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 St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

and studied in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, 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 ...

. She made her singing début on January 27, 1912, as Nedda in '' Pagliacci'' with the Boston Opera Company. During the next three years, she sang in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

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 ...

, Marseilles, and

. In 1914 she was singing at the

Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway. ...

in Paris when the war terminated her engagement. Returning to America, she made her debut at the Metropolitan as Sophie in

Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...

on November 20, 1915. From 1917 to 1919, she was a member of the

Metropolitan Opera Company The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

. In 1919, she married Giorgio Polacco. In 1921 she became one of the leading singers of the Chicago Opera Association. She divorced Polacco on July 21, 1929, and was married to Dr. Maurice Bernstein, guardian of the young

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

. She remarried Polacco on May 15, 1931. They divorced in 1937. She later married William E. Ragland. She died of a stroke in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

, on November 26, 1973, at age 80. Edith Mason passport pg.1.jpg, Edith Mason's passport, pg. 1., 1918 Edith Mason passport pg.2.jpg, Edith Mason's passport, pg. 2., 1918 Edith Mason and Mabel Garrison on November 11, 1915 at the Metropolitan Opera.jpg, Edith Mason and Mabel Garrison on November 11, 1915, at the Metropolitan Opera, New York Mary Garden and Edith Mason cph.3b20564.jpg, Edith Mason (seated) sings for the first regular radio program of operas (Chicago, 1921), with

Mary Garden A Mary garden is a small sacred garden enclosing a statue or shrine of the Virgin Mary, who is known to many Christians as the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady, or the Mother of God. In the New Testament, Mary is the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Mary ...

in attendance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Edith 1892 births 1973 deaths American operatic sopranos 20th-century American women opera singers Musicians from St. Louis Singers from Missouri Classical musicians from Missouri