Frances Peralta

Several of her siblings were in the arts, including her sisters Blanche, a writer, and Gertrude, an artist.

[1][2] In 1911 she was appearing in a comic opera in New York's Globe Theatre when the star, Marguerite Sylva, fell ill, and Peralta (who was still using her birth name at this time) was given the opportunity to sing the lead.

She apparently did well enough for the manager to alternate the two sopranos in the lead role for the remainder of the run.

She sang briefly with the Chicago Opera Association, and in 1920 made her first appearance at the New York Metropolitan Opera as Elena in Arrigo Boito's Mefistofele, on Christmas Day, the day after Enrico Caruso's last performance there.

[1][2] She sang regularly at the Met until 1926, portraying such roles as Alice Ford in Falstaff, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Elizabeth in Don Carlo, Ginevra in 'La cena delle beffe and Mona Lisa, Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann, Leonora in Il trovatore and La Forza del Destino, Maddalena in Andrea Chénier, Mathilde in William Tell, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Sélika in L'Africaine, Venus in Tannhäuser, and the title roles in Aida, La Gioconda, Franco Leoni's L'Oracolo, and Tosca among others.