Ganna Walska

Ganna Walska (born Hanna Puacz on June 26, 1887 – March 2, 1984) was a Polish opera singer and garden enthusiast who created the Lotusland botanical gardens at her mansion in Montecito, California. Ganna Walska was a coloratura soprano with a vocal range of approximately 2.5 octaves. Her voice was known for its flute-like timbre and a certain frailty, which she combined with the expressiveness of a violinist. She was married six times, four times to wealthy husbands. The lavish promotion of her lackluster opera career by her fourth husband, Harold Fowler McCormick, inspired aspects of the screenplay for Citizen Kane.

Biography

Ganna Walska was born Hanna Puacz on 26 June 1887 in Brest, Russian Empire, to Polish parents Napoleon Puacz and Karolina Massalska. Ganna is a Ukrainian form of Hannah, and Walska "reminiscent of her favorite music, the waltz".

In 1922, after her marriage to Harold F. McCormick, Ganna Walska purchased the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. She told the Chicago Tribune that she had invested her own funds, not those of her wealthy husband, and said, "I will never appear in my own theatre until I have gained recognition based solely on my merits as an artist."

Walska became a student of vocal teacher Cécile Gilly. Marjorie Lawrence, another student of Gilly's, stated that it was clear that Walska had little aptitude for music, but that Gilly took her on for the money. In 1932 Walska asked Frances Alda to be her student. Alda accepted because of the large remuneration. In her autobiography, after describing Walska's elaborate estate, Alda declares of her student: "But work as I did, I could not teach Ganna Walska to sing."