Russell, Anna (1911—)

English-born Canadian contralto and comedian . Name variations: Claudia Anna Russell-Brown. Born in 1911 in London; daughter of Claude Russell-Brown and Beatrice Russell-Brown; twice married and divorced; no children.

Anna Russell turned a failing opera career into international fame as a musical satirist. Born in London in 1911 into a prosperous family, Russell early showed signs of musical talent and received a thorough education in classical music in schools in Suffolk, Brussels, and Paris. She then spent five years studying cello, composition, and piano in addition to voice at the Royal College of Music in London. She was often in trouble at school for failing to take her studies seriously and for the comical songs she would write and perform for other students. She then started as a contralto on the concert circuit in Britain, with only moderate success. She was convinced, as she wrote in her memoir, that she had a "tin voice" not suited for the rigors of opera singing. Nevertheless she went on to perform in a Canadian troop show during World War II.

It was as a performer in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in 1935 that Russell first rendered humorous material professionally, at the conductor's suggestion. Audience response was so positive that she gradually switched from traditional performances to her own comic compositions. She debuted in a recital at New York's Town Hall to great success. Her career took off and she was soon performing her own material in concerts, often solo, across Canada, Europe, the United States, and Japan. By the mid-1950s, Russell was giving over 200 performances a year, including numerous television appearances.

In the late 1950s, Russell joined the New York City Center Opera Company as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and reprised the role in the movie version of the opera and on stage with the San Francisco Cosmopolitan Opera Company. She also starred in a musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1957; in that year as well, Russell became a naturalized citizen of the United States, where she was living while not on tour abroad. Her compositions satirized the excesses of classical music and operatic styles, but also poked fun at the Broadway musical and folk music genres. Her most famous routines were her analysis of Wagner's "Ring of the Nibelung" cycle and "How To Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera." These and other routines were recorded on three albums by Columbia, released in 1953 and 1972. She also released a satirical book, The Power of Being a Positive Stinker, in 1955.

Her career was at its height between the late 1950s and the mid-1960s, but she was still in demand in the mid-1970s. Russell then lived and worked in Australia for about nine years, returning to the United States in 1983. In 1985, at age 74, she gave a televised farewell performance in Baltimore, also released as an album. Her autobiography was published in the same year. Russell then retired to Unionville, Ontario.

sources:

Russell, Anna. I'm Not Making This Up, You Know. NY: Continuum, 1985.

related media:

The First Farewell Concert (85 min. video), Video Artists International (recorded live at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the program includes her analysis of Wagner's Ring Cycle, a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, and her folk tune "Jolly Old Sigmund Freud").

Laura York , M.A. in History, University of California, Riverside, California