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| alma_mater = [[Royal Academy of Music]]
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'''Dame Eva Turner'''
Talent spotted by an assistant to [[Arturo Toscanini]], musical director of [[La Scala|La Scala, Milan]], Turner was engaged to sing there in 1924, and then had an international career in Continental Europe, North and South America and at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]]. She sang in a wide range of operas, including those of [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]] and [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]], but was known above all for her performances in the title role of [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini]]'s ''[[Turandot]]''.
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In Bristol, Turner was taken to her first opera, ''[[Il trovatore]]'', performed by the [[Carl Rosa Opera Company|Carl Rosa Company]] in 1903. She decided that she wished to make opera her career, and was supported by her parents, who paid for her to take lessons with the [[bass (voice)|bass]] Daniel Rootham, who had been teacher to [[Clara Butt]].<ref name=d251>Douglas, p. 251</ref> At the age of nineteen Turner started a four-year course at the [[Royal Academy of Music]], where she sang in [[Alexander Mackenzie (composer)|Sir Alexander Mackenzie's]] opera ''The Cricket on the Hearth''.<ref>Douglas, pp. 251–252; and "The Cricket on the Hearth", ''The Musical Times'', 1 July 1914, p. 460.</ref> While a student she was briefly betrothed, but the wedding did not take place, and she never married.<ref>Griffiths, Bryan. "Memories of a great friend", ''The Times'', 18 June 1990, p. 21</ref>
Towards the end of her time at the academy Turner auditioned for Walter van Noorden, proprietor and conductor of the opera company that had fired her imagination in Bristol. He offered her a place in the chorus, with the prospect of promotion to solo parts.<ref name=d252>Douglas, p. 252</ref> She began to study with
Over the next five years Turner was allotted increasingly important roles as her voice gained weight and power. In 1920 the company gave a four-week season at Covent Garden, in which she sang Santuzza (''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]''), Musetta (''[[La bohème]]''), Leonora (''Il trovatore''), Butterfly (''[[Madama Butterfly]]''), Antonia (''[[The Tales of Hoffmann]]''), and Venus (''[[Tannhäuser (opera)|Tannhäuser]]'').<ref name=odnb/> ''[[The Times]]'' described her Leonora as promising although needing to be sung more freely, ''[[The Stage]]'' praised her vivacity as Musetta, and ''[[The Era (newspaper)|The Era]]'' found her Santuzza "remarkable" and "brilliant".<ref>"Il Trovatore at Covent Garden", ''The Times'', 6 December 1920; "Covent Garden", ''The Stage'', 2 December 1920, p. 16; and "Covent Garden Opera", ''The Era'', 1 December 1920, p. 2</ref> The following year the company returned to Covent Garden for a seven-week season, during which Turner sang all her 1920 roles and added Fricka in ''[[Das Rheingold]]'', Brünnhilde in ''[[Die Walküre]]'' and ''[[Siegfried]]'', Elsa in ''[[Lohengrin]]'', the title-role in ''[[Aida]]'' and Jeanette in a short-lived one-act piece called ''Le chant fatal''.<ref name=d2523/>
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Further London seasons followed, between provincial tours. In 1924 the Carl Rosa Company was in the [[West End theatre|West End]] for a four-week season, which became a turning point in Turner's career. Her performance as Butterfly impressed [[Ettore Panizza]], [[Arturo Toscanini]]'s assistant at [[La Scala|La Scala, Milan]]. Panizza arranged for her to sing for Toscanini, who declared, "Bella voce, bella pronuncia, bella figura",{{refn|"Beautiful voice, beautiful pronunciation, beautiful figure"|group=n}} and offered her the roles of Freia in ''Das Rheingold'' and Sieglinde in ''Die Walküre'' in La Scala's forthcoming season.<ref name=d2523>Douglas, pp. 252–253</ref> The Carl Rosa management released her from her contract to allow her to begin an international career.<ref name=odnb/> Her last appearance with the Carl Rosa Company was in Bristol, where she had seen her first opera twenty-three years previously.<ref>"Miss Eva Turner", ''Western Daily Press'', 26 September 1924, p. 4</ref>
After the La Scala season, Turner joined another Italian company touring Germany.<ref name=grove>Rosenthal, Harold, and Alan Blyth. [https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28620 "Turner, Dame Eva"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 {{subscription required}}</ref> As her international career progressed she appeared in opera houses around Italy, in other European countries and in North and South America.<ref name=odnb/> She had a villa built to her own design in [[Brusino Arsizio]] on [[Lake Lugano]], where she based herself when performing in Italy.<ref name=lv>"Lakeside Villa", ''Aberdeen Evening Express'', 16 September 1939, p. 4</ref> As English opera singers were not at that time highly regarded internationally it was suggested to Turner that she might change her name, but as her biographer [[John Tooley|Sir John Tooley]] comments, "Proud of her [[Lancashire|Lancastrian]] roots, she refused".<ref name=odnb/>
Although she was celebrated for her Aida, the part with which Turner became most closely identified was the title role in [[Giacomo Puccini|Puccini's]] ''[[Turandot]]''. [[Franco Alfano]], who completed the opera after Puccini’s death, considered her the ideal singer of the part.<ref name=grove/> She was in the audience for the premiere at La Scala in April 1926 and first sang the part in December of that year at the Teatro Grande in [[Brescia]].<ref>Douglas, p. 256</ref> In 1928 she performed the role at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]] (also playing Aida and Santuzza during the season). ''The Times'' and ''[[The Musical Times]]'' both expressed reservations about the opera but praised Turner's performance.<ref>"Turandot", ''The Times'', 30 May 1929</ref><ref name=mt>"Italian Opera", ''The Musical Times'', June 1928, p. 648</ref> The latter reported:
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{{Reflist}}
===Sources===
*{{cite book |editor-last=Cummings|editor-first=David|title=International Who's Who in Music |date=1990 |publisher=Melrose Press|location=Cambridge |url= https://archive.org/details/internationalwho00cumm/page/850/mode/2up |edition=12th|isbn= 978-0-94-887520-5 }}
*{{cite book | last = Douglas | first = Nigel | title = Legendary Voices| date = 1993| location = London| publisher = Deutsch| url = https://archive.org/details/legendaryvoices0000doug/page/250/mode/2up| isbn = 978-0-23-398847-4}}
*{{cite book |last=Haltrecht |first=Montague |title=The Quiet Showman – Sir David Webster and the Royal Opera House | year=1975| location=London |publisher=Collins |isbn=978-0-00-211163-8}}
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