RIP Nan Merriman 1920-2012

[josephazannieri]

Yo vocal music listeners:

I received unfortunate news yesterday. My favorite mezzo-soprano, Nan Merriman, died at age 92 on July 22, 2012 in Los Angeles from "complications of old age."

Merriman is best known in the U. S. for her 11 year stint as a regular soloist on the NBC Symphony broadcasts under Arturo Toscanini. From age 16, she sang in movies, in choruses and as a soloist, often in movies with Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy. (Smiling Through, 1941) Her solo debut in LA was at an Easter Sunday sunrise service in 1940. She was then discovered again by Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Liegh in 1941. They were mounting a lavish production of Romeo and Juliet for New York, and they hired her to sing to cover the scene changes. She debuted with the Cincinnati, Ohio summer opera in 1942, winning a contest and becoming the first of 4 candidates picked from among 3000 applicants.

While perfoming in Cincinnati she entered another contest sponsored by the National Federation of Music Clubs. Part of her prize was 15 minutes of air time, in the form of a short recital with the NBC Symphony in 1943. The broadcast was heard by Arturo Toscanini, who evidently was not conducting that night. He summoned her for an audition and hired her on the spot. This led to her association with the NBC Symphony, which lasted until Toscanini's retirement in in 1954. She made many full length opera recordings under Toscanini in the period 1948 to 1954, including Otello (Emilia)and Falstaff (Meg Page), which are both still available on CD.

After Toscanini's retirement, she moved to Europe. In 1954, she undertook what was to become her best known and favorite role, Dorabella in Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte," performed many times by her and her best known collaborator, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. An example from that show follows:
http://youtu.be/XPshz3-3p-M
Merriman exhibits here the dark, rich, chocolaty sound for which she was known, and her expressive use of vibrato. She was recorded many times by RCA, EMI, and DG, under many conductors, including Toscanini, Hermann Scherchen, and Leopold Stokowski and many others, including Toscanini's unfortunate protege Guido Cantelli.

Merriman continued her career in Europe, performing in North and South America, the U. S., Canada and Europe, until 1965, when she stepped off the stage, fulfilling a promise she had made to herself at age 18, that she would quit on her 45th birthday. Shortly after her final performance in Amsterdam, she married the Dutch tenor Tom Brand. The last Youtube clip is from her second to last performance, April 27, 1965. http://youtu.be/-zzcP3Da4Vg. The song is a good example of her extensive and adventurous recital repertory, which included much 20th century Spanish material, the best known of which is Manuel De Falla's dark ballet "El Amor Brujo."

Tom Brand died in 1970, and Merriman, after staying in Holland to finish raising Brand's 10 children, returned to Los Angeles in 1973, residing there until her recent death. She will be missed by many fans, including this one.

And good luck from that sad old guy, with a wish for eternal peace and happiness to Nan,

Joe Z.

[bauzace50]

Thankyou for this detailed obituary. From one admirer of Ms. Merriman.
b50

[majerjack]

Joe,

As is usual with your posts, I enjoyed reading this one and learned something as well. I like your direct way of presenting your information and hope to read more from you in the future.

As to the subject matter, it is always saddening and depressing to hear that a beloved artist has passed on. I don't know if it this way with you, but somehow I assume that the cultural figures with which I am familiar (especially the ones I first came to know at a young age) are immune to aging, sickness, and death, or that somehow the rules by which we more common folk must live and die do not apply to them. It is often surprising to me to see a photo or video of one of my cultural icons at an age far advanced from how I remember him or her in my mind's eye ("No! That can not be she! She was young and beautiful!").

I think of them as my cultural touchstones. The older I get, the more of them I lose.

[josephazannieri]

Yo B50 and majerjack:

Thank you both for your kind words. I was interested that Majerjack said that he was saddened to see his icons in their older years when they don't look quite like they did when they were young. I feel quite the opposite. I am happy to see a picture of a movie star or other well known face as he or she grows older. This is particularly true if the person looks good and appears to be happy. My mother, who died in 2010 at age 94, always looked good, right up to the end, and I was happy that her mind was intact and that she still had pride in her appearance. They say Maureen O' Hara, who is also 92 now, is still quite a stunner. There are some photos of Kim Novak, who should be about 80 now, floating around, and I would not turn her down on looks either. Of course it does not cheer me if the person is sick or looks like they are unhappy or in pain. I guess that the answer is that I would rather see them alive and healthy and getting older than beautifully frozen forever in death, like Marilyn Monroe.

Anyway, here is a link to a family website containing a picture of Nan Merriman at age 82, taken at a family birthday party in 2002. It is she for sure, and I think she looks just great, and such a nice smile. She is in a frame by herself, in the lower right corner, silver hair, wearing a pearl necklace. The photo always delighted me because she looked so good. I hope that she was able to retain that cheerful appearance until her death.

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/us ... photo.html

I hope that I look that good at age 82! and good luck from the old guy who is OK with good-looking geezerhood,

Joe Z.