Kellogg, Clara Louise (1842–1916)

American soprano, impresario, and first American-born prima donna to achieve a solid reputation in Europe who organized her own opera company. Born Clara Louise Kellogg in Sumterville (now Sumter), South Carolina, on July 9, 1842; died of cancer at her home Elpstone, in New Hartford, Connecticut, on May 13, 1916; interred in nearby Town Hill Cemetery; daughter of George Kellogg (an inventor, schoolteacher, and graduate of Wesleyan University) and Jane Elizabeth (Crosby) Kellogg (a schoolteacher who was considered an excellent musician); studied with Achille Errani and Emanuele Muzio; married Carl Strakosch (nephew of her former manager Max Strakosch), on November 9, 1887.

America's first prima donna and one of the first female impresarios, Clara Louise Kellogg was born in Sumterville, South Carolina in 1842. Throughout her career, she worked to bring opera to the American stage. Kellogg learned music from her parents who took her to New York in 1856 for further study with Achille Errani and Emanuele Muzio. On February 27, 1861, she debuted as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Academy of Music. On November 23, 1863, she sang Marguerite in the first New York performance of Gounod's Faust which became the most popular opera in America for the next three decades. For half of that period, Kellogg was closely identified with this opera. French composer Hector Berlioz, who was in the United States at the time, was astonished at her skill in interpreting the subtler shadings of the poet, which he believed were beyond the reach of lyric art. In 1867, she made her London debut in the same role at Her Majesty's Theater and was again triumphant. She also sang in the Handel Festival held in the great Crystal Palace, a great honor for an American.

Clara Kellogg began a successful four-year tour of the United States in 1868 and was met throughout by crowded houses. At tour's end, she decided to form her own opera company with Pauline Lucca (1872). Following that, she directed the English Opera Company (1873–76). In her role as impresario, Kellogg guided translations, helped construct stage sets, and supervised rehearsals. Extremely energetic, she managed to sing 125 performances in the 1874–75 season alone. This pioneer effort in presenting grand opera in English took a great deal of energy, as Americans had little experience with opera. In 1887, she married Carl Strakosch, the nephew of her former manager Max Strakosch, and retired from the stage. Kellogg had sung more than 40 roles including Aïda, Carmen, and Lucia in Donizetti's Linda de Chamounix. In youth, her voice was a high soprano with a range from C to E flat; with age, it lost some of the highest notes but gained in power and richness. Her memoirs contain "acute observations" on contemporary artists, including Adelina Patti and Lillian Nordica .

sources:

Sadie, Stanley, ed. New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 20 vols. NY: Macmillan, 1980.

Warrack, John, and Ewan West. Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford University Press, 1992.

suggested reading:

Kellogg, Clara Louise. Memoirs of an American Prima Donna. New York, 1913 (revised 1978).

John Haag , Athens, Georgia