Dorothy Lorayne Warenskjold (May 11, 1921 – December 27, 2010"United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (12 January 2021), Dorothy Lorayne Warenskjold, 27 Dec 2010; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).) 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. In addition to critical acclaim for her impeccable operatic performances, she achieved several decades of wide affection from cultured listeners across non-metropolitan North America, for her combination of radiotelevison and touring recitals. However, her early success was followed by later forgottenness. Long-time Chicago Symphony President Henry Fogel wrote, "Warenskjold was a fine lyric soprano who deserved a bigger career than she had."
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." Washington, County Marriages, 1855-2008", database with images, FamilySearch (24 April 2021), William E Warnskjold and Mildred L Stombs, 1919. Vancouver, Clarke County, Washington. He became an inventor, industrialist, and arts patron, knighted by Norwegian King Haakon VII. Her mother, Mildred Stombs,"California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, FamilySearch (27 November 2014), Stombs in entry for Dorothy L Warenskjold, 11 May 1921; citing Alameda, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento. was a professional pianist, voice teacher, and operatic coach.
Warenskjold grew up in nearby Oakland, Piedmont, and Diablo village."United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (accessed 31 July 2023), Dorothy Warenshjold in household of William E Warenshjold, Oakland, Alameda, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 121, sheet 14A, line 22, family 279, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 104; FHL microfilm 2,339,839."United States Census, 1940", database with images, FamilySearch (Sat Jul 29 08:17:10 UTC 2023), Entry for William Warenskjold and Mildrew Warenskjold, 1940. 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 would maintain a trim and fit condition throughout her singing career.
Planning to be an attorney, she pursued pre-legal training at Mills College in Oakland and at UC Berkeley, until her junior year, when Mabel Riegelman began giving her vocal lessons. 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). Her first experience with an orchestra was on December 27, 1945, at the annual Naval Station Treasure Island Christmas concert--with the San Francisco Symphony under Pierre Monteux. 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. 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. Metropolitan and SF Opera star Licia Albanese, a friend of Warenskjold's, was present in the house and potentially able to take over if she collapsed, but was not needed. The synergy of the tragic Liù role—struggling under torture to save her men—with the soprano's emotional situation (by then known throughout the War Memorial Opera House) produced a result that left a stunned audience 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. 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. Others at the SFO experienced this and made their own decisions. 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."
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", but that seemed to be remedied with experience. She normally would not, however, perform dramatic or dramatic-lyric roles: She was a praised Sophie but never a Marschallin (Rosenkavalier). Gaetano Merola once requested her to find out how many half steps downwards she would need to transpose the Mozart Queen of the Night (with its four high F's above high C) if she had to sing it in an emergency. From the result, it may be inferred that her top note was a high E flat above high C in a large hall, or a full E natural in studio or rehearsal. However, Warenskjold was unusually cautious in pushing her voice, and by the standards of some singers she possibly would have been physically capable of going a little higher (and bigger). She stated that, in a studio or small hall environment, she would occasionally make modest forays into spinto, dramatic-lyric or coloratura repertoire. A possible example would be her 10 performance run in 1961 as Violetta in La Traviata, at the Central City Opera in Colorado. The historic silver mining town Opera House seats an intimate 550--albeit at an altitude of 8,500 feet. 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.