Marguerite Piazza (May 6, 1920* – August 2, 2012) was an American soprano, entertainer and philanthropist from New Orleans, Louisiana.
Marguerite Piazza had a voice that could pack a concert hall and a figure that transfixed television audiences. She was sought out for ribbon cuttings and commercial endorsements and once performed as part of a Super Bowl halftime show.She was a pop star, in other words, just one among the ever-changing panoply that graces the glossies, except that she gained fame for singing opera.Her life and career evoke an era when the gap between pop culture and high art was more easily bridged, when what audiences watched on television was similar in many ways to what they saw at the theatre or concert hall.
She joined the New York City Opera in 1944 as the youngest member of the company. Her first role at the City Center was Nedda in "Pagliacci," which was followed by "La bohème" (as Musetta), "Der Zigeunerbaron" and "Don Giovanni" (as Donna Elvira), among others. She made her first appearance with the New
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Orleans Opera Association in Martha (in 1945), followed by Hänsel und Gretel, as well as the title role in Il Segreto di Susanna. In 1950, Piazza made her Broadway debut, in Happy as Larry, with Burgess Meredith directing and starring in the title rôle, and Alexander Calder designing.
Orleans Opera Association in Martha (in 1945), followed by Hänsel und Gretel, as well as the title role in Il Segreto di Susanna. In 1950, Piazza made her Broadway debut, in Happy as Larry, with Burgess Meredith directing and starring in the title rôle, and Alexander Calder designing.She began her career on radio, but moved into television in its earliest days, where both her good looks and her soaring soprano quickly made her a star. In the early 1950s she performed opera and other music on “Your Show of Shows,” the popular variety program which starred Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca.
Here's "You'll Never Walk Alone" from above 1959 album.
Along the way she appeared in commercials. Before the dangers of cigarette smoking were made public a bejewelled Ms. Piazza said “I find Camels have a mildness that agrees with my throat.” in a
cigarette commercial in the 1950s. Bloomingdale’s once invited her
to be a celebrity chef for free cooking classes it offered at its New York location.
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| Piazza & Presley |
to be a celebrity chef for free cooking classes it offered at its New York location.
In 1968, she recovered from three operations on her face to remove cancerous growths, and in 1973 was treated for cervical and uterine cancer. She was honoured by then President Richard M. Nixon for her courage in fighting the disease. Despite her struggles with the illness, Piazza continued to perform throughout much of the 1970s. Piazza was one of the halftime performers at Super Bowl IV in New Orleans. She also produced and recorded "The Marguerite Piazza Christmas Sing-a-Long" during this time, which has remained a holiday season standard.
Heriazza's autobiography (co-authored with her daughter, Marguerite Bonnett), Pagliacci Has Nothing on Me!, was published in 2007. “She loved to sing for charities and volunteered occasionally to sing for prison inmates and also sang at the funeral of the woman who cleaned her house. She sang for whoever asked her,” Ms. Bonnett said.Piazza died of congestive heart failure on August 2, 2012 at her home in Memphis. She was 92. She was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2016, becoming the first opera singer to be honoured by the organization.
(Edited from the New York Times, Memphis Music Hall of Fame & Wikipedia)
(* Piazza's year of birth had traditionally been given as 1926, but census records and genealogy sites later disproved that year.)