The Cold War Soprano
Memoirs of a Singer-Spy
The Biography of Sheila Jones Harms

Need to finance your singing career? Become a spy! That's what English soprano Sheila Jones Harms did to finance her career in opera. This book tells you how she did it!

Written in the form of a memoir, this is the story of a young woman who abandons the comforts of home and family to pursue a career as a singer in a strange new country.

Set in London, Vienna and Washington, The Cold War Soprano  tells the story of English soprano Sheila Jones and her husband, American baritone Werner Harms, two talented singers who worked as under-cover agents for the US Central Intelligence Agency to earn the money they needed to fund their musical ambitions.

Not just another backstage biography, The Cold War Soprano is a provocative and absorbing tale of opera and espionage in Cold War Europe in the 1960s.

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Sheila Jones Harms lived an unusually interesting life, both as a person and as a musician. During her time at the Royal College of Music in London, then in Vienna, Austria, and finally in the United States, she worked with some of the best voice teachers in the world, at the same time rubbing shoulders with singers who went on to have careers as internationally famous opera stars. She was an insider to an important moment in world history: the Allied Occupation of Austria after World War II. The involvement that both she and her husband had as covert field agents in Vienna for the US Central Intelligence Agency and the impact it had on her career as an opera singer gives Sheila a unique and provocative view of the Cold War.

Sheila Harms’ insight into what it took to become an opera singer in Vienna in the mid-50s is a story told perhaps nowhere else. Certainly, a description of the style and technique of singing that she learned while studying with such eminent teachers as Arnold Smith, Sergei Radamsky, Eugenia Besalla-Ludwig, Elizabeth Radó and Hans Skriwanek has not been written down by anyone else.

Most Americans learn what, with its passion and lyricism, may be called the Italian Approach to singing. Sheila’s method, with its emphasis on elegance, restraint and musical accuracy, was entirely German and is a style best exemplified to opera lovers today by such singers as Lisa della Casa, Christa Ludwig, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Hermann Prey. During her student days in England, she counted among her friends such musical luminaries as Joan Sutherland, Colin Davis, and Julian Bream.

Sheila’s tragedy is that, although extraordinarily talented and thoroughly skilled in her craft, she was never quite able to rise above the crowd to make a name for herself. Her success was further impeded by the distraction she experienced from her activities for the CIA and the belief that income from that source could offer her the financial support she so desperately needed. Her involvement with the CIA finally destroyed her career when her husband was transferred back to the US and she was forced to abandon it just at the moment when it was starting to take root.

Many singers tread the path seeking glory as an opera star, never to reach the top. Music is a demanding taskmaster, and to their credit, many singers end up as beloved teachers, passing their art on to their students in rewarding careers as educators and music directors. This, to her satisfaction and as a boon to her many American students, is the outcome that finally presented itself to Sheila Harms, and the one at which she ultimately excelled.

I worked with Sheila Jones Harms for two and a half years, during the time it took for her to create the original manuscript of this book. It was an immense joy for me to share this process with her. I came to know this talented woman, the difficulties she faced, and the victories she won while pursuing her dream to become an opera singer. It was also a period of hard work as I helped to pull the words out of her and onto the printed page.

Unfortunately, Sheila Jones Harms passed away of a stroke in December 2004, before her book could be completed. I am saddened by her unexpected passing, but am flattered that she entrusted me with the task of completing her work. It has been a pleasure for me to spend the hours I have spent with her original text, which I have revised extensively from the voluminous notes and emails she left behind, as well as my memories of the many conversations we had about music and singing. I have arranged her thoughts into a logical flow, polished her words and done the research necessary to fill in the background of her story. The Internet has been of great use to me in this regard, providing both pictures and information on many of the people, places, and institutions she describes.

In the process, I have come to know what I hope is the real Sheila who shines forth from these pages, a sensitive and talented person who experienced both the heartaches and the joys of becoming an outstanding professional musician.

It is my wish that my work will be of use to her many friends and students as they remember Sheila for the generous woman she was, as well as serve as a reminder of the many tips and techniques she had to share as musician and a teacher of singing.

 Ed Flaspoehler, Dallas, TX, 2006

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