Leyna Gabriele papers, 1940-2016

Collection context

Creator:
Gabriele, Leyna
Abstract:
Leyna Gabriele (1924-2019) was an American operatic soprano, director, pedagogue, producer, socialite, and restaurateur, known for creating the title role in Douglas Moore's opera The Ballad of Baby Doe. Her association with the restaurant Chez Vito placed her at the heart of New York City's social scene, while her collaborations with the Masterworks Laboratory Theater brought techniques from Method acting to New York City's local opera scene.
Extent:
19.5 Linear Feet 24 manuscript boxes, 3 oversized flat boxes, one 12-inch phonograph record case, and one map case folder
Language:
The bulk of the documents and audiovisual material are in English. Gabriele was born to an Italian family and spent time living and working in Italy; thus many print materials are written in Italian, including correspondence, clippings, programs, and administrative documents. Although many of the operas that Gabriele performed or directed were in English or English translation, Series I and II contain annotated scores and libretti for these operas in their original languages (Italian and German). The recordings may contain music sung in a range of languages, including German, Italian, French, Hungarian and Greek.
Scope and content:

The Leyna Gabriele papers comprise a range of print and audiovisual materials relating to Gabriele's professional, personal, and social life - both in the United States and in Europe. The collection covers a broad spectrum of professional activities, with materials relating to her work as a singer (in recital, opera, concert, and oratorio, for various opera companies, orchestras, and talent agencies, in venues across the United States, Italy, and Switzerland), director (for Masterworks Laboratory Theater, SUNY Purchase Opera Workshop, Princeton Opera Workshop, and Giovanetti Opera), teacher (at Masterworks Laboratory Theater, SUNY Purchase, and Queens College CUNY), and restaurateur (at the New York City restaurant and nightclub Chez Vito). This collection also contains personal materials relating to Gabriele's marriage to Chez Vito proprietor Vito Pisa (material relating to her second marriage, to John Weber, is minimal); her personal friendships with colleagues, students, and restaurant patrons; and her familial and cultural connections to Italy.

This collection comprises various types of documents: personal and professional correspondence; publicity materials and press clippings of reviews and articles regarding Gabriele's vocal performances, her directing, and her work at Chez Vito; administrative and production documents and programs for performances that she directed, produced, or sang in, and for performances by Gabriele's friends and colleagues; and directing and teaching notebooks. The collection also contains a number of photographs in a range of sizes and formats. These photographs provide a visual record of Gabriele's recitals; operas and stage performances starring Gabriele; operas that Gabriele directed; Masterworks Laboratory Theater productions; performances, staff, and guests at Chez Vito; Gabriele's private life with Vito Pisa; her early education; and her transatlantic travels. There are also several oversized materials, including theatrical posters (from performances that Gabriele directed or sang in, and others), and stage props from operas that Gabriele directed. Over a hundred audio recordings in a range of formats cover the full length and breadth of Gabriele's career. Many recordings relate to Douglas Moore's opera The Ballad of Baby Doe including full, unreleased recordings of Gabriele's performances of the opera, and recordings of Gabriele speaking at conferences and on panels about the work. Finally, there is a small amount of moving image content.

This collection also includes a number of musical scores of various sizes and formats, including: parts and full scores of arrangements performed in Chez Vito and on its commercially produced LPs; piano-vocal scores of operas that Gabriele performed, premiered, or directed (some annotated); scores for songs or song cycles by Gabriele's contemporaries that she premiered, recorded, or workshopped; and a full score, piano-vocal score, and parts for Andrew Barton's The Disappointment (arranged by Stanley Sonntag), a 1767 ballad opera which Gabriele helped to reconstruct. Many of these scores are annotated with English translations of the original libretti (generally the translations used in performance), with production notes, and sometimes with musical notes or corrections.

Collection material from Gabriele's social and professional life includes disrespectful and inaccurate representations of Asian cultures and people. Gabriele uncritically perpetuated an orientalist tradition in opera, engaging in exoticizing portrayals of non-Western cultures that have long been inherent in operatic aesthetics. Her 1985 production of Madama Butterfly at SUNY Purchase (which is extensively documented in this collection) included racist stereotypes of Japanese culture, featuring non-Asian singers wearing costumes and makeup that demean people of Japanese descent and a production design that caricatured Japanese architectural traditions. Writings about this opera (by Gabriele, her collaborators, colleagues, and the press) discuss Asian cultures in a discriminatory and degrading manner. While these anti-Asian tropes are not atypical of productions of Puccini's opera (which, despite its claims to "authenticity," is inherently racist in its portrayal of Japan), Gabriele staged a number of works over the course of her career which center orientalist depictions of other cultures (such as L'oca del Cairo and Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart operas denigrating Roma and Middle Eastern cultures respectively). Furthermore, photographs among Gabriele's personal papers show the singer and her friends in clothing and makeup that mocks and appropriates Asian cultural heritage, indicating that her engagement with harmful orientalist tropes extended beyond the stage. In her writings, Gabriele also repeatedly expressed discriminatory views about disability, weight, and other aspects of appearance.

Biographical / historical:

Leyna Gabriele (1924-2019, born Lena Madalyn Gabriel, also known by her married names, Lena Pisa and Leyna Weber) was an American operatic soprano, director, pedagogue, producer, socialite, and restaurateur.

Born in Fairmont, West Virginia, to a family of working-class Italian immigrants, Gabriele began her career as an opera singer and recitalist after her graduation from Fairmont State College in 1944. After touring locally in West Virginia in the late 1940s, Gabriele broke out onto the national stage in the early 1950s, establishing a significant presence in New York State, the East Coast, and the Midwest. Gabriele had her big break when she shared the title role in the 1956 premiere of Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe at Central City Opera in Colorado. With the success of Moore's opera, Gabriele's singing career flourished: splitting her time between Europe and the United States, she gained a particular reputation as an interpreter of contemporary music, premiering the works of several prominent American and Italian composers.

In the early 1950s, Gabriele took a side job singing at Chez Vito, a restaurant and nightclub on the Upper East Side. At Chez Vito, Gabriele, a group of male opera singers called the "Three Musketeers," and a band of violinists would roam from table to table, singing to diners as they drank cocktails and sampled the Italian gastronomy. The restaurant was a magnet for socialites, politicians, and celebrities, appearing frequently in the gossip pages of local papers (where Gabriele herself achieved a degree of notoriety). Gabriele married the restaurant's proprietor, Vito Pisa, in 1954, and took over the management of the restaurant after his death in 1966. Entertaining the restaurant's elite clientele earned Gabriele a reputation as a socialite, connecting her name with various influential figures in the New York social set. Chez Vito was not merely a restaurant but a small media empire, producing LPs and other audiovisual media to promote the dining experience. The restaurant was frequented by several prominent political and cultural figures: Judy Garland was famously ejected from the restaurant for heckling; Richard Nixon loved the restaurant so much that Pat Nixon brought Gabriele's musical act to the White House for the president's birthday ("They are not ultra-sophisticated but they are in a class of their own," the president wrote).

In the last decades of her career, Gabriele turned to issues of opera dramaturgy and pedagogy. While working as a restaurateur, Gabriele began taking classes in method acting under Walt Witcover at the Actors Studio in New York City. These classes culminated in a critically acclaimed production of La Traviata (performed in installments between 1967 and 1969) in which Gabriele sought to apply these new techniques to the role of Violetta. This operatic project spawned a new theatrical enterprise, the Masterworks Laboratory Theater (often shortened to MLT in Gabriele's papers), which brought Stanislawskian acting techniques to bear on opera and classic theater. At Masterworks Laboratory Theater, Gabriele worked as a producer, director, creative advisor, educator, and fundraiser. The troupe had a strong pedagogical outlook, seeking to train young singers in the art of Method acting. As such, Gabriele transferred this approach to the opera training program at SUNY Purchase and to the opera workshop at Princeton, teaching classes and workshops on Method acting to aspiring singers at these universities. Gabriele passed away in Tarrytown, New York, in 2019, outliving both her first husband, Vito Pisa, and her second husband, John Weber.

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection has no restrictions.

This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. One oversized folder is located in a map case on site.

Terms of access:

Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Leyna Gabriele Papers; Box and Folder (if known); Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Location of this collection:
6th Floor East Butler Library
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027, USA
Before you visit:
Researchers interested in viewing materials in the RBML reading room must must book an appointment at least 7 days in advance. To make the most of your visit, be sure to request your desired materials before booking your appointment, as researchers are limited to 5 items per day.
Contact:
rbml@library.columbia.edu