Alice May Bates Rice (born 14 September 1868 - after 1907) was a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

singer, born in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

Biography

Alice May Bates was born in

Charlestown, Boston Charlestown is the oldest Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from dow ...

, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Alice Perkins (Field) Bates. Her parents were both well known in the musical profession, and her ancestors on both sides were musical for a number of generations. Rice's father possessed a baritone voice and held positions in quartette choirs, musical societies and clubs in and around Boston, until a few years before his death, in 1886. Her mother was a teacher of music. Rice made her debut in Checkering Hall, Boston, in September, 1883. During her first season, she appeared in several operas, which

Charles R. Adams Charles R. Adams (February 9, 1834 – July 4, 1900) was an American opera singer and singing instructor. An excellent tenor and fine actor, he had a commanding stage presence and was particularly admired for his interpretations of the works of ...

, with whom she studied rendition, brought out, assuming the prima donna roles in "Martha," "Figaro," "Maritana," "La Sonnambula," "La Fille du Regiment," "Faust", and "Lucia di Lammermoor". She was the prima donna, subsequently, of the Maritana Opera Company and appeared with them for several seasons in New England and Canada. She sang in many concerts for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and for Anton Seidl's New York Orchestra. She held positions in quartette choirs in Lowell and Worcester, and in her own city, leaving a lucrative one for her recent tour with Reményi, with whom she traveled through the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and West for 150 concerts in seven months.

Personal life

Alice May Bates married William Rice (born Dublin, New Hampshire, September 4, 1867), a dentist. He received his D.D.S. from the

Boston Dental College Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM) is a private, American dental school located in the Chinatown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, and is connected to Tufts Medical Center. It is one of the 8 graduate schools that compri ...

, 1888; and D.M.D. in 1905, from

Tufts College Dental School Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

, of which he was Dean, in 1917. They had children, Priscilla Alden (1894-1901), and Persis Alden (born 1907).

References

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Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Alice May Bates 1868 births Year of death missing People from Charlestown, Boston American operatic sopranos Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century