John Charles Thomas (1891 - 1960) in Opera and Song

Note by Elizabeth Schaaf











"If I had to choose the four greatest voices I’ve heard, I would list Thomas along with Caruso, Rosa Ponselle, and Ezio Pinza ..." Frank Chapman, Opera News, 1961

John Charles Thomas was born in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1891. His father, Reverend Milson Thomas, was a Welsh coal-miner’s son who emigrated to America with his parents in 1867. Dorothy Schnabel, his mother, was the daughter of German immigrants who had settled in Amish country. Following his father, a Methodist Episcopal circuit minister, Thomas began singing in churches and camp meetings. He later recalled that his mother used to wrap him in a buffalo robe and put him under a pulpit to sleep. Young Thomas made his singing debut in 1895 at the age of four-and-ahalf in a small Pennsylvania country church where his father was substituting for another minister and, for a time, thought of following in his father’s footsteps as a clergyman.

After making their way through a succession of schools from Paw Paw, West Virginia to Baltimore, Maryland, Thomas enrolled in the Mont Street College of Homeopathy to pursue a career in medicine. A summer job driving an American Express Company wagon drawn by an elderly white horse led him to the annual Lutheran Reunion encampment at Pen-Mar Park, located on a mountaintop near Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. After introducing himself as a conductor Thomas organized a 200 voice choir and presented a series of Sunday afternoon concerts featuring himself as soloist.

His first taste of applause prompted him to reconsider his choice of a career. When he returned to his studies in the fall, a fellow church musician urged Thomas to audition at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Coached by his mother he won a three-year scholarship. Faced with having to make a choice between medicine and music, he raised this dilemma at a subdued family dinner. Reverend Thomas solemnly invoked God’s help. Taking a more straightforward approach to a resolution young Thomas pulled a coin out of his pocket and called "heads for music, tails for medicine" ... and heads it was!

Thomas gave up surgery and enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in 1909. His extraordinary talent was quickly recognized ... "Sings with temperament and taste. Dramatic instinct and voice," proclaimed Thomas’ teacher, Blanche Sylvana Blackman, who had come to Peabody after years of study and teaching in Europe. The following year Thomas began studies with the Dutch baritone Adelin Fermin. He was sought after for recitals and appeared in his first operatic production, Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, on the stage of the Peabody Concert Hall. After a successful audition for Henry W. Savage, he set off on a seventy week tour beginning in Canada. He made his professional debut in London, Ontario, in The Peasant Girl, and went on to become one of the highest paid actors on Broadway. In 1914 he joined the Savoyard Opera where he starred in a series of operettas, including Sigmund Romberg’s Maytime, and revelled in their lively Gilbert and Sullivan productions. He achieved enormous popularity as a matinee idol before going on to enjoy an immensely successful career as a concert artist and operatic star, touring throughout America and the world.

Thomas was one of those rare singers who could sing a show tune and Beethoven’s In Questa Tomba Oscura with equal ease and grace. He made the transition from Broadway and light opera to the concert stage in one great stride - testing the waters in a recital at New York’s Aeolian Hall. The remarkable voice, refined diction and the obvious pleasure he took in his audience earned Thomas eight encores after a program of lieder and arias. The next morning the New York Times heralded the "welcome addition to America’s singers of songs."

During his forty-eight year career music critics ranked Thomas with Enrico Caruso, hailing him as one of the great voices of the 20th century. "I have seen a good many socalled enthralled audiences during my earthly career," wrote one critic, "I have seen them stand up and clap. I have heard them cheer. But I have never seen one just refuse to go home. That is ... until Mr. Thomas’ concert."

His triumphs in musical theater, grand opera, concerts, oratorio and radio made Thomas the quadruple star of the 20th century. He made his first recording for RCA Victor in 1931. At the height of his career, John Charles Thomas sang the arias and songs heard on this Nimbus compact disc for RCA Victor’s Red Seal Recordings ... the label reserved for the world’s leading artists.

Thomas made his operatic debut in Washington as Amonasro in Aida, on the eve of President Coolidge’s inauguration in 1924. That same season he made his Carnegie Hall debut in Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Sadko. The following year Adelin Fermin encouraged his former pupil to audition at the Royal Opera in Brussels. Fermin’s contacts arranged an audition at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. Thomas was engaged by the Brussels Opera in 1925 after auditioning with Vision Fugitive from Massenet’s Hérodiade. He proved such a success that his contract was extended for fifteen roles over three seasons, including the world premiere performance of Milhaud’s Les malheurs d’Orphée and the Brussels’ premieres of Salome and Parsifal.

He flew into London on a special plane in June of 1928 to make his debut at Covent Garden, arriving just in time for rehearsal of Faust. Invitations to sing at opera houses in Berlin, Paris and Vienna followed, firmly establishing his reputation in Europe. Returning to America, Thomas devoted his time to concerts and sang leading roles for opera companies in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. His debut with the Chicago Opera as Tonio in their 1930 production of Pagliacci was a resounding success and at one recital there he sang to an audience of 100,000.

When he was off stage, Thomas lived aboard his 101-foot yacht, the "Masquerader", skippered by a crew of seven Chesapeake Bay watermen. They called the boat the "Masquerader" because on board they masqueraded as millionaires. He was a superb cook who was famous for his spaghetti recipe and a connoisseur of fine wine. Thomas’ passion for boats, speed, and taking risks made him a natural for hydroplane racing. It was his love of golf that nearly caused him to miss his Covent Garden performance.

The Metropolitan engaged Thomas in 1933. Before the beginning of the opera season, their newly recruited baritone attracted New York’s attention when he performed on a Madison Square Garden concert for a crowd of 6,000. Thomas made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Germont in La Traviata in 1934 opposite Rosa Ponselle as Violetta and Tito Schipa as Alfredo. The applause that erupted when Thomas made his first entrance on the stage of the Metropolitan stopped the show. After his performance of Di Provenza the World Telegram reported that "Not quite literally, a mob of people tore down Madison Square Garden, brick by brick, and piled it at the feet of John Charles Thomas."

A series of "Five Song Recitals" at New York’s Town Hall in the fall of 1939 demonstrated Thomas’s gift for languages. A New York critic quipped that he sings "as if the words were meant to be understood." Thomas explained that when he considered adding a song to his repertoire, he began with the poem: "If I like the poem, then I learn the music."

Thomas sang over seventy recitals a year, in addition to his opera performances and frequent radio broadcasts. In 1943 Thomas even commuted from the West Coast (where he made his weekly Westinghouse radio series during the War years) to sing seven performances at the Metropolitan. The Westinghouse series was played in homes across the country, bringing him millions of fans who had never heard an opera or attended a concert, and it was broadcast by armed forces radio transmitters to troops throughout the world. On one occasion he chose O du mein holder Abendstern from Tannhäuser, singing it in English on the Westinghouse program as a show of support for the Allied forces. He was always able to find time out of his hectic schedule to make appearances at military bases and hospitals.

Between 1938 and 1943 Thomas appeared at the Metropolitan as Figaro in nine performances of Il Barbiere di Siviglia; a tenth was transmitted to a hospital children’s ward with marionettes portraying the action. His spirited interpretation of Largo al Factotum and his penchant for exuberant stunts delighted audiences at every performance.

Thereafter Thomas retired from the stage of the Metropolitan but continued his rigorous touring schedule. During the 1947-1948 season he undertook an extensive concert tour covering 40,000 miles and 110 concerts. He began a Pacific tour in Hawaii where concerts in Honolulu were sold out weeks before he arrived. After repeated encores Thomas was showered with orchid leis which he sent on to patients at the Army hospital in Honolulu. From Hawaii Thomas went on to Australia where he sang nine concerts in front of capacity audiences. When he performed in Sydney Town Hall extra seating was placed behind him on the stage increasing the capacity of the hall to 2,700 - and setting a record for concert attendance there. For his Sidney concerts he performed many of his favorite songs, including the beautiful Gebet and Der Ton by Joseph Marx; Henri Duparc’s Chanson Triste; E’en as a lovely flower by Frank Bridge and Vision Fugitive from Hérodiade.

Thomas had an extraordinary ability to reach out to his audience. His songs were sung with an open-hearted and honest sentiment that touched the most jaded listener. This much-loved virtuoso was possessed of a special gift which can still be heard in the songs he recorded.

As John Charles Thomas would have done, pour a good glass of wine and enjoy.


© 2006 Elizabeth Schaaf, Archivist and Curator, The Peabody Institute

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