COMPREHENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY
Autobiographies and Memoirs
DIVA: Great Sopranos and Mezzos Discuss Their Art. Helen Matheopolous. Boston: Northeastern
University Press, 1991.
Flagstad: A Personal Memoir. Edwin McArthur. New York: Knopf, 1965.
How to Sing. Lilli Lehmann. New York: Macmillan, 1902, revised ed. 1914.
I Remember Too Much: 89 Opera Stars Speak Candidly of Their Work, Their Lives, and Their Colleagues.
Dennis McGovern and Deborah Grace Winer. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1990.
Geraldine Farrar: The Story of an American Singer by Herself. Geraldine Farrar. Philadelphia: Curtis
Publishing Company, 1915. (Project Gutenberg edition.)
Memoirs of Madame Malibran with a Selection from her Correspondence and Notices of the Progress of the
Musical Drama in England. Countess de Merlin, Vols. I and II. London: Henry Colburn. MDCCCXL (1840).
(Google edition).
Men, Women, and Tenors. Frances Alda. 1937; reprint: Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
My Life. Emma Calvé. Trans. Rosamond Gilder. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1922. (Google digital
edition.)
My Path Through Life. Lilli Lehmann, translated by Alice Benedict Seligman. New York: G.P. Putnam,
1914; reprint: New York: Arno Press, 1977.
Rainbow Bridge, The. Mary Watkins Cushing. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1954.
Stars of the Opera: A Description of Operas and Series of Personal Interviews with Marcel Sembrich, Emma
Eames, Emma Calvé, Lillian Nordica, Lilli Lehmann, Geraldine Farrar and Nellie Melba. Mabel Wagnalls.
New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1899, 1907. (Project Gutenberg or Google digital edition.)
Such Sweet Compulsion: The Autobiography of Geraldine Farrar. New York: The Greystone Press, 1938.
Thirty Years’ Musical Recollections. Henry F. Chorley. ed. Ernest Newman. New York: Knopf, 1926.
Biographies
Adelina Patti: Queen of Hearts. John Frederick Cone. Portland OR: Amadeus Press, 1993.
Always First Class: The Career of Geraldine Farrar. Elizabeth Nash. Washington, DC: University Press of
America, 1981.
Autobiographical References of African-American Classical Singers, 1853-present, Introducing Their
Spiritual Heritage into the Concert Repertoire. Elizabeth Nash. Lampeter, Wales, UK: The Edwin Mellen
Press, 2007.
Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancer, Managers and other Stage Personnel in
London, 1660 to 1800, A, Vol. 2 . By Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhan. Carbondale,
IL: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1973.
“Black Prima Donnas of the 19th Century.” E. Southern and J. Wright. The Black Perspective in Music, VII:
1979.
“Black Swan, The.” The Illustrated News. New York: 2 April 1853.
(http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/notices/noar16dt.html(
Catherine Hayes: The Hibernian Prima Donna. Basil Walsh. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2000.
“Elizabeth Billington.” British Musical Biography. James Brown and Stephen Stratton. London: William
Reeves, 1897), repr. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1971.
Enchantress of Nations. Pauline Viardot: Soprano, Muse and Lover. Michael Steen. Cambridge, UK: Icon
Books, 2007.
Five Centuries of Women Singers. Isabella Putnam Emerson. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2005.
Galli-Curci’s Life of Song. C.E. Le Massena. New York: Paebar, 1945; repr: Beverly Hills, CA: Monitor Co.,
1978.
“Gorgeous Sills.” Garry Wills. The New York Review of Books, May 1, 1975.
Grand Opera Singers of To-day, The. Henry C. Lahee. Boston: L.C. Page, 1912. (Google digital edition.)
Great Singers. Anna Dunphy, Comtesse de Bremont. London: Gibbings, 1892.
Great Singers, The: From the Dawn of Opera to Our Own Time. Henry Pleasants. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1966.
Interpreters. Carl Van Vechten. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. (Project Gutenberg edition.)
Jenny Lind in America. Charles G. Rosenberg. New York: Stringer and Townsend, 1851. (Google digital
edition.)
Jenny Lind: The Swedish Nightingale. Gladys Denny Schultz. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1962.
Lina Cavalieri: The Life of Opera’s Greatest Beauty, 1874-1944. Paul Fryer and Olga Usova. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland & Co., 2004.
Last Prima Donnas, The. Lanfranco Rasponi, New York: Knopf, 1982.
Life of Henriette Sontag, Countess de Rossi, The. Various authors, including Hector Berlioz and Théophile
Gautier. New York: Stringer and Townsend, 1852. (Project Gutenberg edition.)
Literary Lorgnette, The: Attending Opera in Imperial Russia. Julie A. Buckler. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press, 2000.
Lost Divas. André Tubeuf. Trans. Nicholas Elliott. New York: Assouline, 2005.
Maria Callas: Sacred Monster. Stelios Galatopoulos. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.
Maria Malibran. A Biography of the Singer. Howard Bushnell. University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press; 1979.
Maria Malibran: Diva of the Romantic Age. April Fitzlyon. London: Souvenir Press, 1987.
Mario and Grisi: A Biography. Elizabeth Forbes. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1985.
Marvelous Melba: The Extraordinary Life of a Great Diva. Ann Blainey. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2009.
Mary Garden. Michael T.R.B. Turnbull. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1997.
Mrs. Billington’s Embonpoint: Scandal, Hysteria, and Mozart. Michael Burden. New College, Oxford
University British Society for 18th-century Studies Annual Conference, 4 January 2008.
(http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:db1f0ebf-6791-4949-a127a210909d21a0/datastreams/ATTACHMENT01)
Never Sang for Hitler: The Life and Times of Lotte Lehmann. Michael Kater. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2008.
Observations on the Florid Song, or Sentiments on the Ancient and Modern Singers. Pier. Francesco Tosi.
London: J. Wilcox, 1743, trans. Galliard. Repr. of 2nd ed., London: William Reeves, 1905. (Google digital
edition.)
Price of Genius, The: A Life of Pauline Viardot. April Fitzlyon. London: John Calder, 1964.
Queen of Song: The Life of Henrietta Sontag. Frank Russell. New York: Exposition Press, 1964.
Queens of Song: being memoirs of some of the most Celebrated Female Vocalists who have appeared on the
lyric stage, from the earliest days of opera to the present time. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith,
Elder and Co., MDCCCLXIII (1863), Vols. 1 and 2. (Google digital edition.)
Red Plush and Black Velvet: The Story of Melba and her Times. Joseph Wechsberg. Boston: Little, Brown,
1961.
Rosa Ponselle, American Diva. Mary Jane Phillips-Matz. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press, 1997.
Ring Resounding. John Culshawe. New York: Viking, 1967.
Scotto: More Than A Diva. Renata Scotto and Octavio Roca. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984.
Secret Memoirs of Madame Catalani, The. Arthur Simpson. M. Gye: Bath, 1811. (also numerous
newspaper clippings pasted into the volume such as “On Engagement of Mad. Catalani at Covent Garden
Theatre and The Italian Opera. By a True Briton.”
Sissieretta Jones: American Opera Pioneer, 1869-1933. Gerard Heroux. Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame
Historical Archive. (http://www.ripopmusic.org/musical-artists/musicians/sissieretta-jones/).
Sissieretta Jones at Carnegie Hall; Carnegie Hall Archives:
(http://www.carnegiehall.org/BlogPost.aspx?id=4294994554).
Sissieretta Jones: “The Greatest Singer of her Race,” 1868-1933. Maureen Lee. Columbia, SC: University of
South Carolina Press, 2012.
Some Famous Singers of the 19th Century. Francis Rogers. New York: H.W. Gray, Co., 1914.
“Sophie Arnould, 1740-1803.” Francis Rogers. The Musical Quarterly. New York: G. Schirmer. Vol. 6,
1920, 57-61.
Sophie Arnould, Actress and Wit. Robert Bruce Douglas, Adolphe Lalauze. Paris: Charles Carrington,
1898. (Google digital edition).
St. Louis Woman. Helen Traubel. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1959.
Standard Musical Encyclopedia, The. Vol. II. John Herbert Clifford. New York: The University Society,
1910. (Google digital edition).
Sybil Sanderson Story, The: Requiem for a Diva. Jack Winsor Hansen. Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press,
2005.
“Testimonial for Madame Marie Selika, Harlem’s Oldest Singer, May 9.” The New York Age. May 1, 1937,
9. (Version at http://fultonhistory.com/)
“Three American Singers: Louise Homer, Geraldine Farrar, Olive Fremstad” in McClure’s Magazine, 42
(December 1913), 33-48. (Digital edition at The Willa Cather Archive, University of Nebraska,
www.cather.unl.edu).
Tragédiennes de L’Opéra, Les: de Rose Caron à Fanny Heldy, Le Feu Sacré des Déesses du Palais Garnier,
1875-1939. Exhibition catalog: La Bibliothèque-Musée du Palais Garnier. Paris: Albin Michel, 2011.
“Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient: Wagner’s Theatrical Muse.” Susan B. Rutherford, in Women, Theatre
and Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies. Eds. Maggie B. Gale and Viv Gardner.
Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2000.
Yankee Diva: Lillian Nordica and the Golden Days of Opera. Ira Glackens. Coleridge Press, NY: 1963.
Opera Singers in Literature
Accompanist, The. Nina Berberova. New York: New Directions, 2003.
“A Scandal in Bohemia,” in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. New York:
Berkley Prime Crime, 1994.
As Music and Splendour. Kate O’Brien. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.
“Coming, Aphrodite!” “The Diamond Mine,” “Scandal” in Willa Cather: Stories, Poems, and Other Writings.
New York: The Library of America Literary Classics, 1992.
Consuelo et La Comtesse de Rudolstadt, Tomes I et 2. George Sand. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2004.
Daniel Deronda. George Eliot. New York: Knopf, 2000.
Le Fantôme de l’Opéra. Gaston Leroux. Paris: Livre de Poche, 2000.
Mademoiselle de Maupin. Théophile Gautier. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1966.
Mawrdew Czgowchwz. James McCourt. New York: New York Review of Books, 2002.
“Massimilla Doni. “ Honoré de Balzac. In Ursule Mirouet and Other Stories. Clara Bell, trans. Boston:
Dana Estes & Co., 1908. (Google digital edition.)
Of Lena Geyer. Marcia Davenport. New York: Scribner’s, 1936.
Painted Veils. James Huneker. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920. (Google digital edition.)
“Sandman, The,” and “Councillor Krespel.” E.T.A. Hoffmann, Tales of Hoffman. Eds. Humphries, Humphries
and Hollingdale. New York: Penguin, 1982. Also: The Best Tales of Hoffmann. E.T.A. Hoffmann. Ed. E. F.
Bleier. New York: Dover, 1979; “Antonia’s Song,” “Don Juan,” in Tales of Hoffmann. E.T.A. Hoffmann.
New York: A. A. Wynn, 1946; “Stolen Reflection, The,” in The Fairy Tales of Hoffmann. E.T.A Hoffmann.
New York: Dutton, 1964.
Serenade. James M. Cain. Cleveland and New York: Tower Books/The World Publishing Company, 1946.
Song of the Lark, The. Willa Cather. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1915.
“Dreamers, The” in Seven Gothic Tales. Isak Dinesen. New York: Vintage International, 1991.
Tower of Ivory. Gertrude Atherton. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910.
Trilby. George du Maurier. New York: Harper and Bros. 1894.
Where Angels Fear to Tread. E.M. Forster. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
Opera Singers--Historical Overviews
American Opera Singer, The: The Lives and Adventures of America’s Great Singers in Opera and Concert
from 1825 to Present. Peter G. Davis. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
Angels and Monsters. Male and Female Sopranos in the History of Opera. Richard Somerset Ward. New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century, The. Eds. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Changing The Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance. Hilary Poriss. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2009.
Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera. Philip Gossett. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2006.
Diva’s Mouth, The: Body, Voice, Prima Donna Politics. Susan J. Leonardi and Rebecca A. Pope. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
En Travesti: Women, Gender, Subversion, Opera. Corinne E. Blacker and Patricia Juliana Smith. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1995. Specifically, Margaret Reynolds, “Ruggiero’s Deceptions, Cherubino’s
Distractions,” 132-151; Lowell Gallagher, “Jenny Lind and the Voice of America,” 190-236.
Femmes Fatales at the Opera. Ed. Vittoria Crespi Morbio. Turin: Umberto Allemani & C., 2010.
“Gautier’s Diva: The First French Uses of the Word.” J.Q. Davies. In Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long
Nineteenth Century, The. Eds. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss. New York: Oxford University Press,
2012.
“Geraldine Farrar: A Star from Another Medium,” by Anne Morey in Flickers of Desire: Movie Stars of the
1910s. Ed. Jennifer M. Bean. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2011.
Legendary Voices. Nigel Douglas. London: Andre Deutsch, 1992.
“Screening the Diva” by Mary Simonson in The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century.
Eds. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
“Théophile Gautier on Bellini: ‘Notice Sur Norma.’ ” E. Thomas Glasow, trans. Opera Quarterly 17 (2001),
423-34.
Prima Donna: A History. Rupert Christiansen. London: The Bodley Head, 1984.
Prima Donna and Opera, The: 1815-1930. Susan Rutherford. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2006.
Violetta and Her Sisters: The Lady of the Camellias—Responses to the Myth. Ed. Nicholas John. London:
Faber and Faber, 1994.
Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early 19th Century Italian Opera. Naomi
Adele André. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2006.
History of Opera
And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert. Rosalyn M. Story. New York: Warner Books,
1990.
Angel’s Cry, The: Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Opera. Michel Poizat. Trans. Arthur Denner. Ithaca,
New York: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Baker’s Dictionary of Opera. Ed. Laura Kuhn. New York: Schirmer, 2000.
“Forty Years A Manager: Career of Maurice Strakosch as Musician and Impresario.” The New York Times,
October 11, 1887.
“Grand Concert at Stafford House” in The Illustrated London News, 92 (July 30, 1853), 64, with illustration
of Greenfield. (Google digital edition.)
Golden Horseshoe, The: The Life and Times of the Metropolitan Opera House. Frank Merkling, John W.
Freeman, Gerald Fitzgerald, with Arthur Solin. New York: Viking, 1965.
History of Opera, The. Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker. New York: Norton, 2012.
International Dictionary of Opera. Ed. C. Steven Larue. Detroit: St. James Press, 1993.
Life of Rossini. Stendhal. New York: Orion Press, 1970.
Magic of the Opera, The: A Picture Memoir of the Metropolitan. Mary Ellis Peltz. New York: Frederick
Praeger, Inc., 1960.
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Second Edition. Ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan,
2001.
Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi, The: The Role of the Impresario. John Rosselli. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press: 1984.
Opera in America: A Cultural History. John Dizickes. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Opera, or The Undoing of Women. Catherine Clement. Betsy Wing, trans. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1989.
Puccini Without Excuses: A Refreshing Assessment of the World’s Most Popular Composer. William Berger.
New York: Vintage Books, 2005.
Richard Wagner and his World. Thomas Grey, ed. New Haven: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Specifically “Wilhemina Schröder-Devrient and Wagner’s Dresden, Claire Von Glümer and Henry
Chorley,” Thomas Grey, ed., and “From Opera to Music Drama,” Lydia Goehr.
Rossini. Gaia Servadio. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003.
Twilight of the Wagners, The: The Unveiling of a Family’s Legacy. Gottfried Wagner. New York: Picador,
USA, 1999.
Victrola Book of the Opera, The: Stories of the Operas with Illustrations and Descriptions of Victor Opera
Records. Samuel Holland Rous. Camden NJ: Victor Talking Machine Company, 1919.
Vivaldi’s Venice: Music and Celebration in the Baroque Era. Patrick Barbier. Trans. Margaret Crosland.
London: Souvenir Press, 2003.
Wagner and the Erotic Impulse. Lawrence Dreyfus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
Related Cultural History
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Eds. Kwame Anthony Appiah
and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Basic Books, 1999.
American Wives and English Husbands. Gertrude Atherton. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1898. (Google
digital edition.)
And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Occupied Paris. Alan Riding. New York: Knopf: 2011.
Bernhardt and the Theatre of her Time. Ed. Eric Salmon. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.
Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman. Caryl Flinn. Berkeley: University of CA Press, 2007.
Broadway Down East: An Informal Account of the Plays, Players and Playhouses of Boston from Puritan
Times to the Present. Elliot Norton. Boston: Trustees for the Public Library of the City of Boston, 1978.
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Robert K. Massie. New York: Random House. 2011.
Courtesans, The: The Demi-Monde in Nineteenth Century France. Cleveland and New York: The World
Publishing Company, 1967.
Danubia: A Personal History of Hapsburg Europe. Simon Winder. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
2013.
Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theatre Women from the Old Regime to the Fin-de-Siècle.
Lenard R. Berlanstein. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Disruptive Acts: The New Woman in Fin-de-Siècle France. Mary Louise Roberts. Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 2002.
Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth Century Paris. Nina Kushner. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 2013.
“The Gender of Russian Serf Theatre and Performance.” Catherine Schuler. In Women, Theatre and
Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies. Eds. Maggie B. Gale and Viv Gardner. Manchester, UK:
Manchester University Press, 2000.
Grandes Horizontales: The Lives and Legends of Four Nineteenth Century Courtesans. Virginia Rounding.
New York: Bloomsbury, 2003.
History of African American Theatre, A. Errol Hill and James V. Hatch. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2003.
“Man Who Launched 1,000 Plates, The.” Alice Rawsthorne. The New York Times, November 10, 2010
(Piero Fornasetti).
Marie Antoinette: The Life of an Ordinary Woman. Stefan Zweig. London: Cassell, 1952.
Music at the White House: A History of the American Spirit. Elise Kirk. Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press,
1986.
Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities. Monroe A. Majors. Chicago: Donohue and
Henneberry, 1893. (Google digital edition.)
Notorious Muse: The Actress in British Art and Culture, 1776 to 1812. Ed. Robyn Asleson. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2003.
Operetta: A Theatrical History. Richard Traubner. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983.
“Professional Beauties of the Last Century, The.” Alice Comyns Carr. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine,
Vol. LXIX, June to November, 249-265. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1884. (Harper’s digital edition.)
Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. Vols. I and II. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and
Company, 1854. (Google digital edition.)
Struggles and Triumphs; Or, Forty Years’ Recollections of P.T. Barnum. Written By Himself. Phineas Taylor
Barnum. Revised, Buffalo: Warren, Johnson & Co., 1873. (Google digital edition.)
To Marry An English Lord. Gail MacColl, Carol Wallace. New York: Workman Publishing, repr. 2012.
Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comédie-Française. Rachel M. Brownstein. New York: Knopf, 1993.
Women in Russian Theatre: The Actress in the Silver Age. Catherine A. Schuler. London: Routledge, 1996.
Women, Theatre and Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies. Eds. Maggie B. Gale and Viv
Gardner. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2000.
World of Women in Classical Music, The. Anne K. Gray. La Jolla, CA: Word World, 2007.
“Yvette Guilbert: La Femme Moderne on the British Stage.” Geraldine Harris. In The New Woman and her
Sisters. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1992.
Kathleen McDermott, September 2014.