Miyoshi Sugimachi

Miyoshi Sugimachi
Born
Miyoshi Natori

(1905-04-20)April 20, 1905
Fujimi, Nagano prefecture, Japan
DiedJuly 3, 1983(1983-07-03) (aged 78)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Other namesMiyoshi Yorita, Mimi Yorita, Madame Sugi Machi
OccupationSinger

Miyoshi Sugimachi (April 20, 1905[1] – July 3, 1983), born Miyoshi Natori and later known as Miyoshi Yorita, was a Japanese-American soprano singer who toured internationally in the 1920s and 1930s.

Early life and education

Natori was born in Fujimi, Nagano prefecture, Japan, and raised in Seattle, Washington,[2] the daughter of Ryoryo Natori[3] and Oriko Ono. She studied voice in Italy, and with Guido Caselotti.[4]

Career

Sugimachi, a lyric soprano,[5] sang on radio programs in Seattle and Los Angeles in the 1920s,[6] and with the Seattle Civic Opera Company.[7] "Sugimachi has a brilliant voice of marvelous range and the operatic airs bring out the purity and quality of her voice in a remarkable manner, more so perhaps over radio than in any other way," reported a Los Angeles Times writer in 1928.[6]

Sugimachi performed and studied in Italy from 1928 to 1931,[8] including a starring role in Madama Butterfly in Milan.[9] She gave a concert in Vancouver in 1930,[10] sang at a Los Angeles reception for Prince and Princess Takematsu in 1931,[11] and starred again as Madame Butterfly in a 1932 Los Angeles and San Francisco productions of the Puccini opera.[12][13] In 1933 she starred in Sakura, an "opera-pageant" written by her husband, Yaemitsu Sugimachi, and composer Claude Lapham,[14] in its premiere at the Hollywood Bowl.[15] In 1934, she sang at a concert to benefit a Japanese church youth program in Pasadena.[16] She also sang in a production of Sakura in Portland, Oregon, in 1936.[17] Also in 1936, she was in talks to appear in a film about her own career.[18] She made recordings in Japan in the 1930s.[9][19] In 1937, she was signed to sing the role of Madame Butterfly at New York's Hippodrome Theatre.[4] She sang the role again in Los Angeles in 1939, directed by Caselotti.[20]

Personal life

In 1925, Miyoshi Natori married Japanese-born journalist Yaemitsu Sugimachi.[21] They divorced in the 1930s; their daughter Mikki died in 1958.[22] Her second husband was Goro Yorita; they married in 1947.[23] She became a naturalized American citizen in 1979. Her second husband died in 1982, and she died in 1983, at the age of 78, in Seattle.[24][3] There is a tape recording of a 1967 interview with Sugimachi in the University of Washington Libraries special collections.[25]

References

  1. ^ Some sources give 1904 or 1906 as Sugimachi's birth year; 1905 is the year she gave in her petition for United States citizenship in 1979, via Ancestry.
  2. ^ "Japanese Opera Star Returns Here". Los Angeles Evening Citizen News. 1936-07-02. p. 11. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b Kanegae, Lilly; Shiki, Joe (September 7, 1983). "Final Rites Conducted for Pioneer Nikkei Opera Star". Hokubei Mainichi. p. 8 – via Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection.
  4. ^ a b "Japanese Star to Sing in N. Y." The Long Beach Sun. 1937-04-06. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Opera Singer to be Heard Tuesday; Miyoshi Sugimachi, Lyric Soprano, Will Sing". Pasadena Star-News. 1931-10-02. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b Power, Ralph L. (1928-07-13). "Japanese Soprano". The Los Angeles Times. p. 24. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Famed Singer Will Appear at School; Myoshi Sugimachi to be on Thursday Program". Pasadena Star-News. 1931-04-14. p. 10. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Japanese Soprano Coming; Miss Sugimachi to Give Concert at Buddhist Temple Here". The Sunday Oregonian. 1930-10-05. p. 47. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b "Japanese Opera Star Likes America Best". Times Colonist. 1936-06-10. p. 9. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Orsatti Concert Pleases Audience". The Province. 1930-10-20. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Japanese Singer Will Appear Here on Club Program". Eagle Rock Sentinel. 1932-05-20. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Sugi Machi to Appear in Opera; Puccini Heroine". Kashu Mainichi Shinbun/The Japan California Daily News. May 14, 1932. p. 8 – via Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection.
  13. ^ "Singer Arrives for U. S. Debut; Japanese Prima Donna to Do 'Butterfly' with Pacific Opera Co". The San Francisco News. 1932-04-28. p. 20. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Barnes, Eleanor (1933-06-26). "Japanese Opera Splendid; Will Repeat July 7". Daily News. p. 12. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Sheppard, William Anthony (2019). Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination. Oxford University Press. p. 283-285. ISBN 978-0-19-007270-4.
  16. ^ "To Aid Benefit; Madame Sugimachi Who Will Appear Here Friday". Pasadena Star-News. 1934-04-10. p. 14. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Japanese Opera Star Likes America Best". Times Colonist. 1936-06-10. p. 9. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Mme. Sugi Machi, L. A. Singer, May Appear in Film of Own Life". Nichibei Shinbun. January 16, 1936. p. 1 – via Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection.
  19. ^ "Crowd Pleased by Sugi Machi". Nichibei Shinbun. p. 3 – via Hoji Shinbun Digital Collection.
  20. ^ "Madame Butterfly (advertisement)". The Los Angeles Times. 1939-06-25. p. 51. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Hirahara, Tetsuya (2022-09-12). "Part 1: The Prehistory of Japanese Broadcasting". Discover Nikkei. Retrieved 2025-11-12.
  22. ^ "Mikki Cohen death notice". The Sacramento Union. 1958-12-22. p. 14. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ "Notice of Intention to Wed". The Northwest Times. 1947-09-02. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Services for opera singer Miyoshi Yorita". South Florida Sun Sentinel. 1983-09-01. p. 18. Retrieved 2025-11-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Miyoshi Sugimachi papers". Archives West. Retrieved 2025-11-12.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.