Sibyl Sanderson

Sibyl Sanderson (December 7, 1864 – May 16, 1903) was a famous American operatic dramatic coloratura soprano during the Parisian Belle Époque.

Sanderson proved to be a remarkably gifted singer and began to appear on the stages of the Opéra-Comique, and later Opéra, in Paris, most notably in the works of Jules Massenet.

In 1897[1] she married a Cuban millionaire and sugar heir Antonio E. Terry (d. 1899), after which she temporarily halted her operatic activity, making an unsuccessful comeback two years later.

Her last years were marred by depression, alcoholism and illness and she died in Paris of a malignant influenza (pneumonia), at the age of thirty-eight.

[2] Sanderson was responsible for helping launch the career of another soprano made famous in the French repertoire, Mary Garden.