Richie Ling (October 18, 1867 – March 5, 1937) was an English singer and actor, whose career was mainly in the United States. He was originally an operatic tenor, became a stage actor, and later made some silent films. He was the original Gold Star member of Actors' Equity Association, having been the first performer to heed the callout for the 1919 Actors' Strike. Among many Broadway productions, his portrayal of Fabius Maximus for Robert E. Sherwood's historical satire The Road to Rome was his longest running role at 396 performances. He was on the stage for more than fifty years, and had just finished a Broadway show two weeks before his death.
Early years Richard Wilson Ling was born on October 18, 1867,Richard Wilson Ling in the England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, retrieved from Ancestry.com in Hammersmith, London,1891 England Census for Richard W Ling, retrieved from Ancestry.com to Richard Thomas Ling and his wife Jane Bellamy. He was baptised at St Alphege London Wall on December 22, 1867. By 1891 he was living with his widowed mother, and sisters Agnes and Jennie, in Peckham, London.
UK career Opera His first known public performance was in September 1888, when he sang in the comic opera The Bey of Tunis by M. Audibert at Portland Hall in Southsea. Credited as "Richie Ling", he sang the lead role of Luigi, Prince of Sicily. The local reviewer said he "sang well", his final number "being received with rounds of applause and repeated." Two months later, he performed with the Carl Rosa Opera Company in a light opera, Paul Jones,A fictional treatment of John Paul Jones before the American Revolutionary War. by Robert Planquette and H. B. Farnie, performed at the Theatre Royal in Bolton. Ling would continue with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, playing the role of Rufino in Paul Jones, at venues throughout England and Scotland during 1889, up through June 1890.
Stage Ling is next heard of with the Anomalies Amateur Dramatic Club's production of Jim the Penman, in West Norwood, during May 1891. That same month he performed in an original one-act musical comedy called Sweepstakes. Both were short-lived productions; by June, Ling was reduced to a chorus part in a musical play.
US operatic career Vagabond tenor
The New York Times reported in late August 1891 that Richie Ling was sailing on RMS Aurania, having been signed by Rudolph Aronson for an engagement at the Casino Theatre. Ling would perform Count Stanislaus in Der Vogelhändler. For this engagement, the operetta's libretto was translated into English, and the work itself renamed The Tyrolean. Marie Tempest was also signed by Aronson for The Tyrolean, for which the English soprano would perform as Adam, the eponymous male lead. The Sun reported that Tempest did well in the trouser role while Ling was nervous on opening night. After two months, he was replaced in the company.
Following five months of occasional recitals, Ling joined the King's Opera Comique Company in Philadelphia, where he was cast for the role of Arthur in Falka, and Symon Symonovici in The Beggar Student. He is next heard of with an operetta company called The Albanians performing the Louis Varney work called The Musketeers. During late April 1893 he joined the O'Neill Grand and Comic Opera Company for a tour of the southeastern United States, which collapsed in June 1893 under the weight of temperament. The company had two prima donnas; when they quarrelled, the other members took sides. Ling and music director Max Hirschfeld sided with soprano Agnes Delaporte. He then joined the Reed Opera Company in St. Louis, where he "considerably strengthened" the troupe. After a summer season in St. Louis, Ling returned to New York to be pronounced "somewhat weak" as Philémon in Philémon et Baucis, criticism that was repeated as he played the role on tour with the Duff Opera Company.
Ling rejoined diva Agnes Delaporte in April 1894, who now headed her own company. The company's first performance at Elmira, New York drew a scathing review from the local critic, though Ling was judged the best member of the company. For the summer of 1894, Ling returned to St. Louis, this time with the Hagan Opera Company, at a venue called Terrace Park.
Lillian Russell After three years in America, moving from one short-lived opera company to another, Ling was hired by Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau in January 1895 as leading tenor for the Lillian Russell Opera Company. This brought stability to his career and professional exposure on a national scale. He began by singing Piquillo in a revival of La Périchole at the Chicago Opera House on February 21, 1895, making "a most agreeable impression". The Chicago Tribune went further, saying Ling was "a vast improvement in the personnel of the company". The company alternated La Périchole with The Grand Duchess on a tour of major Eastern and Midwestern cities. A typical assessment of Ling on the tour was that he "sang pretty well and acted even better".
During May 1895 the Lillian Russell Opera Company debuted a new work, The Tzigane. This lacked a leading tenor role, so Ling went with the Castle Square Opera CompanyMax Hirschfeld, who Ling had worked with at the O'Neill Company, was now music director for Castle Square. for the summer, but was to return to Lillian Russell's Company. Ling joined a revised The Tzigane in time for its Boston opening in September 1895, taking the minor part of Naryschkin. Russell's tour alternated The Tzigane with La Périchole, and later The Little Duke; for the latter two works Ling was the leading male.
Russell and Ling sang in the first performance of The Goddess of Truth, a new light opera by Julian Edwards and Stanislaus Stange, in Baltimore during February 1896. Later that month the opera premiered on Broadway at Abbey's Theatre. The reviewer for The New York Times was not impressed with the operetta nor Lillian Russell personally, but grudgingly acknowledged the work's popular appeal and admitted Ling "tolerably seconded" Russell's performance. The Goddess of Truth was added to the repertoire of Russell's company, and Ling continued to tour as her leading man until Russell's voice broke down while singing La Périchole on April 30, 1896.
Ling briefly joined a summer season opera company at the American Theater in Manhattan, starting with The Bohemian Girl, followed by The Mikado, both of which he had sung before. He sailed for Europe in early June 1896, returning by September when he rejoined Russell's company for a tryout of An American Beauty, by Gustave Kerker and Hugh Morton. He toured with Russell through December, but in January 1897 rejoined the Castle Square Opera Company in Boston.
Castle Square Opera Company At Castle Square Ling sang in The Gondoliers for the first time. Another new work for him was the eponymous role in Lohengrin, and a third was Cavalleria rusticana. He also sang in a four-act English version of Mignon. The pinnacle of his season came with Il trovatore, where he sang Manrico, his first known grand opera role. For all of these "firsts" he was paired with soprano Clara Lane; the local reviewer said they both "sang excellently". Ling was sent out with the Castle Square Opera Company for a summer season based at the Academy of Music in Baltimore. Among other works, he performed Don José in Carmen.
By July 1897, Ling was signed for Vernona Jarbeau's company in a new comic opera, The Paris Doll, by Reginald De Koven and Harry B. Smith. The initial performances took place in September 1897, with a local reviewer in New Haven, Connecticut saying "Mr. Richie Ling as Tito was by far the best vocalist in the company. His voice is of pure tenor quality and remarkably robust". Ling toured with this company until November, when he reunited with Clara Lane in a Boston Lyric OperaThe new name for the Castle Square Opera Company. production of Carmen at Chicago's Great Northern Theatre. During one performance Ling lost part of his thumb in the Act III fight between Don José and Escamillo (J. K. Murray), but finished the opera after being bandaged. While in Chicago, the Boston Lyric played its repertoire of works, including The Pirates of Penzance, for which Ling sang Frederic. Ling stayed with the company on tour, arriving back in Boston during late March 1898, where he performed through mid-April, but then quit over a $50 per week reduction in salary.
Later opera companies
Richie Ling returned to Chicago, joining the Schiller Opera Company to sing in The Beggar Student opposite Dorothy Morton. During June 1898, after many weeks with this company, he declined the role of Rufino in Paul Jones, which he had last sung in England eight years before. This revival had been prompted by the recent naval victory of Admiral Dewey over the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay. The libretto requires the Spanish naval officer to tear down an American flagA revision from the original, which had Jones fighting under a Union Jack before the American Revolution. and spit on it. As an Englishman, Ling felt he couldn't get away with doing this on an American stage, so a substitute tenor was hired. Ling never regained his traction with this company, so he went to England for a visit. There he saw the original production of A Runaway Girl, and early August found him in New York as a member of Augustin Daly's company, rehearsing for the American debut of this work. However, the production debuted without Ling, who disappeared from the American stage for more than a year.
When he did reappear, it was in an August 1899 benefit production of As You Like It, where he played Amiens. He next sang opposite Alice Nielsen in The Singing Girl by Victor Herbert and Stanislaus Stange. This debuted at Her Majesty's Theatre, Montreal, on October 2, 1899. Its Broadway premiere came at the Casino Theatre on October 23, 1899, with The New York Times critic saying "Richie Ling looked well and acted satisfactorily but he did not always sing in tune". After its Broadway run ended in January 1900, Ling went on tour with The Singing Girl, but fell seriously ill in Pittsburgh during February 1900. He spent five weeks in hospital there, then was transported to New York where he was still too sick to work in May 1900. The Singing Girl company stayed on after their season to give a benefit performance for Ling in Providence, Rhode Island on May 16, 1900.
It was five months later, in October 1900, that Ling resumed singing, rejoining the Alice Nielsen Opera Company on its tour with The Singing Girl. He now also had a role in the company's alternate work, The Fortuneteller. The tour finished up playing this latter opera in Washington, D.C., during early March 1901. Alice Nielsen took her company to London next, but Ling decided to remain in America. He instead joined the Garden Theatre Opera Company for its summer season in Cleveland, where he sang for the opening in El Capitan. Ling sang opposite soprano Eleanor Kent for the season, as in The Daughter of the Regiment where he was Tony to her Marie. He finished with the title role in Fra Diavolo, taking August 1901 off to rest.
Musical comedy and comic opera