Jane Stuart Smith

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157852454/jane-stuart-smith

Opera Singer. A dramatic soprano who enjoyed a major European career thru the 1950s, she walked away from opera to pursue a life of Christian service.

Born to wealth and position, she had a privileged youth which included service as a White House page during the FDR years. She graduated from Stuart Hall and in 1947 from Hollins College, then was accepted for study at Juilliard as well as at Tanglewood. She sang at Carnegie Hall, made her operatic bow with the Detroit Grand Opera as the title Ice Princess of Puccini's "Turandot", moved on to Italy for further training, then launched a career that saw her specialize in such 'heavyweight' roles as Brunnhilde from Wagner's "Ring Cycle" and the title leads of Ponchielli's "La Gioconda" and Bellini's "Norma". Miss Smith was heard to great acclaim at Palermo, Bari, Turin, and Parma, as well as in Paris, Cairo, and Athens.

In the mid 1950s, under the guidance of Dr. Francis Schaeffer of Switzerland's L'Abri Fellowship she became a Christian believer. In 1959, she gave her final performance as Brunnhilde in "Die Walkure" and joined L'Abri where she worked in the dining hall, lectured on music, formed a choral ensemble, and studied hymn writing and the theology of Bach. She would state that she truly liked the world of opera, that was the problem, and about the only person of whom she spoke in a negative manner was Maria Callas who during curtain calls would attempt to injure the fingers of her colleagues so that they would have to bow their heads while she raised her arms in triumph. In later years, she returned to Virginia where she cared for a friend, co-authored the 1996 "Great Christian Hymn Writers", and died of the effects of advanced age.

Bio by: Bob Hufford

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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12142670/Jane-Stuart-Sm...

Soprano who gave up a career in the 'wicked’ world of opera to become a born-again Christian.

Jane Stuart Smith, who has died aged 90, was an American opera singer who made a career on the Italian stage, including appearing with Maria Callas; in 1960, while at the height of her powers, she became a born-again Christian, renouncing the “temptations” of the opera world and going to live in a religious community, where she studied hymn writing and lectured on the theology of Bach’s music.

She had been a student at the Juilliard School, New York, and after her debut in the title role of Puccini’s Turandot at the Detroit Grand Opera Festival in 1951 she was described by the Detroit Free Press as “a woman of commanding beauty, both of person and voice”. In Italy she appeared in Milan, Palermo and Cesena, where the stage was carpeted in flowers after her performance; in Venice she arrived for a performance of Tosca on a gondola, wearing an ornate costume.

Doubts about her career began to arise, however, during a visit to Switzerland in 1956, where she met the founders of L’Abri, an evangelical Christian community in the Alps, and was soon “born again”. A few years later one of the engines failed in the twin-engine aircraft on which she was flying from Paris to Geneva. “For the next hour I was as close to death as I have ever been,” she remembered. “My prayer during that terrifying time was that if God allowed us to land safely, I would give the rest of my life into His hands.” Her last official performance was in 1959, as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Explaining her reasoning years later, she said: “I gave it up for the Lord. The world of opera is a wicked place. You have no idea about the temptations I faced.” When he asked if opera really was so terrible, she replied: “No, it was marvellous. That was the problem. I loved those temptations.”

Jane Stuart Smith was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on September 29 1925 and raised in Roanoke. Her mother, Mary, kept the house full of music while her father, Robert, was president of the Norfolk and Western Railway; as a teenager she served as a page at the White House during F D Roosevelt’s administration. She was also a fine tennis player and horsewoman.

She studied at Hollins College before entering the Juilliard; while there her father rented Carnegie Hall for her New York debut. After her Detroit appearance, she went to Italy to study with Ettore Verna.

She also appeared in Cairo and sang in La Gioconda and Norma. Breaking her ties with opera was no easy task, but she soon joined L’Abri as a secretary and helped to form a musical ensemble among its members. She served meals to visitors and gave monthly lectures on music. “I can’t stand on a stage playing the part of an adulteress and then go tell people to believe in Christ,” she explained.

She sold her costumes to help fund L’Abri, but she held on to her diamond jewellery and Mercedes, which she frequently drove to Italy. Recalling her experiences on the opera stage she said that Callas would bend the other singers’ fingers as they held hands while taking a bow, ensuring that her rivals’ heads would drop as La Divina’s was raised to the audience.

In later years Jane Stuart Smith returned to Roanoke, where she cared for her friend Betty Carlson, with whom she wrote Great Christian Hymn Writers, published in 1997. She was unmarried.

Jane Stuart Smith, born September 29 1925, died January 14 2016