Terence Lorence
The Philosophy of Classicism
Terence Lorence
A Platonist and Neo-Platonist analysis and defence of Classicism and Classical Culture in an Anti-Classical Age. A concise analysis written from a paternalist point of view which combines, in equal proportion, cultural elitism and elitist socialism.
Soft-Cover/Hard-Cover. 6x9 Inch Size. Copyright 2025. Now available from Lulu.com and other online Booksellers.
Alice Lorence
Operetta in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s
Alice Lorence. Edited by Sylvia Sinclair.
A concise picture book of fifty pages illustrating thirty-nine Hollywood motion picture operettas in black and white photographs with captions, prefaced by a short essay on the meaning of the term "Operetta". Now available from Lulu.com and other online Booksellers.
Alice Lorence
A Girl in Film. Deanna Durbin: An Operella: Book One
Alice Lorence. Edited by Terence Lorence.
An informal socialist study of Deanna Durbin's twelve year motion picture career from a sophocratic or paternalist point of view which combines, in equal proportion, cultural elitism and elitist socialism. Rejecting all that is populist, it is a study devoted to the Classical as expressed in the musical films of Deanna.
"A Girl in Film" is devoted to Deanna's life and work from age thirteen to seventeen, and describes in full her artistic and creative personality, her charming idiosyncrasies and her youthful love affair with a noted musician.
Soft-Cover/ Hard-Cover. 8.5 Inch Square. New Two Column Format. Actually now available from Lulu.com and other online Booksellers.
Alice Lorence
An Ingenue at Large: Deanna Durbin: An Operella: BookTwo
Alice Lorence. Edited by Terence Lorence.
An informal socialist study of Deanna Durbin's twelve year motion picture career from a sophocratic or paternalist point of view which combines, in equal proportion, cultural elitism and elitist socialism. Rejecting all that is populist, it is a study devoted to the Classical as expressed in the musical films of Deanna.
Soft-Cover/ Hard-Cover. 8.5 Inches Square. New Two Column Format. Actually now available from Lulu.com and other online Booksellers.
The Villa Deanna
Deanna Durbin at age fifteen on the diving board of the giant swimming pool of her new Italian villa in the Hollywood Hills. This photograph was taken in the first half of 1937 when Deanna was making her film One Hundred Men and A Girl with Leopold Stokowski.
Alice Lorence
Deanna Durbin: An Operella Observed
Alice Lorence. Edited by Terence Lorence.
A photographic essay, for serious students of operella and operetta, on the motion picture career of the Classical soprano Deanna Durbin covering each of her delightful musical films from 1936 to 1948.
New Revised Edition. Copyright 2025. Now available from Lulu.com and other online Booksellers.
Deanna Durbin and Operella
A New Art Form
In all her films, except for Can't Help Singing and Up in Central Park which were conventional operettas, Deanna Durbin was the sole singer. Her films thus differ from conventional operettas, and for that matter from conventional musical comedies, which feature a number of singers; in the case of operettas there being at least one male singer, most often a tenor, to counterbalance the soprano. Thus there is need of a new term "operella" to describe musical plays on the stage or screen which, while featuring a female singer of operatic calibre like Deanna, differ from conventional operettas in having no other singers. The term operella has made rare appearances in the past, being used, in no rigorous manner, as no more than an alternate name for operetta. It is now time for the term operella to be restricted to a new and specific use to describe a new art form which first arose on the cinema screen in the 1930s, but which could just as well appear on the stage.
The idea of producing films with just a single singer, a single female singer, arose independently in Europe and America. And in Europe the originators of this concept were none other than Joe Pasternak and Henry Kosterlitz who would later produce and direct Deanna's films in America. Their films in Europe however featured a popular female singer, most often the cabaret singer Franciska Gaal. But these films, lacking a female singer of operatic calibre, were definitely not operellas. One must instead look to America for the first operellas starring operatic divas, the feminine stars of these films being true stars of the opera stage, being in fact prima donnas recruited from the Metropolitan Opera in New York: Grace Moore, Lily Pons and Gladys Swarthout. And the first true operella was perhaps One Night of Love which starred Grace Moore in 1934.
Michael A. Fullerton
Deanna Durbin
Sylvia Sinclair: Independent Author, Artist and Publisher
Deanna Durbin in Fashion: Book One
Alice Lorence. Edited by Sylvia Sinclair
A concise illustrated book featuring a small selection of black and white fashion photographs of the Classical singer and soprano Deanna Durbin modelling the elegant designs of the 1930s and 1940s. The ideal book for true connoisseurs who combine an interest in Classical music in film, in particular in film operellas and operettas, with an interest in fashion design, and who wish to admire their favourite soprano dressed in the most stylish of fashions.
Soft-Cover/Hard-Cover. Square 8.5 Inch Size. 55 Pages. Copyright 2023. Now available from Lulu.com and other online Booksellers.
The Villa Deanna
Deanna Durbin's new Italian villa in the exclusive private enclave of Laughlin Park in the Hollywood Hills. The villa was purchased for her at the beginning of 1937 immediately following the success of her first motion picture Three Smart Girls. As can be seen from the photograph, the villa, which clings to the ridge line atop a steep hillside, has no front garden but was built directly alongside
The Villa Deanna
Like the photograph above, this aerial photograph of the Villa Deanna was taken in mid 1937 no more than a few months after the fifteen year old Deanna moved into her new home while she was making her next motion picture One Hundred Men and Girl.
A Deanna Durbin Half-Tone
Deanna Durbin in the garden of her new Italian villa in the Hollywood Hills at age fifteen in the first half of 1937 when she was making her film One Hundred Men and A Girl with Leopold Stokowski. Deanna is shown in her open-air summerhouse at the top of the water cascade which is seen in the photograph above and the photograph below.
The Villa Deanna
An old photograph of the open-air summerhouse and the water cascade in the garden of Deanna Durbin's Italian villa. This photograph was taken in the early 1920s about fifteen years before the villa was purchased for Deanna. Deanna's garden included the entire length of the five hundred foot long vista of which the water cascade formed the upper part.
The Villa Deanna
Another view of the Villa Deanna facing Linwood Drive in mid 1937. The villa was located on the south side of the lane, and the photograph looks westward along Linwood Drive while the ornamental pagoda on the right is in the garden of the Paramount motion picture producer William LeBaron.