SPRINGFIELD — Springfield native and singer Adele Addison may not be as familiar to people today as other hometown heroes such as Dr. Seuss or dancer Eleanor Powell but a proposed program aims to change all that.
Shera Cohen of In the Spotlight has received a grant from the Springfield Cultural Council to underwrite a program to highlight the life and career of performer and teacher.
Cohen is now looking for people who have anecdotes or memorabilia about Addison’s career. She added that her late mother went to school in Springfield at the same time as Addison. Among the items Cohen hopes to include in the program are program books, newspaper clippings, reviews, photographs, tickets and letters.
Cohen explained to Reminder Publishing that Addison is alive at age 99 and living in New York City, according to a cousin she has contacted.
Cohen said Addison was “one of the most renowned classical, lyric, operatic, and symphonic sopranos of her era, primarily in the 1950s and ‘60s.” She appeared in live concerts, recordings and radio.
How well regarded was Addison? Cohen said that famed composer Aaron Copland wrote a piece just for her.
Cohen is a long-time devotee of the Springfield’s history and was amazed that no one had ever honored Addison. She started doing research and found the singer’s career started at a young age.
Cohen said, “Addison began her life’s career at age 12 as a soloist at Old First Church, Springfield. A few years later, as a teen, she performed solo with what is now the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, filling the entire Springfield Symphony Hall — called Springfield Auditorium. Beneath her Classical High School graduation photo is the phrase, ‘She sings like a bird.’”
She made her New York City debut in 1952 and the New York Times critic wrote, “The recital season reached a high point last night when Adele Addison, soprano from Springfield, Massachusetts, made her debut in Town Hall.”
Other accolades followed in 1955 when she made her operatic debut in “La Boehme.” The New York Post’s assessment was “Adele Addison is about the most appealing interpreter of the little Parisian seamstress yet to appear on the City Center stage. Small, frail looking, and pretty, Miss Addison enhanced these assets by acting and singing with moving poignancy and sincerity.”
Cohen said that if you’ve seen the 1959 motion picture adaptation of “Porgy and Bess,” then you’ve heard Addison sing as she performed all of the sings for star Dorothy Dandridge.
Many of the recordings she made were with her friend, composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
At the age of 90 she released her last album, “Debussy, Poulenc, Vaughan Williams, Honegger & Barber: Orchestral Works.”
There are several of her recordings on YouTube at youtube.com/watch?v=JrBEMKTLhDE.
After her performing career slowed down, she taught at several schools including the Manhattan School of Music.
Cohen’s plans for the program are to find singers who could perform some of the music Addison performed during her career. The program once completed would be recorded by Focus Springfield, she added.
People with any memories of Addison or memorabilia should contact Cohen at spotlightinc@verizon.net.
