Suzanne Adams

Suzanne Adams (1872-1953) was an American lyric coloratura soprano. Known for her agile and pure voice, Adams first became well known in France before establishing herself as one of the Metropolitan Opera's leading sopranos at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Biography

Adams was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She studied in New York with Jacques Bouhy and then in Paris with Mathilde Marchesi. She made her opera début at the Paris Opera in 1894 or 1895 as Juliette in Charles Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette". She studied the role of Juliet and the role of Marguerite from "Faust" with Gounod himself, who greatly admired her fine technique, brilliant tone, and vocal flexibility.

She remained at the Paris Opera for three years and then went to Nice. While in France she sang numeroues roles by Gounod and Meyerbeer, as well as the Queen of the Night in the "The Magic Flute" and the title role in Gluck’s "Eurydice" among other roles. In the summer of 1898 she appeared at Covent Garden, London as Hero in the world premiere of C. V. Stanford’s "Much Ado about Nothing". She went on to join the Metropolitan Opera in New York where she sang numerous roles during the seasons of 1898-99 to 1903. Her roles at the Met included Juliette, Marguerite, Marguerite de Valois from "Les Huguenots", Micaela from "Carmen", Cherubino from "Le nozze di Figaro", Donna Elvira from "Don Giovanni", Philine from "Mignon", Berthe from "Le Prophète", the Forest Bird from "Siegfried", Nedda from "Pagliacci", Gilda from "Rigoletto", Infanta from "Le Cid", Inès from "L'Africaine", and Mimì from "La Boheme" among others.

In 1898 she married Leo Stern, an English cellist who died in 1904. Following Stern's death, Adams retired and moved to London where she became a British citizen and taught singing for many years. She returned to the United States in 1907 for only one year where she appeared in vaudeville in Chicago, New York and elsewhere. In 1915 she married John Lumsden Mackay, 'of independent means'. She continued teaching until her death in London in 1953.

Note: Some reference books claim that she managed a laundry in London afterher retirement, but donot cite reliable primary sources for this.

Recordings

Adams recorded for G&T 1902 (five titles in the 'London Reds'), Columbia in the US 1902/3 (seven titles in the '1903 Grand Opera Series'). She also appears on a few of the Mapleson Cylinders, including (probably) the one of the Queen's aria from Les Huguenots previously attributed to Melba.

ources

*wikicite|id=idGroveMusicOnline|reference=Herman Klein/Harold Rosenthal: "Suzanne Adams", "Grove Music Online" ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 26, 2008), [http://www.grovemusic.com (subscription access)]
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