Minnie Tracey ( - January 29, 1929) was an American high

lyric soprano A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre that can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and ot ...

Early years

Tracey was born in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

. She studied music abroad, including three years' training under Belgian operatic soprano

Marie Sasse Marie Constance Sasse ax, Saxe, Sass(26 January 1834 – 8 November 1907) was a Belgian operatic soprano. "Her voice was powerful, flexible, and appealing",Warrack, p. 632. "Sass, Marie Constance". and she was one of the leading sopranos at t ...

Career

In 1890, Tracey debuted in the Geneva Opera House in the role of Marguerite in ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

''. She received several curtain calls, and "Her success was unprecedented in the case of a debutante in Geneva." She created roles in some operas written by her friend Jules Massenet, and she sang with Caruso in London. Other cities in which she performed included

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

, Marseilles,

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Civic contributions

While Tracey lived in Cincinnati, she "was a dominant factor in the city's artistic life." Her contributions included arranging a Mozart festival and achieving radio broadcasts of the

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its primary concert venue is Music Hall. In addition to its symphony concerts, the orchestra gives pops concerts as the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. The Cinc ...

Death

On January 29, 1929, Tracey died at her home in Cincinnati, Ohio, at age 55. The following Sunday, a music column in ''

The Cincinnati Enquirer ''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, al ...

'' praised her contributions as a music educator and "impresario of musical events".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tracey, Minnie 1929 deaths 19th-century American women singers 19th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 20th-century women musicians