Louise Homer

Louise Beatty Homer (April 30, 1871 – May 6, 1947) was an American operatic dramatic contralto who had an active international career in concert halls and opera houses from 1895 until her retirement in 1932.

Her father initially expressed concerns over his daughter's desired singing career for religious reasons, believing that such gifts were meant solely for worship within the church.

However, Louise was eventually able to convince her father that she could employ her vocal gifts outside of the church without being in sin, at which point she was given permission to pursue a musical education.

[6] Just months before her marriage, Homer made her stage debut in January 1895 in a vaudeville production at Keith's Opera House in Providence, Rhode Island.

[7] The following February she appeared at the Bijou Opera House in Boston in the vaudeville show Our Uncle Dudley in a cast which also included Broadway star Marie Cahill and silent film actor and director Frank Currier.

She also sang in the American premieres of Ignacy Jan Paderewski's Manru (1902, Hedwig), Richard Wagner's Parsifal (1903, the Voice from Above), Christoph Willibald Gluck's Armide (1910, Hate), and Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov (1913, as Marina with Arturo Toscanini conducting[9]).

Some of the many roles she appeared in on the Met stage were Azucena in Il trovatore, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde, Dalila in Samson and Delilah, Emilia in Otello, Erda in Siegfried, Fidès in Le prophète, both Flosshilde and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, both Fricka and Schwertleite in Die Walküre,[11] Laura in La Gioconda, Lola in Cavalleria rusticana, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Marguerite in La dame blanche, both Marta and Pantalis in Mefistofele, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, Nancy in Martha, Naoia in Frederick Converse's The Pipe of Desire, Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice, Ortrud in Lohengrin, the Second Lady in The Magic Flute, Siebel in Faust, Urbain in Les Huguenots, Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera, Venus in Tannhäuser, and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel.

She also sang in numerous concerts at the Met, including as a soloist in performances of Handel's Messiah, Rossini's Stabat Mater, and Verdi's Requiem.

Miss Louise Homer Jnr, a lyric soprano voice with unusual purity of tone made her solo debut in 1917 at the academy of music, Philadelphia and sang at a joint concert with her mother in 1921 in Carnegie Hall.

Louise Homer recorded several Christian hymns in duet with Alma Gluck, among them "Rock of Ages,"[13] "Whispering Hope,"[14] "One Sweetly Solemn Thought,"[15] and "Jesus, Lover of My Soul.

Louise Homer early in her career
Louise Homer, on March 19, 1913, as Marina in Boris Godunov
Louise Homer as Amneris in Aida