Florence Easton
She was one of the most versatile singers of all time, appearing in more than 100 roles, covering a wide range of styles and periods, from Mozart, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Strauss, Schreker and Krenek.
She sang virtually every Wagnerian soprano part, large and small, from Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer onwards, including Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung.
Easton described herself as a "lyric dramatic soprano", which seems barely adequate in relation to the range and types of roles in which she excelled.
She could move easily through all stages from the light coloratura to the Hochdramatische, from girlish romanticism to the powerful drama of Wagner and Strauss.
Her parents left England when she was 5 years old and settled with Florence (then known as Flossie) and her younger brother in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
[1] Her musical talent became evident in early childhood and she had piano, organ and singing lessons with JDA Tripp and Mr Harrison.
"But not long after this my father died, and my grandparents (who had good old-fashioned ideas that a woman's place to sing was in the home) discouraged my efforts.
Florence was determined, and her debut operatic appearance was as the Shepherd boy in Tannhäuser at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1903 with the touring Moody-Manners Opera Company.
Florence was coached by Richard Strauss for the title role in the English version of his Elektra, at the London premiere at Covent Garden in 1910.
In 1915–16, the couple toured America where Florence appeared in a single performance as Brünnhilde in Siegfried, achieving a great popular and critical success.
Due to the First World War it was too risky to return to Germany, so they remained in the United States, becoming members of the Chicago Opera Association where she debuted in Siegfried.
Florence created the role of Lauretta at the world premiere of Puccini¹s Gianni Schicchi on 14 December 1918 at the Met; she was the first to sing the now famous aria "O mio babbino caro" ("O My Beloved Papa").
Florence sang many other premiere roles including Aelfrida in Deems Taylor's The King's Henchman on 17 February 1927 and Mother Tyl in Wolff's L'oiseau bleu.
She was also featured in many American premieres including La cena delle beffe, Così fan tutte and Der Rosenkavalier.
Florence Easton was famous for her ability to take an unknown part at 8 in the morning and perform it flawlessly in public 12 hours later.
She married Robert Stanley Rogers, a New York banker and executive of the Celanese Corporation of America and baritone singer, in 1931.
Leaving England finally in 1935, she found that she had lost the tour to the new sensation, Kirsten Flagstad (but she remained an unstinting admirer of the great Norwegian).
Reeling in Carmen's death-throes, I happened to catch my heel in the skirt of my dress and fell, twisting my spine, directly in the path of the curtain.
On one occasion, Florence Easton was engaged to sing the title role in Madama Butterfly in Washington, D.C., a place celebrated for the strictest child labour laws of any city in the country.
The child 'Trouble' (Butterfly's son who appears only in the last act), is always recruited locally, and a resourceful stage manager from somewhere produced a midget.
Florence retired from public performance in 1939; her last appearance with the orchestra was in a 1942 broadcast where she sang excerpts from Tristan und Isolde using her own English translations.
One of her most important Wagnerian records was made for HMV in 1932: the superb Siegfried "Brünnhilde" opposite Lauritz Melchior (Covent Garden, 1932) "Heil dir Sonne!
