John O'Sullivan's Biography, Part 1John O'Sullivan was born in Cork, Ireland, on October 29, 1877. His father John J. O'Sullivan was a physician in Killarney. Unfortunately his father died from tuberculosis at age thirty-three in April 1883. His mother took him and his sister to Cork. An uncle pushed for a departure to France. Over there a great aunt, Miss Broderick, offered to make him her heir. A year later, they left for France. They arrived at Forges les Eaux. His great aunt was the victim of a crook who left with her money. After her death, his mother went to live in Rouen. Many years of uncertainties and material needs awaited them there. He became an altar boy at the Saint Maclou church. Music fascinated him. The organist encouraged him to continue his musical studies, and he became a soprano soloist in the choir. It is here that he learned the greatness of Palestrina, Scarlatti and Stradella. His voice became very large for a child. When his voice changed, he was assumed to be a baritone and sang at the Cercle Boieldieu in Rouen at the beginning of the century. After singing the baritone aria of Diaz in La coupe du roi de Thulé, he entered the Paris conservatory on October 30, 1899. He was admitted in the class of Masson. During his time at the conservatory, O'Sullivan made his operatic debut as Giuseppe in La traviata in December 1900 at the Opéra Populaire at the Théâtre de la République to make ends meet. In 1901, he took part in private concerts at different salons in Paris. He participated in concerts promoting the music of the French-Irish composer Augusta Holmès. During one of those concerts (March 23, 1901), he sang in the opera La Montagne Noire. In the meantime, he resigned from the conservatory in June 1901, having learned almost nothing. Little is known about his activities until 1908. In 1905, he sang in a musical in New York. In 1907, he sang briefly in Belgium. In 1908, he joined the Moody-Manners opera company under the name of "Louis Laurier," and made his debut in Tannhäuser on August 21, at the Lyric Theatre in London. With this company, he toured the British Isles and visited Birmingham, Halifax, Liverpool, Newcastle on Tyne, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Middlesborough, Hull, Bolton, Hanley and Burnley. Besides Tannhäuser, he sang in Faust and Madama Butterfly. He disappeared again until 1909, when he takes part in a tour of The merry widow. He finished 1909 with a series of concerts with Beecham. He then returned to France, where he made his debut in Toulouse, as "Ténor demi-caractère" and made his debut as the Duke in Rigoletto on October 30, 1910. He was also the cover for the heroic tenor Ansaldy. From here on, he sang under the name "John Sullivan." During his Toulouse period, he sang in Montauban, Carcassonne, Beziers, Cette and Le Touquet before making his debut in Geneva with the title role in Reyer's opera Sigurd in 1911. According to his own words, it was in Geneva that his voice matured and his top notes were firmly secured. During his engagement in Geneva, he appeared in Limoges, Dunkerque, Grenoble and Granville. His next major assignment was in Lyon with another performance of Sigurd, 1913. Up to that point, he built a repertoire of 31 roles including: Sigurd, Roméo, Gauthier in La Burgonde, Werther, Samson, Pélléas, Tannhäuser, Faust, Duca in Rigoletto, Cavaradossi, Turiddu, Canio, Raoul in Les huguenots, Vasco in L'Africaine, and Arnold in Guillaume Tell. The director of the Geneva Opera Bruni pushed him to sing Arnold for the first time. This role brought him the greatest success during his career, as he sang it without transposing. He made his debut at the Paris Opéra in Les huguenots in June 1914 replacing Granal. Unfortunately the war interrupted his career. He sang the last performance at the Opéra before its closure. He volunteered in the British Red Cross on September 10, 1914. He stayed there until mid-1915. On January 26, 1915, he made his debut (in uniform) at Monte Carlo in a concert of excerpts from Carmen with Wyns, Tésorone-Fontaine, and Journet. He sang several concerts and went to Marseille, where he appeared as Don José for the first time in March. During the remainder of the war, he sang in Paris, Toulouse, Royan, Angers and Rouen. In Paris, after the re-opening of the Opéra in 1916, he sang their entire repertoire until 1918. From September to December 1918, he sang at the Gaîté Lyrique in Lucia di Lammermoor, La muette de Portici, La Juive and La reine de Chypre. Cleofonte Campanini engaged him for the 1918–1919 season in Chicago. After a successful Huguenots in Rouen on October 6, 1918, he sailed to America for the second time. On the 27th of November, he appeared as Arnold in Chicago. His success was tremendous: "John O'Sullivan's debut as Arnold in "William Tell" turned another notable page in the history of the company. It would have been almost enough to find a tenor able to sing the role at all. That he did in such a stunning fashion came very near to making him one of the season's sensations on the strength of the one appearance.... Vocally he is like no one else of the present generation... One does not gain the impression that it is overpoweringly forcible, yet in the most massive of ensembles it is heard distinctly above all the rest, and as high note after high note is whipped out tirelessly and certainly, there is a definite thrill to each." -- Musical America His other roles in Chicago were Samson, Roméo, Prinzivalle (Monna Vanna with Mary Garden), Canio, Werther and Faust. At the end of the season, the company went on a tour and visited New York (Lexington Theatre), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit. Before returning to France, he gave a series of concerts in New England. In Paris, he reappeared in Roméo et Juliette with Maria Kousnezoff on the 19th of July 1919. In the Fall of 1919, he returned to the United States, gave concerts in Boston, Cambridge, and New York, and sang Werther in Montréal before returning to Chicago. In Chicago, and later in New York, he appeared in Hérodiade, Monna Vanna and Carmen. This would be his farewell to Chicago, as he does not accept a new contract for a third season. After appearing in Boston, Montréal, Toronto, Brockton and Ansonia at the beginning of 1920, he returned to France. He reappeared in Paris in Monna Vanna on July 22nd and added La damnation de Faust to his repertoire. He appeared in Le Havre, Bordeaux, and Rouen. By the end of November he made his debut in Nice, where he stayed until April 1921. On April 12, 1921, he sang Tannhäuser, after which he received the following letter from Jean de Reszke:
Dear Mr. Sullivan,
He appeared for the first time in Bordeaux in the Grand Théâtre in Les huguenots on October 7, 1920. He sang a little over forty times in that city until April 1922. In January 1922, he sang for the first time in Lisbon at the Teatro São Carlos in Les huguenots with Elsa Bland, Cesare Formichi and Giulio Cirino. After singing in Faust and Aida, he went back to Paris. In July 1922, he accepted an offer from Italy. He did not know a word of Italian and learned the Italian version of Les huguenots on the train. He made his debut at the Teatro Lirico in Milano on September 9, with Llácer, Pasini, Rota, Togliani, Manfrini, Torres de Luna, and conductor Leopoldo Mugnone. His success was tremendous. A month later, October 14, he appeared for the first time in Il trovatore at the Teatro dal Verme in Milano. According to the review published in "Rassegna melodrammatica" on October 24, he did not yet know the Italian text. His lack of knowledge of the Italian score, coupled with stage fright, led to an unsuccessful performance. Jesus de Gaviria replaced him, and after his departure, Ismaele Voltolini finished the run of performances. At that time, Poliuto was announced at the Teatro dal Verme with O'Sullivan. This project was abandoned and the ill-fated Trovatore replaced Poliuto. He then went on an extended tour of Italy: Bologna, Parma, Piacenza, Napoli and Roma (Costanzi), with Guillaume Tell and Les huguenots. He met with tremendous approval. He then traveled to South America. On May 25, 1923, he appeared for the first time at the Teatro Colón in a concert version of Act 4 of Les Huguenots. On June 3, 1923 he sang in Guillaume Tell with Spani et Galeffi. After visiting Buenos Aires, he appeared in Rosario, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Santos. During this South American tour, his repertoire consisted of roles from Aida, Il trovatore, La damnation de Faust, Louise, Faust, Guillaume Tell, Jupyra, and a single Rigoletto. He made his reappearance in Europe singing La damnation de Faust on December 21, 1923, in Amiens. At the beginning of 1924, he embarked on a long tour that brought him to Parma, Piacenza, Lisbon, Monte Carlo, Porto, Florence, Bergamo, Ferrara, Trieste, Genoa, Madrid and Barcelona. His debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid took place on December 16th 1924 in Les huguenots. He scored a huge success that he repeated on December 27, at the Liceo in Barcelona. During 1925, he sang in Modena, Mantova, Brescia, Cairo, Alexandria, Rome, Rosario, Sante Fe, Cordoba, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Santos, before going back to Barcelona in December. There he repeated his previous success in Les huguenots and sang Otello for the first time. Les huguenots "Last night the eminent tenor Sullivan made his reappearance, the audience remembered his success last year in the same opera. We will go in more details on how the performance went in a later edition. Right now, we would like to mention only that this singer, already warmly applauded upon his entrance, received a tremendous ovation after the romance and a monumental high D. He was also acclaimed after the fourth act duet." -- El Correo Catalán Otello "The duet at the end of the fourth act, a musical piece particularly admirable and inspired, was delicately interpreted by Spani and Sullivan. Sullivan sang "Ora e per sempre addio" with a remarkable dramatic intensity. In the third not only his singing but also his acting were admirable. During the fourth act Sullivan put a real emotion into his singing and finish the opera with the necessary pathos." -- Diario de Barcelona - January 10, 1926 In 1926, he returned to Italy appearing in Venice, Brescia, Sevilla and made his only appearance in the arena di Verona in a run of seven performances of Il trovatore. Reviews were unanimous to praise his tremendous success: "All the attention of the audience was concentrated on the protagonist, John Sullivan, a superb Manrico. As he was preceded by a reputation to be a great tenor, the audience was waiting for him at the "Di quella pira". He passed this supreme test brilliantly. His voice of a pure tenor timbre has Limpid, ample and resonant high notes.The lyrical pieces and recitatives were sung by Sullivan with fervor and a perfect art. It is very rare to hear the romance "Ah! si ben mio" preceding the "Pira" to be sung so well. Sullivan's phrasing was perfect in it. During the "Pira", his high notes are so powerfully sung and with such dramatic intensity that the public was sent into a frenzy, requested and got an encore. Not only Sullivan is an exceptional singer, but also an impetuous and impassioned actor." -- L'Adige - July 31, 1926 In 1927 after singing in Malta, Trieste, Barcelona, and Ancona, he made his debut at Covent Garden. His contract stated that he was to sing Raoul, Manrico, Otello, Calaf and Radames. The first performance was on May 30 with Les huguenots. Unfortunately it turned into a disaster. In his book: "Two centuries of opera at Covent Garden" Harold Rosenthal gives the impression that O'Sullivan had a unanimous bad press. It is not the case. Mr. Mussell, acting archivist at Covent Garden, wrote a letter summarizing the different press reviews kept in the archives. According to him, O'Sullivan started badly, his voice was unstable, but by the fourth act duet with Scacciati, he was in full form with well placed high notes. Borgex the critic of Comoedia comments as follows in the edition of June 20: "Mr. Bellezza conducts as he was conducting Il barbiere. With him the rhythms are jumping around and take away from Marcel the little fake nobility he has left. The famous septuor is a race to a fermata where everybody rushes to. The benediction of the swords is impregnated by vulgarity, a thing that does not happen on Belgian and French theatres. The huguenots were spared by completely cutting out the last act. It was a massacre.... Mr. Stabile does not have anything to be a Nevers, neither does Mr. Kipnis, as Marcel, he has neither a deep or ample voice for the role...However there are some happy moments, where the artists left to themselves, have in spite of the odds elevated the level of the evening: Mr. Autori, as Saint Bris, he is only missing a little nobility and above all Valentine and Raoul, Miss Scacciati and Mr. Sullivan during the duet of the fourth act. Miss Scacciati shows emotion, power and Mr. Sullivan has great power. clear high notes, and this was the best part of the evening." He was supposed to sing at the British premiere of Turandot, but Ricordi wanted only singers having sung in previous Turandot performances, and his contract got cancelled after the conductor Bellezza tried everything to annoy him. His cover, Merli, protected by Bellezza, sang the first British performance of Turandot. Sullivan sued and was awarded a large sum of money behind the scenes. At the end of 1927, he left for approximately one and a half years for a tour of Eastern Europe. His journeys brought him to Budapest, Bucharest, Cluj, Warsaw and Belgrade. According to rumors he had been singing in Vienna and Berlin, although nothing could be found to confirm this. During August of 1928, he appeared briefly in Paris in an open air performance of Carmen. This was one of the most mysterious periods of his career. Finally, he returned to France and performed in Vichy on July 15, 1929 in Roméo et Juliette with Noréna. Rouché, having more or less forgiven him for his escape to Italy, called him back to the Opéra for Samson et Dalila on July 31. His goal, when he returned to Paris, was to sing a few more years and then retire. At that time he met the Irish writer James Joyce. Joyce sympathized immediately with his fellow countryman. But this friendly attitude changed into partisan demeanor when he first heard him. He had never heard of Sullivan before. This exceptional voice fascinated him. Joyce wanted him to start a new international career, but O'Sullivan had no desire for it. Joyce, believing that the great opera houses of the world were plotting against hiring him, made the promotion of O'Sullivan's career the first priority of his life. He wrote to the Metropolitan Opera, as well as to Maestro Beecham, asking for contracts for the tenor. He forced his friends, who did not like opera, to attend every performance O'Sullivan sang. He even convinced them to call the box office to say that they would not attend if O'Sullivan didn't sing. These actions caused the tenor difficulties with Jacques Rouché. However, O'Sullivan respected Joyce, and went on with him. In 1930 Lauri-Volpi sang Arnold at the Opéra. It was a role that Lauri-Volpi had neither the stamina nor the voice to sing integrally; he simplified the role. The critics praised him, except M. Pioch who was the greatest opera critic of the time. Joyce was furious, and wrote a letter in the name of O'Sullivan, challenging Lauri-Volpi to a vocal duel in Guillaume Tell. He forced O'Sullivan, who found the whole thing ridiculous, to sign the letter. Naturally, the situation did not go anywhere. To escape Joyce, O'Sullivan left for Lille on November 22, 1929, to sing in Guillaume Tell, a performance later repeated in Liège. A local critic described the event as follows: "The difficult role of Arnold was sung by Mr. John Sullivan, who came from the Paris Opéra, where he is currently giving a series of forty performances. We have to admit that we had some reservations, America is the land where publicity reigns. After the first notes, our defiance transformed itself into astonishment, then in stupefaction and finally into admiration. Is it possible that a human being has such a powerful and voluminous organ? And we must say, he is also a charmer. Mr. O'Sullivan could not care less if the orchestra was three times the size of the Royal orchestra. The voice, of a pure timbre, limpid whose extension seems to have no limit, is produced with a stupendous ease and no weakness: it flows and charms. This heavy part seems to be child play for him. And he has no accent. Adding that his acting abilities are rarely encountered in tenors and that he feels his part, you cam imagine the triumph he had." -- Express - 29 November 1929 On November 30 1929, he appeared at the seventh performance of the centennial of Guillaume Tell at the Opéra. Rouché, still slighted by O'Sullivan's escape to Italy in 1922, chose Thill for the first performance. It was a complete fiasco. Rouché tried to contact him for the second evening, but foreseeing this, O'Sullivan immediately left Paris. Thill had to sing five more performances. Finally, O'Sullivan sang at the seventh performance. He sang in Algiers during the month of March, 1930. Immediately following, Joyce organized a return to Ireland for him, where he gave a concert at the Royal Theatre in Dublin on April 27th. A month later, he sang in Killarney in a concert with the pianist Adolphe Borscke. Back in France, he sang in Vichy, Orange, Paris, Marseille, Barcelona and Genoa. Until the mid 1930s, he remained very busy, and had multiple triumphs in such different cities as Napoli, Toulouse, Perpignan, Aix les Bains, Montpelier, Marseille, Lyon, Toulon, Nice, Algiers, Paris, Vichy, Bordeaux, Rouen, Nantes, Angers, Nimes, Avignon, Bologne and Grenoble. In spite of singing heavier repertoire for many years, the press and public were unanimous in their praise: Guillaume Tell "One may not appreciate the type of vocal duel that confronts a tenor with high D flat. People opposing this type of duel should rejoice, the race of heroic tenors is near extinction. The fight will soon end by lack of soldiers. I know that the utility of heroic voices has been contested and that having such roles sung by the flexible voice of a ténor demi-caractère would win in charm what it lost in excitement. The experiment was tried. For the centenary of Guillaume Tell at the Opéra, almost precisely two years ago, the delicious Georges Thill, the most charming tenor of the moment was given the role of Arnold. Rossini's work lost its entire character, for the second evening Granier was called in and very soon Sullivan took over. Let's not deny the usefulness of those voices, and let's be clear with their disappearance: it is also the death of a certain repertory. For the time being we still have Mr. Sullivan. Mr. Sullivan himself is worth more than all the heroic tenors heard the last ten years. What a magnificent top, what reliable vocal production! We must not believe that Mr. Sullivan on stage is only there for vocal feats, he is also an actor. I remember a performance of Tannhäuser at the Théâtre Antique in Orange where Mr. Sullivan had captured magnificently the tragic side of the unfortunate Wagnerian hero. The success he earned was stupendous." -- Le Progrés - Lyon 1931 In 1935, he took his penultimate trip outside France. He sang in Aida, Pagliacci, Carmen, and Samson et Dalila while in Athens. Finally in 1936, he sang in London at the Queen's Hall in La damnation de Faust with Vallin, Brownlee, Handcock, with Sir Thomas Beecham as conductor. He sang at least until April 1937. He appeared in Paris, Nancy, Nice and Genève in his best roles: Raoul, Manrico, Arnold. He sang in 1937 in the revival of Le Cid in Marseille. His last documented performances were in Geneva at the A. B. C., April 24 (Guillaume Tell, Act 2) and April 25 (Les huguenots, Act 4). La Tribune de Genève comments the events as follows: "Finally Mr. Sullivan and Miss Lawrence sang and it was superb. The first possesses the most generous, resonant organ. The power of the top register never gives the impression of forcing, even the most highest notes keep their quality, it is a fine, noble metal without fault. The intonation is perfect. A magnificent tenor.... Miss Lawrence and Mr. Sullivan were wildly applauded by the audience, which proves that the local audience can go wild when it hears the right voices. Unfortunately such voices are becoming rare. Thanks to the A. B. C. for having given us the opportunity to hear two of the best voices that still exist." Actually Sullivan did possibly sing until 1939, as documented in a letter by Joyce. However since the theatrical French newspaper Comoedia was not published during those years, it has not been possible to establish where he sang if he sang. He retired in Paris. He never taught singing. He was a man of a vast culture, who was interested in multiple things outside singing. During the Second World War, his Irish nationality gave him a special status in an occupied country. He made a last concert appearance in 1943 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, singing Tannhäuser's return from Rome. He died on April 28, 1955, in Paris after a two year fight with prostate cancer.
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