Music: Chicago D

Chicagoans knew them last week as Franca Somigli, Giuseppe Bentonelli and Anna Turkel. All three were young U.S. singers making their débuts with the Chicago Grand Opera.

Franca Somigli was Marian Bruce Clarke of Manhattan, whose Park Avenue aunt staked her to study in Italy. As Franca Somigli she sang three years at the Scala in Milan. In Chicago she had big dramatic roles in Andrea Chenier and Il Trovatore, both ill-suited to her delicate lyric voice. After the Trovatore criticisms, she was so cross that friends had to stop her from packing her bags and leaving Chicago.

Giuseppe Bentonelli was Joe Benton from Sayre, Okla., who frankly admits that he changed his name to make it sound bigger abroad. Joe Benton was a Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Oklahoma in 1920. As a singer he was a pupil of the late great Jean de Reszke, a protégé of Chicago’s old Kate Buckingham who gave Grant Park its fountain. Kate Buckingham gave Joe Benton a big champagne party after his debut last week in Tosca. Critics praised a new tenor who had a high clear voice and could act.

Anna Turkel was Anna Turkel. Her father was an Austrian immigrant who settled in Woonsocket. R.I. and begat eight children. Anna, the eldest, was determined to be a singer and Father Turkel was equally determined that she should never change her name. Anna made sure-fire copy because she was once a sweetmeat seller at the Metropolitan Opera House where she listened constantly to such singers as Lucrezia Bori, Rosa Ponselle, Maria Jeritza. In Europe she did well by the name of Turkel. But Chicago last week found her cold and immature.