Her real name was Margaret Tate. Initially, she played the piano at the Royal College of Music in London, and later studied singing with Jean de Reszke in Paris (1905). She made her concert debut under her real name, Margaret Tate, in February 1907 in Monte Carlo, performing alongside the great pianist Ignacy Paderewski. Her stage debut occurred in 1907 at the Monte Carlo Opera, where she performed as Zerlina in Don Giovanni.

That same year, she was engaged by the Opéra-Comique in Paris, where she sang the role of Glycère in the premiere of the opera Circé by Paul and Théodore Hillomacher. At the Opéra-Comique, where she remained until 1910, she achieved sensational success as Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande (1908). Claude Debussy himself, who accompanied her during piano evenings, considered her the successor to Mary Garden in this role.

In the 1910-1911, 1914, and 1922-1923 seasons, she sang at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, including a notable performance in 1910 as Nuri in the English premiere of Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland, and with great success, the role of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. From 1911 to 1914, she was engaged by the Chicago Opera, where she also made her Philadelphia debut in 1911, performing as Cherubino. In Chicago, she appeared in the premiere of Carl Goldmark’s opera Das Heimchen am Herd and in Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon.

In 1911, she created a sensation in New York by performing contemporary French songs in recitals. In 1914, she was a guest at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where she performed as Susanna in Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna and as Oscar in Giuseppe Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. During the 1915-1917 seasons, she performed at the Boston Opera.

After World War I, she returned to England, where she continued to give concerts but retired from musical life after her marriage. On May 14, 1923, she performed as the Princess at the Covent Garden Opera in London in the premiere of Gustav Holst’s opera The Perfect Fool.

In 1930 and from 1936 to 1938, she appeared again at Covent Garden, primarily as Mélisande, but also in roles such as Butterfly, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. During World War II, she sang for British soldiers, and her career continued for many years. In 1945, she gave a brilliant concert in New York, followed by a tour of North America in 1946. In the 1947-1948 season, she reprised her famous role as Mélisande at the New York City Center Opera.

Her last stage role was in 1951 at the London Mermaid Theatre, where she sang Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas alongside Kirsten Flagstad as Dido. In 1954, she toured England and North America once more. Her final concert took place in London’s Wigmore Hall in 1955.

In 1958, Queen Elizabeth II of England honored her by raising her to the nobility as Dame of the British Empire.