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WALTER McNALLY – ACCLAIM AT THE EMPIRE
In 1918 as the first World War raged relentlessly throughout Europe with heavy casualties at the Battle of the Somme – many Irishmen among them – life in Dublin proceeded at a leisurely pace, though the controversial issue of conscription was hotly debated in the newspapers. In March the death of veteran parliamentarian John Redmond was mourned by many Irish people.
In spite of the universal gloom cast by the war, the musical and theatrical scene in Dublin was vibrant; plays by Lady Gregory, Lennox Robinson and T.C. Murray helped fill the Abbey Theatre, the Queen’s attracted lovers of melodrama, and theatres such as the Empire (now renamed the Olympia Theatre) the Gaiety, Tivoli and the Royal provided a mixed diet of musicals, variety, classical drama and opera.
In February the popular O’Mara Opera Company presented a two week programme of operas at the Gaiety Theatre, including Rigoletto, La Traviata, Lohengrin and Carmen. Shortly afterwards the same theatre was again packed for the visit of the D’Oyly Carte Company with Gilbert & Sullivan’s Utopia Ltd.
The announcement in May, meanwhile, that Walter McNally was forming his own operatic company was warmly greeted. Dark-haired and handsome, McNally possessed a natural baritone voice of rich timbre and vocal strength. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1884, of County Mayo parents, he came with them to Ireland in the year 1906 and within a few months his father had set up a butcher’s shop in the town of Westport.
Soon his fine singing was admired by the locals – particularly Molly Staunton – who was quickly taken by his affable manner and good looks. When eventually they were married on Christmas Day, Molly’s people reckoned their daughter had married ‘a little beneath herself’.
The happy couple decided to emigrate to America where Walter worked at a number of different jobs without apparently any notable success. Prompted by letters from home, they returned after a few years to County Mayo with their two young children, Patrick and Mary. Molly’s father, a generous and kindly man, set them up in a guesthouse-cum-bar business in the village of Clonbur, near Ashford Castle.
Walter McNally was anxious to have his voice trained and fortunately found a wealthy patron in Ballinrobe who agreed to fund his singing lessons in Dublin. He trained with Dr. Vincent O’Brien and in 1915 won the Feis Ceoil gold medal in the baritone section. O’Brien, an astute judge of a voice, believed that McNally was good enough to make singing his career. Soon he was getting concert engagements, so many offers in fact that he and his wife Molly decided to sell their business venture and settle with their children in Dublin. Their house, Addison Lodge, in Botanic Road would quickly become known to the musical fraternity of the capital.
McNally was fortunate to be able to call on some splendid singers for his new company, people such as tenor Harry O’Dempsey, who had guested with the O’Mara Company, Dublin baritone William Lemass, soprano Kathleen McCully, contralto Florrie Ryan and mezzo-soprano Joan Burke. Dr. Vincent O’Brien doubled as musical director and conductor.
One of the avowed aims of the company was to encourage talented Irish singers. Because of limited resources, the company mostly, though not always, performed concert versions of operas. It was launched in the spring of 1918 at the Empire Theatre with a week of operas by Wallace and Benedict. For Walter McNally, it was a dream realised, but to his intense disappointment he was unable to sing at the performances of Maritana and The Lily of Killarney. During the rehearsals of the latter, he was stricken by influenza and ordered to bed by his doctor. The newspapers gave full coverage to the story. McNally was replaced in the role of Danny Mann by a Mr. John Neilan and the performance was given before a packed Empire Theatre audience. The flu virus also struck the cast of Maritana and William Lemass had to be replaced at the last moment in the part of Don Jose. In the case of McNally, the papers followed his medical progress and by the end of the week the Evening Mail reported: ‘His numerous friends in Dublin, all through Ireland, and even outside Ireland, will be glad to know that the popular Walter McNally is once again fully restored to health. His was a nasty knock-down. The demon influenza just gripped him hard, bowled him over. It was the first time in his life that he was laid up in bed.’
When the company played a fortnight’s season at the Empire Theatre in June, Walter McNally was able to take his place in the cast of Maritana. The other operas presented were Faust, The Lily of Killarney and The Bohemian Girl. Newspapers reported that people were turned away almost every night and that the season was without exaggeration ‘the most successful local enterprise yet attempted in Ireland’. The report concluded: ‘A finer chorus has probably never been heard in grand opera in Dublin since the days of the Quinlan Company. In Lurline and again in Faust, they achieved their greatest successes. As I anticipated, the public demand for Faust has been so general and so insistent that the company had no option but to cancel The Bohemian Girl and substitute the melodic work of Gounod whose centenary (he was born in 1818) occurs about this time.’
In September Walter McNally decided to present a full stage version of Pagliacci at the Empire. It was the company’s first production of this popular work and not surprisingly it merited a gread deal of attention. One morning newspaper wrote: It was a big compliment to actor-manager Mr. Walter McNally that every seat in the auditorium was filled at the first house a
quarter of an hour before he came on clad in his motley garb to ring up the curtain. He might have prepared us in the old traditional style by sticking his head through the folds of the curtain. In his singing here, as throughout the night, he gave free play to dramatic gesture. He gave us a Tonio with a heart ‘just like you men’. The McNally stamp of quality was over all the work. The critic felt the rest of the principals were somewhat over-anxious, though he praised Harry O’Dempsey’s Canio and his fine singing of ‘On with the Motley’, Kathleen McCully’s well-drawn portrayal of Nedda and William Lemass‘s convincingly sung Silvio. And he concluded: ‘The great, pleasing encouraging fact is that grand opera of this intricate character can be done with such excellence by a purely Dublin company.’ He attributed much of the success to musical director and conductor Dr. Vincent O’Brien.
The company did not confine its efforts to Dublin. Regular visits were made to Limerick, Waterford, Cork and Sligo. The programmes varied and often consisted of songs in the first half and, after the interval, scenes from popular operas. At the Theatre Royal in Limerick a full house in late October 1918 warmly applauded Maritana and the cast that included McNally, Lemass, Florrie Ryan and Kathleen McCully.
When the company opened for a week in Waterford there was limited standing room only in the packed Coliseum. ‘Walter McNally was, of course, the real attraction,’ stated a report in a local newspaper. ‘He was hardly ever in better voice, and despite the arduous time he is having, he is still gilt-edged as ever. His well-measured notes were poured forth as only this famous baritone can do it. No wonder he got a tremendous reception. His first numbers were “Farewell in the Desert”, “The Floral Song” and “Molly Brannigan”. These, however, are by no means the best of his repertoire, and one longed to hear him give some of his favourites that really show him at his best, such as “The Trumpeter”, “The Colleen Bawn” and “Father’s Love” from Lurline.’
It was obvious during those years that there was a great demand for singing, especially opera, not only in Dublin but all over the country. The company also gave concerts in Glasgow and other Scottish cities and the programme usually included Irish ballads and operatic arias. It was a busy time for McNally. In February 1919, he guested with the J.S. O’Brien Choral & Operatic Society for a performance of Faust in Derry where he scored a personal triumph as Valentine. He visited Dundalk for three nights with his own concert group and packed the Town Hall. On this occasion he concentrated on songs and the local paper reported the rousing applause accorded him for “The Cornish Dance” and “TheTrumpeter”. William Lemass, Harry O’Dempsey and Joan Burke sang arias and duets from Faust and Trovatore.
He was accompanied by the same singers in a performance of the Sullivan oratorio The Prodigal Son at Dublin’s Theatre Royal. ‘The performance reflected much credit on the McNally Company, especially on Walter McNally who is to be complimented not alone on his enterprise, but on the high level attained, with the devotional spirit of the work being carefully preserved,’ stated the Evening Herald critic.
For the spring season of operas at the Empire Theatre, the baritone chose two Verdi works Traviata and the rarely performed Ernani as well as Lurline and Maritana. He was taking a risk with Ernani as it was the first time it was staged by the company. He need not have worried; the Empire was packed for every performance. The reviews suggested that the opera was under rehearsed, with one critic stating, ‘There were weaknesses that constant and conscientious study and rehearsal could have overcome. The orchestra seemed to be reading the parts at times.’ McNally played Don Carlos, the King of Spain and, as the Evening Mail put it, ‘In his dramatic rendering of the part he was as effective as ever, and realised faithfully the heroic and pathetic qualities of the unhappy king.’ The critic recalled his two fine arias. ‘These were “Since the day I first beheld thee,” in which ‘he was rather more free perhaps than the score intended’, and his aria in the catacombs – one of the best numbers heard during the performance, and the one which the audience called for again and again, but did not get.’ While tenor William Mulcahy was described as weak in the title role, William Lemass‘s Don Silva was stated to be consistently good and his singing of the aria, “How I trust Thee” won deserved applause. The star of the production, however, was Miss Kitty Fagan in the role of Elvira. ‘From first to last Miss Fagan was word and music perfect,’ stated one critic, who also singled out the chorus: ‘Their “Hail to the King” was splendid, but was only one of the chorus numbers which evoked a burst of applause from a critical and delighted audience.’
Ernani closed the season on a Saturday night before a crowded house. It was the company’s custom to present an early and a late night performance, which must certainly have been extremely taxing on the principals. On this particular night, guest tenor Gwynne Davies was singing the title role and next day the Evening Mail critic stated: ‘Mr. Davies was never in worse voice. The strain of two houses nightly has told severely on this excellent and justly popular tenor. His voice showed obvious symptoms of wear and tear after a strenuous three weeks, and all the time he was struggling against this handicap. He deserves, and his friends hope, he will take a good rest.’
From all accounts the audience at the second house was a boisterous one and loud ovations were accorded to Walter McNally, William Lemass and Kitty Fagan. At the final curtain McNally, in response to calls for a speech, announced that in the autumn he hoped to be able to produce operas in full once nightly and prove to Dublin people and visitors that an all-Irish opera company could give as good a performance of the principal popular operas as any company from abroad.
Around this time William Lemass married Miss Lucy Leenane. She was the very talented accompanist for the McNally concert troupe which was inundated with offers to perform in and outside of Dublin. McNally added new names such as soprano Eily Murnaghan, mezzo Bridie Moloney and bass Ted Kelly. The popularity of the concerts was such that in Sligo on one occasion people queued for hours for tickets but were to be disappointed. Reporting on the event, the Sligo Champion stated: ‘Mr. McNally was, of course, the main attraction of the bill. His pleasing baritone has lost none of its power and sweetness and his singing drew rounds of applause. He was remarkably good in arias from Faust and The Lily of Killarney, yet we are puzzled why he omitted singing “The Colleen Bawn”.
McNally showed no hesitation in going North with his concert party. He was by now a firm favourite in Belfast and Derry and their programme consisted of songs and arias. Audiences at the Belfast Empire responded enthusiastically to scenes from Travatore, Maritana and Faust when the other artists included Florrie Ryan, Kathleen McCully, Harry O’Dempsey, William Lemass and McNally. On one return visit in early 1920 a local critic commented: ‘We have never heard McNally in more effective vein.
He excels in the rendering of native melodies, whether plaintive or romantic, and as an operatic artist his appearance and expression count almost as much as his sonorous and expressive vocalism. He is not merely an artist, however, for he is also an organiser with a fine faculty for diagnosing the popular taste.’
Likewise, at the Opera House in Derry he was a particular favourite as much as for his singing of songs as operatic arias. Once, when he and his party played at the theatre the local newspaper remarked: ‘This was a Walter McNally week – very much so, and the result artistically and financially is equally gratifying. Everybody in the party seemed to be at the top of their form. Mr. McNally, as usual, excelled in scenes from the operas, as did his colleagues.’
On the evening of 17 May 1920, the Empire Theatre in Dublin was full to capacity for a concert by the McNally party. It was an emotional occasion as news had already filtered through musical circles that the baritone would soon leave for Italy for further voice training and to acquaint himself with the Italian approach to opera management. He hoped, he said, on his return, to bring a concert group on a tour of America. ‘The warm place this popular artist occupies in the affections of the people was very strikingly demonstrated last night,’ wrote an evening newspaper critic. ‘After his Irish song scene with Miss Eily Murnaghan, the pair were recalled again and again. Through the scene, in which several Irish melodies and ballads are strung together in storied form, applause frequently burst forth, only to be hushed lest any part of the music feast should be missed. At the close Mr. McNally graciously thanked the audience for their cordial reception.’
He was by now 34, which seemed rather late to embark on a trip to Italy; he was also married with a young family, but he felt he had much to learn about musicianship and Italian operatic techniques. Inside a few months he was talking the language and he was happy also with progress in his vocal studies. He began to follow the glittering career of Margaret Burke Sheridan and was in Naples on 28 February 1921 when she sang her first Madama Butterfly at the famous San Carlo Opera House. He recalled that the atmosphere was electric. ‘I shall never forget her performance. It was thrilling; it made one lose oneself to be in the audience and hear a great mighty roar of thousands of people standing up in their seats shouting “Brava, Brava,” and crying aloud, “Sheridan, Sheridan.”‘
In due course he got some operatic engagements in Italy. Due to his dark good looks and fluent Italian he was often taken for a native of that country. On one occasion, he was standing in the foyer of a provincial opera house when a small group of Irish tourists approached him and enquired about seats for that night’s opera. They were surprised when he answered their questions in an Irish accent.
Back in Dublin in 1922, McNally wrote to Margaret Burke Sheridan inviting her to sing with him in a celebrity concert in November at the Theatre Royal. He reckoned it was high time that the diva was heard in her own country where her fame was already talked about in musical circles. Indeed, she had not been home since she went to Rome in 1916 and a lot had occurred in the meantime in Ireland. It was said, however, that she had kept in touch and was well acquainted with political developments.
It was not perhaps the most opportune time for her homecoming; a bitter civil war raged and Dublin, like the rest of the country, was embroiled. McNally assured her that she would be safe and that the concert promised to be a sell-out. It was undoubtedly the musical event of the year in the capital, a fact not lost on the Evening Mail. It reported: ‘Maybe all roads lead to Rome for Margaret Burke Sheridan, but certainly all routes led to the Theatre Royal yesterday. All kinds of people comprised the audience – from the wives of the staff of the National Army to the active members of the opposing forces, from constant attenders at the “old Castle drawing-rooms” to a “Red” sister imported from Russia.’ The audience was not disappointed. Walter McNally introduced the diva to enthusiastic applause and remarked how happy she was to be home in Ireland. She quickly endeared herself to the audience by her regal stage presence and lovely singing. The critics were impressed. ‘Miss Sheridan is a true interpreter,’ wrote the Evening Mail. ‘She lives the part she is acting. She has a voice of immense power, of great range and ravishing beauty.’
A daily newspaper critic expressed the hope that Dublin would one day see Miss Sheridan in her operatic roles. Earlier, she had confided in Walter McNally that she was nervous coming to Dublin, or as she put it, ‘I did not feel half as nervous when appearing at La Scala. l can best and most completely express myself in opera.’ To McNally who sang songs and ballads at the concert, Margaret had exceeded all expectations. ‘She was overwhelmed by the warmth of the Dublin reception and she was in outstanding voice.’
In the following year, he presented matinee performances of Hansel and Gretel, Humperdinck’s fairytale opera, at the Theatre Royal. He himself shared the role of Peter, the children’s father, with William Lemass and Joan Burke sang the Witch. Casting the Dew fairy posed a problem but eventually the role was given to a Miss Renee Flynn, an 18-year-old soprano, who in a few years would sing a small role in Wagner’s Die Walkure at Covent Garden. When I talked to her early in 1994 she was quietly celebrating her 89th birthday, but recalled with pleasure the production of Hansel and Gretel: ‘I do remember that Joan Burke was terrific as the Witch and that Walter McNally sang and acted superbly. To a young woman like me, he was a striking-looking man and could be taken for a foreigner. He had also a fine stage presence. The production was excellent and the audiences loved it.’
In 1924, McNally travelled to America with his wife Molly and youngest child Joan for a series of concert performances. While over there he was engaged to sing in The Student Prince in Chicago where the musical ran for months. In the ensuing years he became friendly with the Kennedys, Joe and Rose, and occasionally when he visited their home Rose would accompany him on the piano.
Eventually he left America for good and returned home to Adison Lodge. While in the U.S. he had acquired a real interest in cinema and reckoned it offered bright possibilities in Ireland. This judgment was correct and before long he was running his own cinemas. Count John McCormack performed the official opening of McNally’s Savoy Cinema in Galway, where Renee Flynn once sang in the stage show prior to the screening of a movie, and later in 1927 the popular baritone decided to retire from singing. But first he planned a farewell concert at the Theatre Royal and invited Margaret Burke Sheridan to be his special guest artist. To his intense disappointment, she asked to be excused, saying she could not leave Italy.
It came as a surprise to his friends that he was retiring at the comparatively early age of 43, particularly as his voice was still in fine shape. But his mind was made up; he wanted to devote all his time to the cinema business, which in time would prove far more lucrative than all the effort he had put into organising concerts and operatic performances.
Mrs. Joan Roughneen, the only surviving member of the McNally family, remembered being brought by her mother to the Theatre Royal for her father’s farewell concert. ‘I think we all felt very excited and very proud. I remember he sang Irish songs as well as operatic arias and the audience responded enthusiastically. Walter was always a very popular performer,
a real showman I suppose you could say. I can still hear the applause as he sang his final song. Joan Burke and Willie Lemass were also on the programme. Giving up the stage had nothing to do with his health; my father began to do really well in the cinema business and I also think he felt he had sung enough.’
Joan Roughneen lives today in Glenageary and is a regular opera-goer at the Gaiety Theatre. She remembered her father saying that he was not in favour of any of his children taking up acting or singing, something she found difficult to accept at the time. ‘I know that he was always nervous going on stage to sing,’ she said, ‘and usually held in his hand a medal. He was a bundle of nerves.’
Later on she and her father would occasionally have afternoon tea with Margaret Burke Sheridan in the Gresham Hotel, and once the diva said to her, ‘Joan, why didn’t you ask me to sing at your wedding?’ Joan McNally had married J.P. Roughneen, a businessman from Kiltimagh, County Mayo, and Dr. Vincent O’Brien had played the organ at their wedding. When Joan mentioned to her father Walter what Margaret Burke Sheridan had said, he shrugged his head. ‘I don’t know if she would have sung at your wedding,’ he said. He had come to regard Margaret as difficult and temperamental and was perhaps thinking also of how she had turned down his invitation to sing at his own farewell concert, a fact that still rankled with him.
‘My father was a lovely man,’ reflected Joan Roughneen. ‘On and offstage he had charisma and a warm personality. In later years, when his health wasn’t good he loved being with the family. He did very well in the cinema business and a restaurant he ran in Dublin’s O’Connell Street made him a good deal of money. He continued to take interest in young singers and remained friendly with John McCormack.’
One of the young singers Walter McNally helped was Hubert Valentine. They first met in August 1936 when McNally arranged an audition for him with Dr. Vincent O’Brien. ‘I first met Walter McNally through an introduction by Miss Nora Jennings, who had heard me sing in Our Lady of Refuge Church, Rathmines,’ recalled Valentine. ‘Miss Jennings told him of my singing and the quality of my tenor voice. I remember that the audition was held in Vincent O’Brien’s home in Parnell Square, and among those present were McNally, William Lemass, Lucy Linnane, Kitty McCullough and the critic Harold White. ‘I sang “I Hear You Calling Me”, “The Snowy Breasted Pearl” and “Panis Angelicus” and afterwards Vincent O’Brien agreed to accept me as his pupil. I could see that Walter McNally was delighted and a week later he arranged to have me make my first public appearance on a Dublin stage and that was in the Grand Central Cinema. It was one of the many movie houses McNally was connected with or owned. I sang three performances daily during the week, with Lucy Leenane as my accompanist. ‘The week was a great success and was the beginning of my musical career which I credit to Walter McNally. He had a powerful baritone voice in his younger days, according to William Lemass, who was a close friend of the McNally family. Walter had such a great love of opera that he formed his own company. Though he was not a great musician, nevertheless he would learn the opera scores to the last note or more and add his own version of the leading baritone arias. Lucy Leenane, who was the official accompanist for the company, used to say, “You never knew what to expect from Walter. One time singing “Di Provenza” from La Traviata he could not finish the aria as written, so he added some more notes to the run and she gave up. Nonetheless, the house would go wild. Just one of the many things he would do during the opera company tours. ‘I met Walter many times prior to my departure for the United States in 1939. He had given up public singing appearances and was concentrating on his business. He was a very handsome man, always dressed smartly with bow tie and spats. Privately, he still loved to sing. I had the pleasure of singing with him the big duet from The Lily if Killarney during one of his musical evenings at Adison Lodge, where his wife Molly and their friends made one feel so much at home.’
Walter McNally was only 55 when he died in August 1945. The newspapers of the time gave extensive coverage to his passing. The Evening Mail wrote: ‘Death has rung down the curtain on a colourful career, and Dublin has lost a vivid personality in Walter McNally, opera singer turned film distributor. Few persons, even among his personal friends, were aware that he was born in America, but as a matter of fact, his singing career may be said to have commenced in his native town of Scranton, Pennsylvannia, where he sang in the choir of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.’ The paper’s final comment was more than interesting: ‘It was a curious decision for an operatic star who had studied in Milan and sang operatic roles in Italy to abandon his musical career at its height and spend the remainder of his life in film renting and cinema ownership. But he proved as successful in business as he had in opera, and handled very large interests with the utmost efficiency.’
McNally’s name would endure in musical circles. Florrie Ryan, a leading member of his operatic company, recalled those exciting touring days whenever she was interviewed by the press or by radio reporters. Florrie married George Hewson, a young chemist, and settled in Ballina, County Mayo, where she continued to sing in the church choir.
Hubert Valentine was in America when he heard of McNally’s death. On frequent visits home to Dublin he likes today to recall the singer. ‘I shall always remember Walter McNally as a great artist, a great man and a dear friend.’
Mrs. Joan Roughneen summed up: ‘I am sure that it was Walter’s personality as much as his voice that endeared him to audiences in Dublin and throughout Ireland. It is a pity that the old 78s do not do justice to his voice.’
Extracted from “Irish Stars of the Opera” by Gus Smith
Despite the Rebellion of 1916 the musical life of the city continued. The Feis Ceoil was held that year in the Model Schools, Marlboro’ Street. Vincent O’Brien and Joe Sandes started a new opera company with the intention of performing twice-nightly shows. These shows were known locally as “Potted Opera.” Walter McNally, who was a pupil of Vincent O’Brien, took over the company, and in 1918 held two short seasons of opera in the Empire. Many delightful singers appeared on the stage. Amongst them were Kathleen McCully, Teresa Owens, Mildred Telford, Joan Burke. The male singers included Harry O’Dempsey, Joseph O’Neill, Arthur Lucas, A. J. O’Farrell and W. J. Lemass. The company at first aimed at the operas of Balfe and Wallace and, of course, ‘The Lily of Killarney’, but later extended their repertoire to include Faust, II Trovatore and Pagliacci. They sometimes brought guest artistes from England, the most notable being a tenor named Clarke, who played ‘Faust’ with superb artistry. Between seasons in Dublin the company toured the country giving scenes from operas. Vincent O’Brien conducted many of the Dublin seasons.
McNally listed as being on both DGOS General council and Patron Members Committee 1945 Cork Booking Leaflet
Opera in Ireland 