<< Back 7/24/02 A woman of wit and accomplishment By Rose Jordan I began attending St. Joseph’s church in Bryson City when I relocated to North Carolina. Sitting in the front row every Sunday was an elderly women wrapped in an Indian shawl. Occasionally she was asked to read for Mass. When I first heard her voice I knew that she must have been involved in the arts. Her beautiful voice resonated throughout the church and every word she spoke had an air of drama. On Christmas Eve she told the congregation of a Christmas she spent as a child. It was during World War I in Dresden, Germany. In their tiny home her family had no heat, little to eat and her father lay in bed with double pneumonia. There was little hope that he would survive. After standing for hours in line to procure something for Christmas Eve dinner, her mother finally returned home with some smoked herring. Wanting to make the dinner special, she lit some candles and set the table with their best china. However, when everyone sat down to eat and the smoked herring was cut, large maggots fell out. Wanting her children to experience some Christmas joy, her mother urged Elinor and her sister to go to church. They sat in the pews enjoying the heated church that thawed their frozen feet. Joyous Christmas music filled the air. And soon the spirit of Christmas filled their heart and soul. They were even more thrilled when they returned home to discover their father’s fever broke and that he would recover. Elinor’s message that evening was for the young people in church. She urged them to be thankful for what they had because she was certain that many in the church had no idea what hardships some people have to endure. Contessa Elinor de Torri Hudson was born before the First World War in Dresden, Germany. By age 4 she spoke three languages: German, Norwegian, and English. At age 95, she speaks six. She’s added Spanish, Italian and French to her list. She came from a musical family. Her father was a concert violinist and her mother a pianist. Her entire family was colorful; there were musicians, opera singers, poets, inventors, writers and ministers. Her parents were American and resided in Seattle. Her father exchanged his violin for a dentist’s drill. When he heard dentists were needed in Germany, he returned there and stayed through 2 world wars, financial collapse, revolutions and bombing destruction. From an early age Elinor attended many concerts and operas. At age 6 she began piano lessons, at 10 she composed music and by age 14 she started taking voice lessons. Her dad decided she would become an opera singer. She studied for two years in Germany and then went to Italy to study with Gertrude Cassini who had sung with the Chicago opera. While in Italy she also studied with Arsace Pancania, director of the Maggio Fiorentino Chorus. A year after studying in Italy she made her opera debut as “Lucia di Lammermoor,” a challenging coloratura soprano role. While in Italy she met her first husband, Count Carnot de Torri. At the time she didn’t speak Italian, and he didn’t speak English so they used sign language to communicate. Their marriage ended sadly. When Mussolini invaded Abyssinia, Carnot was appalled at what was being done to the natives. He felt by going there he could assist them with his agricultural knowledge. After being separated from Elinor for three years, he was captured in 1939 by marauding bandits and brutally killed. During their separation, Elinor’s career flourished. She toured in opera and concert throughout Italy, Germany and Norway, giving concerts in Lucca, Viarreggio, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Oslo, Bergen and London. While in Berlin she sang guest performances in Czechoslovakia, was a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune and met many important dignitaries at conferences including Mussolini and royalty. She also worked with the underground and helped Jews by giving them her day passes to Czechoslovakia, supplying them with blond wigs and teaching them English they could use on their arrival in the United States. Her parents, realizing the danger she was putting herself in, urged her to accept an invitation to sing with an opera company in Argentina. Buenos Aires welcomed Elinor with open arms and within a year she had her own radio program. She was part of a trio, the “Melody Sisters.” They toured South America ,and Elinor sang leading roles for the famous Colon opera house. She arrived in the United States in 1941 when America entered the war at the urging of an aunt who lived in Carmel, Calif. Her aunt promised to get her singing engagements, and Elinor wanted to go to her own country, America. Before she arrived, however, while aboard a Norwegian freighter, she received news that her aunt had gone over a cliff with her car and been killed. So Elinor arrived in San Francisco not knowing where to go or what to do. Her connection with her parents was also interrupted for four years. Her father died at the beginning of the war, leaving her mother an alien alone in war-torn Germany. She was bombed out, lost her home and all her possessions, but survived the destruction of Dresden. During those war years, she wrote a diary in letter form to her daughter. Recently published by 1st books as War letters of an American Mother, it’s available on the Internet. Her mother returned to America after an absence of 40 years. Among her many accomplishments, Elinor had her own radio program, composed many operas, was a correspondent for the Musical Courier, and wrote music reviews for the New York Herald, Paris Edition, Buenos Aires Herald and the New York Herald Tribune. Besides her singing career, she’s written volumes of poetry and several novels. She has been cited in “Who’s Who of American Women,” “Who’s Who in the West” and she was awarded a diploma for distinguished achievement in “10 Thousand Women of Achievement in the World.” After living in California for many years, she moved to Sarasota, Fla., for 20 years and finally purchased property in Bryson City. Although she admits it is very beautiful here, she misses the excitement of living in an artistic environment. Elinor’s life has been filled with uniqueness and intrigue. A believer in reincarnation, Elinor stayed 10 days in Montebello, Calif., for “former life regressions.” After being hypnotized, she was taken back through five different lives. Many times for Elinor, incidents that stemmed from a coincidence changed her life. She discovered that coincidence is not a probability but nothing more than what Carl Jung coined “synchronicity.” In one of her books, “Mystic Experiences of a Primadonna,” she documents cases of synchronicity in her life. She writes that once she was in Rome and decided to travel to Milano for some performances. Arriving 20 minutes early and settling into the compartment next to the engine, she struck up a conversation with her traveling companions. There was a honeymoon couple, a priest, a heavyset women offering to share her lunch and an old lady anticipating a visit for the first time with her grandson. Elinor had mentioned that she hadn’t had the opportunity to visit many places in Italy. When the honeymoon couple heard this they convinced her to get off the train to visit Lago Maggiore. The train that would take her there was parked right next to the train they were on. She agreed and was happy after arriving in Lago Maggiore. It was a charming seaside town and she settled into a quaint hotel for a good night’s sleep. Upon waking the next morning and having her breakfast, she read the newspaper. It was then that she saw the headline, “Milano Express from Rome collides with train from Munich. Tragic fatalities. All passengers in the first-class compartment behind the engine were killed.” Elinor has a strong belief in God and also has a spiritual Indian guide called Red Oak. In another book, The Revolving Circle of Eternal Life, the Indian guide writes through her of his interpretation of heaven. Contessa Elinor de Torri Hudson has sung “Requiem” under Toscanini, sung “Parsifal” with the world’s greatest tenor, had dinner with Licia Albanese in Sarasota, Mussolini attended one of her concerts, she danced all night with Count Ciano and drank champagne with the famous composer Richard Straus. Her poems are in the Hall of Fame on the Internet and she has won many blue ribbons at senior games in Bryson City and Raleigh. At the last event, she got a standing ovation for her poem “A Prayer for America.” Having lived 95 years, I needed to ask, “What lesson have you learned in life?” She replied, “Never give up, Keep going.” The word love has dominated her life, and she says, “It’s needed most of any treasure we embrace, and is also a part of longevity.” What a wonderful thought to live by, and so very true. My life is so much richer after meeting Elinor. Elinor has much of her music on tape and requires a reel-to-reel to transfer it to CD. If anyone knows where she can purchase one, it would be appreciated. Rose Jordan lives in Bryson City and can be reached at rosejordan@juno.com.