Description

EDITH MASON (ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, MARCH 22, 1892 – SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, NOVEMBER 26, 1973)

 

 

 

 

Born Edith Barnes, she spent her childhood in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and Cincinnati. After attending an opera performance with Geraldine Farrar and Enrico Caruso, she decided to pursue a career in singing. She studied in Paris with Enrico Bertram and at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Her professional debut came in 1912 at the Boston Opera, where she performed as Nedda in Pagliacci. During the same season, she also sang the role of Musetta in La Bohème and Zerline in Don Giovanni.

After furthering her studies with Edmond Clément in Paris, she performed at the Opéra-Comique, the Opéra de Nice (1914), and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. She continued her studies with Vanza and Cottone in Milan and with the renowned French baritone Victor Maurel in New York. In 1915, she joined the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she stayed for two seasons. Her repertoire included Page Oscar in Verdi’s Ballo in maschera, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Marzelline in Fidelio, Samaritana in the American premiere of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini (1916), and the Waldvogel in Siegfried. She also appeared in the world premiere of The Canterbury Pilgrims by De Koven on March 8, 1917.

From 1917, she performed at the Ravinia Festival, taking on roles such as Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Mimi in La Bohème, Marguerite in Faust, Micaela in Carmen, and Gilda in Rigoletto. As a member of the Bracala Opera Company, she also toured Central America. In 1919, she was a guest at the Théâtre Lyrique and the Opéra-Comique in Paris. In 1920, she appeared at the Grand Opéra in Paris as Marguerite in Faust, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Gilda, and Salomé in Massenet’s Hérodiade. She also performed at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo in the same year.

From 1921 to 1933 and again from 1934 to 1942, she was a member of the Chicago Opera. In 1921, she made a guest appearance there as Madama Butterfly. She also sang the role of Mimi in La Bohème at La Scala in Milan in 1923, later performing as Marguerite in Faust (1927, under Toscanini) and as Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff (1935). She was heard in Rome and Turin in 1924 and appeared at Covent Garden in London in 1930. In 1933, she performed Nannetta at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and later took on the same role at the Salzburg Festival in 1935.

In the 1935-36 season, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to perform as Madama Butterfly and Marguerite in Faust and also appeared in a Sunday Night Concert. She was first married to Italian conductor Giorgio Polacca (1874–1960). After her second marriage in 1938 to American millionaire William Ragland, she retired from the stage in 1939, although she performed again in 1941 in Chicago as Mimi in La Bohème.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1. Madama Butterfly (Puccini): Ancora un passo 15096 14309 Brunswick, New York 1924-11-28
2. Faust (Gounod): Air des bijoux 15096 14307 Brunswick, New York 1924-11-28
3. Martha (Flotow): Last rose of summer 30108 X12878 Brunswick, New York 1924-04-15
4. Madama Butterfly (Puccini): Un bel dì vedremo 50080 XE16613 Brunswick, New York 1925-10-13
5. Serenata (Tosti) 10243 E18621 Brunswick, New York 1926-03-31
6. O for the wings of a dove (Mendelssohn) 10243 E18607 Brunswick, New York 1926-03-30
7. Good bye (Tosti) 30115 XE16632 Brunswick, New York 1925-10-14
8. Louise (Charpentier): Depuis le jour unpubl XE26310 Brunswick, New York 1928-01-30