‘Beverly,’ she said sternly, ‘that trill in the Jewel Song was very sloppy and slow. I expect you over here by ten o’clock.’ I had to agree – the trill had been sloppy and slow. Exhausted as I was that morning after the performance, I got dressed, went to her studio, spent forty-five minutes with her trilling, and when I walked out I had a damned good trill.” -Beverly Sills
Estelle Liebling (1880–1970) was an opera singer and one of the most influential vocal pedagogues of the 20th century. She was born into a family of musicians in New York City in 1880. Liebling’s father and his three brothers were all students of composer Franz Liszt and had successful music careers.
Liebling made her operatic debut in Dresden in 1900, performing the title role in the opera Lucia di Lammermoor. She had a successful opera career in both Europe and the US, performing many leading coloratura soprano roles. From 1902 to 1905 Liebling was a favorite soprano soloist of composer and conductor John Philip Sousa and performed over 1600 concerts internationally with Sousa and his band. Liebling married Arthur Mosler in 1905 and although she continued to perform for two decades after getting married, she shifted her focus to teaching.
Liebling began her teaching career in the 1910s and continued for over fifty years, until her death. Her approach to teaching was based on the work of her own teacher and mentor, the great Mathilde Marchesi, who in turn was a student of Manuel Garcia II. Liebling frequently used Marchesi’s vocal pedagogy texts in her own teaching. Liebling published her own four-volume vocal technique method book The Estelle Liebling Vocal Course in 1956. Liebling is also considered an influential figure in the standardization of many coloratura cadenzas and wrote The Estelle Liebling Coloratura Digest in 1943.
Liebling’s list of voice students included seventy-eight leading singers at the Metropolitan Opera. She also taught famous movie stars, including Joan Crawford and Meryl Streep. One of her most celebrated students was Beverly Sills, who began studying with her at seven years old and continued working with her for thirty-four years. Sills remembered her teacher fondly. She said:
“I remember one night when she came to hear me do Marguerite in Faust, she was then ninety-one. Next morning at seven o’clock my telephone rang. It was Miss Liebling. ‘Beverly,’ she said sternly, ‘that trill in the Jewel Song was very sloppy and slow. I expect you over here by ten o’clock.’ I had to agree – the trill had been sloppy and slow. Exhausted as I was that morning after the performance, I got dressed, went to her studio, spent forty-five minutes with her trilling, and when I walked out I had a damned good trill.”
SOURCES
Beverly Sills (1976). Bubbles – A Self-Portrait. Bobbs-Merrill Company. p. 21.
Charlotte Greenspan (2009). “Estelle Liebling: 1880 – 1970”. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/liebling-estelle
Dean Fowler, Alandra (1994). Estelle Liebling: An exploration of her pedagogical principles as an extension and elaboration of the Marchesi method, including a survey of her music and editing for coloratura soprano and other voices (PhD). University of Arizona.
“Estelle Liebling Dies Here at 90; Was a Leading Operatic Coach”. The New York Times. September 26, 1970. https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/26/archives/estelle-liebling-dies-here-at-90-was-a-leading-operatic-coach.html