Nielsen, Alice (c. 1870–1943)

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Nielsen, Alice (c. 1870–1943)

American singer of light and grand opera. Born on June 7, around 1870 (some sources cite c. 1868), in Nashville, Tennessee; died on March 8, 1943, in New York City; daughter of Erasmus Ivarius Nielsen (a laborer) and Sarah (Kilroy) Nielsen (a department store worker); educated at St. Teresa's Academy; married Benjamin Nentwig (a church organist), in 1889 (divorced 1898); married LeRoy R. Stoddard (a plastic surgeon), in 1917 (divorced); children: (first marriage) Benjamin.

Became a star with The Bostonians (1896); played the leading role in The Serenade; founded the Alice Nielsen Comic Opera Company (1898); was the leading American female star in light opera (late 1890s); made grand opera debut in Italy (1903); played roles in Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Bohème, Il Barbiere de Siviglia, Don Pasquale, L'Enfant Prodigue, and The Sacrifice.

Born on June 7, around 1870, Alice Nielsen grew up with her four siblings in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father reportedly died of wounds received during his service in the Union Army, and her mother supplemented her pension as a soldier's widow through work in a department store. Nielsen indulged her love of singing early on by performing on city sidewalks and collecting pennies for her songs. She had little formal training as a singer beyond her experience in a church choir and some instruction from a local music teacher, but her talent earned her a major role in a juvenile-company production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado around 1886.

Nielsen's love of the stage won out over her first husband Benjamin Nentwig, a church organist. They married on May 7, 1889, but separated soon after the birth of her first and only child, Benjamin. Leaving her young son in the care of her in-laws, she formed the Chicago Church Choir Company with three other young singers and a manager and embarked on a brief, unsuccessful tour through Missouri. Nielsen then joined the Burton Stanley traveling opera company, which eventually took her to California. There she was invited to join the Tivoli Opera Company, and studied with Ida Valerga , one of the company's stars. Nielsen made her debut in a starring role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.

However, it was not until 1896, when she joined The Bostonians, at the time the country's premiere light opera company, that she found true fame as a singer. Nielsen's rich voice and impressive range, combined with a natural charm and enthusiasm, quickly launched her from understudy roles to the leading role of a new operetta, The Serenade. Her success in this part was such that she decided to form her own company, the Alice Nielsen Comic Opera Company, in 1898. During its two-year existence (at the end of which she was called "the leading woman star in light opera on the American stage"), the

company's most important production was The Fortune Teller, which had successful runs in New York and London. While in England, Nielsen found many admirers, including the impresario Henry Russell, Jr., and patrons who financed her training for grand opera and arranged for her to perform for the king. After studying in Italy, she made her operatic debut in Naples in December 1903. There, she also made the acquaintance of actress Eleonora Duse , and the two toured together for a time.

Nielsen sang several important roles with the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London beginning in the spring of 1904, including Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème. In addition to these celebrated productions, she played Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere de Siviglia and Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale for the New Waldorf Theater in London. The production of the latter opera also toured the United States, and in 1909 Nielsen joined the Boston Opera Company. She played Lia in the first American production of Debussy's L'Enfant Prodigue in 1910, and created the role of Chonita for Frederick Converse's The Sacrifice the following year. Nielsen also made occasional appearances with the Metropolitan Opera Company during this time, and in 1917 returned to operetta in Rudolf Friml's Kitty Darlin'. That same year, she married a plastic surgeon from New York City, LeRoy R. Stoddard, whom she would later divorce.

Between 1921 and 1923, Nielsen gave a series of concert recitals with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She then lived quietly in New York City, almost wholly dependent upon the financial support of friends, until her death on March 8, 1943.