The Canadian Singer Behind Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

Organizations, orchestras, and even city mayors are marking the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (1924). A favourite amongst music and Disney-fans alike, the work has felt omnipresent since F. Scott Fitzgerald penned in 1927 that it captured the youthful zeitgeist of the Jazz Age.

Omitted from these celebrations is mention of the French-Canadian singer responsible for the commission of Gershwin’s seminal work – Éva Gauthier (1885-1958).

Wait, who?

If you haven’t heard of her, mezzo-soprano Éva Gauthier was a pioneer in both ethnomusicology and classical crossover music. Born in Ottawa in 1885, Gauthier studied singing in Paris with support from Canadian Prime Minister Sir Wilfred Laurier and his wife Zoë. Gauthier toured with fellow-Canadian Emma Albani before marrying the Dutch importer Frans Knoote and moving to Java, Indonesia in 1910.

Cultural appreciation or appropriation?

In Java, Éva Gauthier was entranced by folk music and the unique sounds of the Javanese gamelan. She studied Javanese folk traditions, upon which she hoped to capitalize when returning to the West. After moving to New York City in 1914, Gauthier made a name for herself performing Javanese music in Indigenous costumes. She became friends with composers Maurice Ravel, Érik Satie, and Igor Stravinsky, and premiered their own Far East homages including Stravinsky’s Trois poésies de la lyrique japonaise. When Gauthier tired of these, her friend Ravel suggested she try singing another popular idiom of the time – jazz.

Classical crossover comes to New York

Gauthier took to jazz. In the 1920s, she performed hybrid recitals with the young pianist and composer, George Gershwin (1898-1937). Impressed by Gershwin’s compositions, Gauthier featured his music in a controversial recital at New York’s Aeolian Hall that also included pieces by Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin alongside classical works. The bandleader Paul Whiteman was in attendance, who commissioned Gershwin to compose Rhapsody in Blue.

Gauthier’s historical erasure

While Rhapsody in Blue remains one of the canon’s most beloved works, Gauthier’s contributions to its creation have been largely forgotten. Warner Bros. omitted Gauthier from its 1945 Gershwin biopic, Rhapsody in Blue. And while the New York Times wrote about Gauthier’s death in 1958, the Canadian press stayed quiet.

There’s no denying the groundbreaking creativity of Éva Gauthier, who could be considered a co-creator of some of the 20th century’s seminal works. Let’s ensure she isn’t forgotten.

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Sara Schabas

Sara Schabas is a Dora-nominated soprano, writer and yoga teacher. She has performed and created leading roles with companies including Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, the Dayton Opera, and Aspen Opera, and is a former member of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists. Currently based in Montreal, she is a doctoral student at McGill University — where she recently received the Wirth Vocal Prize — and editor of Art Song Canada magazine.