Evelyn Scotney

Evelyn Scotney (11 July 1896 – 5 August 1967)[1] was an Australian lyric coloratura soprano of great renown in the period from 1913 to the late 1920s.

[6] Her father was a professor from the University of Oxford who had come to Australia to study minerals, married there, and decided to stay.

She first appeared as La Charmeuse in Massenet's Thais,[10] then deputised for Luisa Tetrazzini in the title role of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, the Mad Scene from which became her most famous part.

[10] She also sang in Debussy's Le martyre de Saint Sébastien in 1912 with Jeska Swartz, conducted by André Caplet.

[2] She later sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in operas such as Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or,[13] Lucia di Lammermoor, L'elisir d'amore and the revival of Fromental Halévy's La Juive, in which she sang opposite Enrico Caruso.

[7] It was Evelyn Scotney who appeared opposite Enrico Caruso in his final performance, in La Juive, on Christmas Eve 1920.