 6–7. She sang opposite prominent Polish tenors and baritones, including international Polish star Adam Didur when he came to Warsaw in June 1924 and in Lodz in April 1928.
A Trans-Atlantic interlude In 1921, 1922 and 1923, Crawford spent the fall and winter in Canada and returned each summer to Poland. She came home as a star with an international reputation and performed her first recital in Canada in ten years to a sold-out audience at Grant Hall, at Queen's University in Kingston, in October 1921.Bertha Crawford Charms Audience in Grant Hall. (1921, October 28). The Globe, Toronto, p. 3. In Toronto she agreed to a series of concerts at Massey Hall with the Toronto impresario, I.E. Suckling. On November 9, 1921, she sang selections from Rigoletto and Dinorah and reviewers commended her "pure light soprano voice, with an exceptionally good middle register...her florid work was finely finished..."Parkhurst, E.R. (1921, November 10). Music and the Drama: NY Symphony Orchestra and Bertha Crawford Score Most Brilliant Triumphs. The Globe, Toronto, p.9. and her "almost perfect intonations...and wonderful breath control and versatility of technique."Miss Crawford Scores Vocal Triumph Here. (1921, November 10). The Toronto Daily Star, p. 13. On January 29, 1922 she sang with the Canadian Grenadier Guards Band at His Majesty's Theatre in Montreal,Les Grenadiers. (1922, février 4). Le Canada Musical, p. 13. and in an April recital at Massey Hall she sang numbers by Antonio Lotti and Veracini, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, and "astonished her hearers by the perfection of a long sustained trill proceeding from pianissimo to forte, and the dying away almost to the vanishing point, and then renewed with fresh brilliancy."Parkhurst, E.R. (1922, April 7). Music and the Drama: Crawford-Salvi Concert. The Globe, Toronto, p. x15.