Dorothy Sarnoff

Dorothy Sarnoff (May 25, 1914[1] – December 20, 2008) was an American operatic soprano, musical theatre actress, and self-help guru.

As a participant in the school's glee club, she developed an interest in singing, and traveled to France for vocal training after receiving her bachelor's degree in 1935.

She sang several more roles with the company over the next three months, including Mimì in La bohème, Rosalinde in Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, and Gracieuse in the world premiere of Deems Taylor's Ramuntcho.

[5] In October 1942 Sarnoff made her Broadway debut in the title role of Rosalinda, the New Opera Company’s long-running English-language version of Die Fledermaus that had been adapted by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

She sang several more roles with the company over the next three seasons, including Marguerite, Mimì, Nedda in Ruggero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Micaela in Georges Bizet's Carmen.

Apparently actor Yul Brynner, who played the King of Siam, taught her how to tense her abdominal muscles as a means of dealing with nervousness.

[3] While having dinner with a publisher in the mid-1960s, she bemoaned the focus in women's magazines on beauty and clothing and was encouraged to pursue the subject of vocal quality.

She started a program called "Speech Cosmetics", charging $25 for a sequence of six classes at the Alexander's department store in which women could learn to become better public speakers.

The key phrase she used throughout the course was "sing a song of sixpence, a pocketful of rye", which contains what she described as the worst elements in the New York dialect, the "ng" sound and the mispronunciation of single vowels as diphthongs.

Sarnoff "managed to combine the high tone of a traditional finishing school with the brand-building ethos of corporate consultancy".