Alice D'Hermanoy
Alice D'Hermanoy | |
|---|---|
 Alice D'Hermanoy, from a 1921 publication. | |
| Born | Alice Saintenoy January 15, 1885 Brussels, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Occupation | opera singer |
Alice D'Hermanoy (born January 15, 1885 — died after 1932[1]), born Alice Saintenoy, was a Belgian lyric soprano who sang with the Chicago Civic Opera in the 1920s.
Early life[edit]
Alice Saintenoy was born in Brussels. Her family was of Walloon ethnicity. She trained to sing at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.[2]
Career[edit]
D'Hermanoy sang with the Brussels opera for four seasons, and for three seasons in Cairo. During World War I, unable to return from France to Belgium, she went instead to Switzerland, where she sang with the Geneva Opera and volunteered as a Red Cross nurse, giving rise to her billing as "the Florence Nightingale of Song". She sang at the Belgian celebration of the end of war, and for a season at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1920.[2]
She first sang with the Chicago Civic Opera in 1921, in Carmen.[3][4] In 1922 she was in the cast of Massenet's Manon in New York, with Tito Schipa and Edith Mason.[5] She toured with the Chicago Civic Opera's productions of Namiko-San (1925) in Chicago, with Tamaki Miura, La Traviata (1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930) with Claudia Muzio and Tito Schipa, Rigoletto (1926, 1927, 1928) with Charles Hackett and Devora Nadworney, Lucia di Lammermoor (1926, 1930, 1931), and Il trovatore (1927, 1928, 1930).[6][7][8] In 1931 she toured with the Chicago Civil Opera to California and the Pacific Northwest.[9][10]
Alice D'Hermanoy also kept poultry at her farm in Belgium. She attended poultry shows in the United States to buy birds,[11] and reportedly sang arias for her chickens to improve them.[12]
Personal life[edit]
Alice D'Hermanoy married opera conductor Charles Henri Lauwers in 1921. The couple lived in Los Angeles in 1931.[13]
References[edit]
- ^ "C. H. Harrison Will Receive Honor Tonight" Chicago Tribune (April 11, 1933): 17. via Newspapers.com
- ^ a b "Affairs and Folks" National Magazine (August 1920): 217.
- ^ F. C., "Alice D'Hermanoy" Music News (December 16, 1921): 22.
- ^ J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Rowman & Littlefield 2014): 33-34, 37-38, 41, 43-44. ISBN 9780810893023
- ^ "Farewell Week Notable for Muratore's Return" Musical Leader (March 2, 1922): 195.
- ^ Margaret Ross Griffel, Opera in English: A Dictionary (Scarecrow Press 2012): 338. ISBN 9780810883253
- ^ Charles A. Hooey, "Richard Bonelli - Appearances 1926-1932" Music Web International.
- ^ "Camille to be Repeated this Week" Wisconsin State Journal (December 14, 1930): 54. via NewspaperArchive.com
- ^ "Opera Singers in Portland March 12, 13, 14" La Grande Observer (February 19, 1931): 5. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Cast for 'La Traviata', Tonight's Opera in S. F." Oakland Tribune (March 2, 1931): 17. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Chicago National Show" Poultry Herald (February 1924): 77.
- ^ "Singer's Poultry Respond to Arias" Lansing State Journal (August 25, 1923): 5. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Reseda News Notes" Van Nuys News (March 9, 1931): 5. via Newspapers.com
External links[edit]
- Edward C. Moore, Forty Years of Opera in Chicago (H. Liveright 1930). via Internet Archive
