Miriam Licette

Miriam Licette (9 September 1885 – 11 August 1969) was an English operatic soprano whose career spanned 35 years, from the mid-1910s to after World War II.

She spent some of her early years in places like Hong Kong and Singapore, as her father was a captain with the Blue Star Shipping Line.

Her roles at this time included Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, and Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute.

[1] In May 1915, Sir Thomas Beecham heard her for the first time, in La traviata, and immediately signed her for a Proms Concert two weeks later, to sing Tatiana's Letter Scene from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.

In July she sang Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and in November came her first Constanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

She also appeared in Holst's Savitri, and in a Royal Choral Society concert presentation of Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust under Sir Hamilton Harty.

She also appeared in 1925 in what would become an annual tradition for the next 15 years – a staging with scenery and costumes of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's The Song of Hiawatha, initially with the RCS under Eugene Goossens.

[1] In 1929 she appeared in a performance of Delius's A Mass of Life with Astra Desmond, Tudor Davies and Roy Henderson with Sir Thomas Beecham leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

[1] The bulk of her estate was used to found the Miriam Licette Scholarship, which is administered by the Musicians' Benevolent Fund, awardees being permitted to study anywhere in France, with particular emphasis on the interpretation of French mélodie.

[6] Her recordings include a complete Faust under Sir Thomas Beecham (1930);[7] substantial extracts from William Vincent Wallace's Maritana;[8] and Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Nedda in Pagliacci.

[4] Her associate artists in these recordings include Dennis Noble, Heddle Nash, Muriel Brunskill, Harold Williams, Frank Mullings and Clara Serena; and the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham, Percy Pitt, Albert Ketèlbey, Hamilton Harty, Hubert Bath, Felix Weingartner, Eugene Goossens, Clarence Raybould and Stanford Robinson.