Alice D'Hermanoy (born January 15, 1885 — died after 1932), born Alice Saintenoy, was a Belgian lyric soprano who sang with the

Chicago Civic Opera The Civic Opera Company (1922–1931) was a Chicago company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in the Auditorium Theatre from 1922 to 1928, and three seasons at its own Civic Opera House from 1929 to 1931 before falling victim to financi ...

in the 1920s.

Early life

Alice Saintenoy was born in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Her family was of Walloon ethnicity. She trained to sing at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels."Affairs and Folks"
''National Magazine'' (August 1920): 217.

Career

D'Hermanoy sang with the Brussels opera for four seasons, and for three seasons in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, unable to return from France to Belgium, she went instead to Switzerland, where she sang with the Geneva Opera and volunteered as a Red Cross nurse, giving rise to her billing as "the Florence Nightingale of Song". She sang at the Belgian celebration of the end of war, and for a season at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...

in Covent Garden in 1920. She first sang with the Chicago Civic Opera in 1921, in '' Carmen''. In 1922 she was in the cast of Massenet's '' Manon'' in New York, with

Tito Schipa Tito Schipa (; born Raffaele Attilio Amedeo Schipa; 2 January 1889 in Lecce16 December 1965) was an Italian lyric tenor, considered the greatest tenore di grazia and one of the most popular tenors of the century. Biography Schipa was born as ...

and

Edith Mason Edith Mason (March 22, 1892 – November 26, 1973) was an American soprano. Biography She was born Edith Barnes on March 22, 1892, in St. Louis, Missouri and studied in Boston, Philadelphia, and Paris. She made her singing début on January 27, ...

. She toured with the Chicago Civic Opera's productions of ''Namiko-San'' (1925) in Chicago, with

Tamaki Miura , was a Japanese opera singer who performed as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's '' Madama Butterfly''. Early life Miura was born the first daughter of Shibata Mōho and Shibata Towa () on February 22, 1884 in Tokyo, Japan. Shibata, a music lover had h ...

, ''La Traviata'' (1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930) with

Claudia Muzio Claudia Muzio (7 February 1889 – 24 May 1936) was an Italian operatic soprano who enjoyed an international career during the early 20th century. Early years Claudina Emilia Maria Muzzio was born in Pavia, the daughter of Carlo Muzio, an operat ...

and Tito Schipa, ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...

'' (1926, 1927, 1928) with

Charles Hackett Charles Hackett (November 4, 1889 – January 1, 1942) sometimes referred to as Carlo Hackett, was an American lyric tenor. Biography He was born on November 4, 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Hackett studied first at the New England Cons ...

and Devora Nadworney, ''

Lucia di Lammermoor ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' () is a (tragic opera) in three acts by Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian-language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's 1819 historical novel '' The Bride of Lammermoo ...

'' (1926, 1930, 1931), and ''

Il trovatore ''Il trovatore'' ('The Troubadour') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto largely written by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play ''El trovador'' (1836) by Antonio García Gutiérrez. It was García Gutiérrez's mos ...

'' (1927, 1928, 1930). In 1931 she toured with the Chicago Civil Opera to California and the Pacific Northwest. Alice D'Hermanoy also kept poultry at her farm in Belgium. She attended poultry shows in the United States to buy birds, and reportedly sang arias for her chickens to improve them.

Personal life

Alice D'Hermanoy married opera conductor Charles Henri Lauwers in 1921. The couple lived in Los Angeles in 1931."Reseda News Notes"
''Van Nuys News'' (March 9, 1931): 5. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

References

External links

* Edward C. Moore
''Forty Years of Opera in Chicago''
(H. Liveright 1930). via

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermanoy, Alice D' 1885 births 20th-century deaths Musicians from Brussels Belgian operatic sopranos