Quaintance Eaton (August 23, 1901 — April 12, 1992) was an American writer and arts administrator, author of several works on the history of opera.

Early life

Frances Quaintance Eaton was born in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, the daughter of Dudley Ward Eaton, a lawyer, and Madge (McAlister) Eaton."Quaintance Eaton, 90, Writer on Opera, Dies"
''New York Times'' (April 15, 1992): p. 26. The name "Quaintance" was a family name. "My Quaker grandmother was named Bathsheeba Gidley Quaintance", she explained. "Fortunately I inherited only part of her name".Claire Leeds
"She Promotes Music for the Millions"
''San Francisco Examiner'' (September 16, 1958): p. 18. 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, ...

She remembered enjoying opera recordings as a girl."Quaintance Eaton Opera Authority at Wurlitzer"
''Taos News'' (July 28, 1971): p. 9. via

Career

Eaton was a contributing editor at '' Opera News'', and associate editor at ''

Musical America ''Musical America'' is the oldest American magazine on classical music, first appearing in 1898 in print and in 1999 online, at musicalamerica.com. It is published by Performing Arts Resources, LLC, of East Windsor, New Jersey. History 1898–19 ...

''. She also edited ''Quarter Notes'', a publication of the

New York City Opera The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived. The opera company, du ...

. She was executive secretary of the National Council on the Arts and Government, and of the National Committee for the Musical Arts. She was also executive secretary of the

National Federation of Music Clubs The National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC) is an American non-profit philanthropic music organization that promotes American music, performers, and composers. NFMC endeavors to strengthen quality music education by supporting "high standards o ...

and a founder and board member of the New York City Opera Guild. Eaton was given extensive access to rehearsals and opera company records in her research. "Even with all the opera I've seen," she explained in 1975, "it still fascinates me more than any other form of music." Books by Eaton include ''Musical U. S. A.'' (1949), ''Opera Caravan'' (1957), ''Opera Production: A Handbook'' (1961), ''The Boston Opera Company'' (1965), ''The Miracle of the Met'' (1968), ''Opera Production: A Handbook, Volume 2'' (1974), ''Opera: A Pictorial Guide'' (1980), and ''Sutherland and Bonynge: An Intimate Biography'' (1987). She was a regular contributor to opera programming on radio, and wrote about the coming of opera to television. Eaton was named a National Arts Associate by the music fraternity

Sigma Alpha Iota Sigma Alpha Iota () is a women's music fraternity. Formed to "uphold the highest standards of music" and "to further the development of music in America and throughout the world", it continues to provide musical and educational resources to its m ...

for her "distinguished contributions to the arts". She spent the summers of 1971 and 1973 in

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...

on grants from the Wurlitzer Foundation. In 1974, she returned to Taos, after an extended tour in Australia, covering new productions at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...

Personal life

Eaton was often described as a tall woman, and her wardrobe of handmade and unusual gowns and hats was also remarked upon. She died in 1992, in New York City, after a stroke. She was 90 years old. "Her textbooks on opera production have been indispensable and irreplaceable tools for opera professionals for decades," wrote

Christopher Keene Christopher Keene (December 21, 1946 – October 8, 1995) was an American conductor. Early life and education Keene was born in 1946 in Berkeley, California, the son of Yvonne (née Cyr) and Jim Keene. His mother was of Acadian, German, and Sco ...

, general director of the New York City Opera, on the occasion. "Those privileged to know her will miss her indescribable vivacity and exceptional outlook on life. She was one of a kind." A 1976 audio recording of her interviewing Joan Sutherland and

Richard Bonynge Richard Alan Bonynge ( ) (born 29 September 1930) is an Australian conductor and pianist. He is the widower of Australian dramatic coloratura soprano Dame Joan Sutherland. Bonynge conducted virtually all of Sutherland's operatic performances ...

for radio is archived in the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

.Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge in the U.S.
interviewed by Quaintance Eaton (sound recording, 1976), Australian Radio Cultural Series, National Library of Australia.

References

External links

Quaintance Eaton papers, 1920-1987
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eaton, Quaintance 1901 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American historians Writers from Kansas City, Missouri American women historians 20th-century American women writers Historians of opera 20th-century American musicologists American women musicologists