Bibliographies
Autobiographies and Memoirs of Singers
Biographies of Opera Singers
Opera Singers and Performance Practice, 1700-1920
Opera Singers in Literature
General Opera Histories
Related Cultural History
By Singer Last Name
Autobiographies and Memoirs of Singers
DIVA: Great Sopranos and Mezzos Discuss Their Art. Helen Matheopolous. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press, 1991.
Flagstad: A Personal Memoir. Edwin McArthur. New York: Knopf, 1965.
How to Sing. Lilli Lehmann. New York: Macmillan, 1902. Revised edition, 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.
Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt. Her Early Art Life and Career, 1820 -1851. From Original Documents, Letters, MS. Diaries, &c.. Collected by Mr. Otto Goldschmidt. Henry Scott Holland, and W.S. Rockstro. Volume 2. London: John Murray, 1891. Google digital edition.
Memoirs of Madame Malibran with a Selection from her Correspondence and Notices of the Progress of the Musical Drama in England. Volumes I and II. Countess de Merlin. London: Henry Colburn, 1840. Google digital edition.
Men, Women, and Tenors. Frances Alda. 1937. Reprinted Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
My Life. Emma Calvé. Rosamond Gilder, trans. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1922. Google digital edition.
My Path Through Life. Lilli Lehmann. Alice Benedict Seligman, trans. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1914. Reprinted New York: Arno Press, 1977.
My Secrets of Beauty . . . Including More Than 1,000 Valuable Recipes for Preparations Used and Recommended by Mme. Cavalieri Herself. Lina Cavalieri. NewYork: The Circulation Syndicate, 1914.
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, reprinted 1907. Project Gutenberg digital edition.
Such Sweet Compulsion: The Autobiography of Geraldine Farrar. New York: The Greystone Press, 1938.
Thirty Years’ Musical Recollections. Henry F. Chorley. Ernest Newman, ed. New York: Knopf, 1926.
Biographies of Opera Singers
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: Univ. Press of America, 1981.
And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert. Rosalyn M. Story. New York: Warner Books, 1990.
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.” Volume 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. VII The Black Perspective in Music, 1979.
“Black Swan, The.” The Illustrated News. New York: April, 2 1853. http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/notices/noar16dt.html; accessed by key words October 2016.
Catherine Hayes: The Hibernian Prima Donna. Basil Walsh. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2000.
Divas: Mathilde Marchesi and Her Pupils. Roger Neill. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2016.
"Early Life and Career of the 'Black Patti,' The: The Odyssey of an African American Singer in the Late Nineteenth Century." John Graziano. 53 Journal of the American Musicological Society, No 3 (Autumn 2000) pp. 543-596.
“Elizabeth Billington.” British Musical Biography. James Brown and Stephen Stratton. London: William Reeves, 1897. Reprinted 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.
“Forty Years A Manager: Career of Maurice Strakosch as Musician and Impresario.” The New York Times, October 11, 1887. (Adelina Patti's manager.)
Galli-Curci’s Life of Song. C.E. Le Massena. New York: Paebar, 1945. Reprinted Beverly Hills, CA: Monitor Co., 1978.
“Geraldine Farrar: A Star from Another Medium.” Anne Morey. Flickers of Desire: Movie Stars of the 1910s. Jennifer M. Bean, ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 2011.
“Gorgeous Sills.” Garry Wills. The New York Review of Books, May 1, 1975.
“Grand Concert at Stafford House” in 92 The Illustrated London News, July 30, 1853, 64, with illustration of Greenfield. Google digital edition. (Elizabeth Greenfield in London.)
Grand Opera Singers of To-day, The. Henry C. Lahee. Boston: L.C. Page, 1912. Google digital edition.
Great Singers. Anna Dunphy, Comtesse de Brémont. 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 and the Voice of America,” Lowell Gallagher. En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera. Corinne E. Blacker and Patricia Juliana Smith, eds. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1995.
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.
Last Prima Donnas, The. Lanfranco Rasponi, New York: Knopf, 1982.
Legendary Voices. Nigel Douglas. London: Andre Deutsch, 1992.
Life and Work of Pauline Viardot Garcia, The. Volume 1: "The Years of Fame, 1836-1863." Barbara Kendall-Davies. Buckinghamshire, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2004.
Life of Henriette Sontag, Countess de Rossi, The. Various contributors, including Hector Berlioz and Théophile Gautier. New York: Stringer and Townsend, 1852. Project Gutenberg edition.
Lina Cavalieri: The Life of Opera’s Greatest Beauty, 1874-1944. Paul Fryer and Olga Usova. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2004.
Literary Lorgnette, The: Attending Opera in Imperial Russia. Julie A. Buckler. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2000.
Lost Divas. André Tubeuf. Nicholas Elliott, trans. New York: Assouline, 2005.
"Madame Selika, Once Famous Singer, Dies; 88 Years Old," The New York Age, May 29, 1937. http://fultonhistory.com/New York NY Age 1937-1938 Grayscale - 0462.pdf; accessed October 2016.
"Madame Selika Opens Her Class in Voice Culture," The New York Age, January 11,1930. http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/New%20York%20NY%20Age/New%20York%20NY%20Age%201929-1930%20%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Age%201929-1930%20%20Grayscale%20-%200525.pdf; accessed October 2016.
Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888, The. In Two Volumes. Vol. II. James Henry Mapleson. London: Remington, 1888. Google Books edition.
Maria Callas: Sacred Monster. Stelios Galatopoulos. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998.
Maria Malibran. A Biography of the Singer. Howard Bushnell. Univ. Park: Pennsylvania State Univ. 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.
“Maupin.” François Parfaict. Dictionnaire des Théâtres de Paris, 1767-1770. François Parfaict, Tome 3, page 350; Cesar.org.uk edition; accessed October 2016.
“Mrs. Billington’s Embonpoint: Scandal, Hysteria, and Mozart.” Michael Burden. New College, Oxford Univ. British Society for 18th-Century Studies Annual Conference, 4 January 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:db1f0ebf-6791-4949-a127-a210909d21a0/datastreams/ATTACHMENT01; accessed by article title October 2016.
Never Sang for Hitler: The Life and Times of Lotte Lehmann. Michael Kater. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2008.
Observations on the Florid Song, or Sentiments on the Ancient and Modern Singers. Pier. Francesco Tosi. London: J. Wilcox, 1743. Galliard, trans. Reprint of second edition, London: William Reeves, 1905. Google digital edition.
Pearl, The: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in Catherine the Great's Russia. Douglas Smith. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2008.
Price of Genius, The: A Life of Pauline Viardot. April Fitzlyon. London: John Calder, 1964.
Prima Donna, The. Her History and Surroundings from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century. Volumes 1 and 2. Henry Sutherland Edwards. London: Remington and Co, 1888. Google digital edition.
Reign of Patti, The. Herman Klein. New York: The Century Co., 1920. Google digital edition.
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. Volumes 1 and 2. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863-65. 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. Boston Public Library volume contains newspaper clippings pasted inside, including “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/; accessed October 2016.
"Sissieretta Jones at Carnegie Hall." Carnegie Hall Archives: http://www.carnegiehall.org/BlogPost.aspx?id=4294994554; accessed by key words, October 2016.
Sissieretta Jones: “The Greatest Singer of Her Race,” 1868-1933. Maureen Lee. Columbia, SC: Univ.. 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. 8 The Musical Quarterly, 1920. New York: G. Schirmer, 57-61.
Sophie Arnould, Actress and Wit. Robert Bruce Douglas and 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. Volume II. John Herbert Clifford. New York: The Univ. 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. http://fultonhistory.com/New York NY Age 1937-1938 Grayscale - 0422.pdf; accessed October 2016.
“Three American Singers: Louise Homer, Geraldine Farrar, Olive Fremstad.” Willa Cather. In McClure’s Magazine, 42 December 1913, 33-48. The Willa Cather Archive, Univ. of Nebraska, www.cather.unl.edu; accessed October 2016.
Tragédiennes de L’Opéra, Les: de Rose Caron à Fanny Heldy, Le Feu Sacré des Déesses du Palais Garnier, 1875-1939. La Bibliothèque-Musée du Palais Garnier. Paris: Albin Michel, 2011.
"Viardot sings Handel." Ellen T. Harris. In Fashions and Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera. Roberta Montemorra Marvin and Hilary Poriss, eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.
“Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient: Wagner’s Theatrical Muse.” Susan B. Rutherford. Women, Theatre and Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies. Maggie B. Gale and Vivien Gardner, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press, 2000.
“Wilhelmina Schröder-Devrient and Wagner’s Dresden, Claire Von Glümer and Henry Chorley.” Thomas Grey. Richard Wagner and his World. Thomas Grey, ed. New Haven: Princeton Univ. Press, 2009.
Yankee Diva: Lillian Nordica and the Golden Days of Opera. Ira Glackens. Coleridge Press, NY: 1963.
“Yvette Guilbert: La Femme Moderne on the British Stage.” Geraldine Harris. The New Woman and her Sisters. Vivien Gardner and Susan Rutherford, eds. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1992.
Opera Singers and Performance Practice, 1700-1920
Aesthetic Technologies of Modernity, Subjectivity, and Nature: Opera. Orchestra. Phonograph. Film. Richard Leppert. Oakland: Univ. of California Press, 2015.
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.
Angel’s Cry, The: Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Opera. Michel Poizat. Arthur Denner, trans. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Univ. Press, 1992.
Angels and Monsters. Male and Female Sopranos in the History of Opera. Richard Somerset Ward. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2004.
Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century, The. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss., eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Center Stage: Operatic Culture and Nation Building in Nineteenth-Century Central Europe. Phillip Ther. Charlotte Hughes-Kreutzmüller, trans. West Lafayette, IN: Perdue Univ. Press, 2014.
Changing The Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance. Hilary Poriss. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009.
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 Univ. Press, 2001.
Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera. Philip Gossett. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press, 2006.
Disruptive Acts: The New Woman in Fin-de-Siècle France. Mary Louise Roberts. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press, 2002.
Diva’s Mouth, The: Body, Voice, Prima Donna Politics. Susan J. Leonardi and Rebecca A. Pope. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1996.
En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera. Corinne E. Blacker and Patricia Juliana Smith, eds. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1995.
Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780 - 1880. Jennifer Hall-Witt. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2007.
Fashions and Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera. Roberta Montemorra Marvin and Hilary Poriss, eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.
Femmes Fatales at the Opera. Vittoria Crespi, ed. Morbio. Turin: Umberto Allemani & C., 2010.
“From Opera to Music Drama.” Lydia Goehr. In Richard Wagner and his World. Thomas Grey, ed. New Haven: Princeton Univ. Press, 2009.
“Gautier’s Diva: The First French Uses of the Word.” J.Q. Davies. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
“Gender of Russian Serf Theatre and Performance, The.” Catherine Schuler. Women, Theatre and Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies. Maggie B. Gale and Viv Gardner, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press, 2000.
"Gothic Divas, " Chapter 5 in Exotic Woman in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction and Culture, The: A Reconsideration. Piya Pal-Lapinski. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2005.
“Jenny Lind and the Voice of America,” Lowell Gallagher. En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera. Corinne E. Blacker and Patricia Juliana Smith, eds. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1995.
Listening in Paris: A Cultural History. James H. Johnson. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1995.
Notorious Muse: The Actress in British Art and Culture, 1776 to 1812. Robyn Asleson, ed. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2003.
Opera in a New Age: Mass Media, the "Popular," and Opera, 1900-1960. Rebecca M. Mitchell. PhD diss. Univ of Michigan, 2016. https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/110455/rmmitch_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (Accessed October 2017). Two chapters on Geraldine Farrar.
Opera, or The Undoing of Women. Catherine Clément. Betsy Wing, trans. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1989.
Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi, The: The Role of the Impresario. John Rosselli. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press: 1984.
Opera's Second Death. Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Prima Donna: A History. Rupert Christiansen. London: The Bodley Head, 1984.
Prima Donna and Opera, The: 1815-1930. Susan Rutherford. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006.
“Ruggiero’s Deceptions, Cherubino’s Distractions.” Margaret Reynolds. En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera. Corinne E. Blacker and Patricia Juliana Smith, eds. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1995.
“Screening the Diva.” Mary Simonson. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
“Théophile Gautier on Bellini: ‘Notice Sur Norma.’ ” E. Thomas Glasow, trans. 17 Opera Quarterly 2001, 423-34.
Women, Theatre and Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies. Maggie B. Gale and Viv Gardner, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press, 2000.
" 'To the ear of the amateur:" performing ottocento opera." Hilary Poriss. Fashions and Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera. Roberta Montemorra Marvin and Hilary Poriss, eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.
Vivaldi’s Venice: Music and Celebration in the Baroque Era. Patrick Barbier. Margaret Crosland, trans. London: Souvenir Press, 2003.
Violetta and Her Sisters: The Lady of the Camellias—Responses to the Myth. Nicholas John, ed. London: Faber and Faber, 1994.
Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early 19th-Century Italian Opera. Naomi Adele André. Bloomington: Univ. of Indiana Press, 2006.
Wagner and the Erotic Impulse. Lawrence Dreyfus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2010.
Wagner and the Art of the Theatre. Patrick Carnegy. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2006.
Women in Russian Theatre: The Actress in the Silver Age. Catherine A. Schuler. London: Routledge, 1996.
Women Writing Opera: Creativity and Controversy in the Age of the French Revolution. Jacqueline Letzter and Robert Adelson. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2001.
Opera Singers in Literature
Accompanist, The. Nina Berberova. New York: New Directions, 2003.
“A Scandal in Bohemia.” Arthur Conan Doyle. In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 1994.
As Music and Splendour. Kate O’Brien. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.
“Coming, Aphrodite!” “The Diamond Mine,” “Scandal.” Willa Cather. 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 II. 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.
Mademoiselle de Maupin. Théophile Gautier. Translation Helen Constantine. London: Penguin Classics, 2005.
Madame Bovary. Gustave Flaubert. Paris: 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.
Neveu de Rameau, Le. Denis Diderot. Paris: Flammarion, 1983.
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, Humphries, Humphries and Hollingdale, eds. New York: Penguin, 1982; “Antonia’s Song,” “Don Juan.” Tales of Hoffmann. New York: A. A. Wynn, 1946; “The Stolen Reflection.” E.T.A. Hoffmann. In The Fairy Tales of Hoffmann. New York: Dutton, 1964.
Sarrasine. Honoré de Balzac, 1830. Paris: reprinted Éditions de Boucher online PDF, 2002.
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.
“Tristan” and “The Blood of the Walsungs.” Thomas Mann. In Death in Venice and Seven Other Stories. H.T. Lowe-Porter, trans. New York: Vintage Books, 1963.
Where Angels Fear to Tread. E.M. Forster. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.
General Opera Histories
Baker’s Dictionary of Opera. Laura Kuhn, ed. New York: Schirmer, 2000.
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. C. Steven Larue, ed. 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. Stanley Sadie, ed. London: Macmillan, 2001.
Opera in America: A Cultural History. John Dizickes. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1995.
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 Univ. Press, 2009.
Rossini. Gaia Servadio. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003.
World of Women in Classical Music, The. Anne K. Gray. La Jolla, CA: Word World, 2007.
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.
Related Cultural History
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. 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. Eric Salmon, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.
Birth of Tragedy and the Case of Wagner, The. Friedrich Nietzsche. Walter Kaufmann, trans. New York: Random House, 1967.
Brass Diva: The Life and Legends of Ethel Merman. Caryl Flinn. Berkeley: Univ. of CaliforniaPress, 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.
Carmen. Romans et Nouvelles. Prosper Merimée. Henri Martineau, ed. Paris: Gallimard, 1951.
Cartier. Hans Nadelhoffer. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007.
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Robert K. Massie. New York: Random House. 2011.
Chopin: Prince of the Romantics. Adam Zamoyski. New York: Harper Press, 2011.
Courtesans, The: The Demi-Monde in Nineteenth Century France. Joanna Richardson. Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1967.
Danubia: A Personal History of Hapsburg Europe. Simon Winder. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2013.
Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth Century Paris. Nina Kushner. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 2013.
Europeans, The: Three Lives and the Making of A Cosmopolitan Culture. Orlando Figes. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 2019.
Face of Britain, The: A History of the Nation through Its Portraits. Simon Schama. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2016.
Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy. Douglas Smith. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.
Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 1811-1847. Alan Walker. New York: Knopf, 1983.
Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years, 1848-1861. Alan Walker. New York: Knopf. 1989.
Franz Liszt: The Final Years, 1861-1886. Alan Walker. Ithaca, NY: 1997.
French Crown Jewels, The. Bernard Morel. Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1988.
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 Univ. Press, 2003.
How to Be A Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life. Ruth Goodman. New York: Liveright, 2014.
Ivan Turgenev's "superfluous man:" Spring Torrents. Translation and introduction by Leonard Schapiro. London: Penguin, 1980; Rudin and On the Eve. Translation David McDuff. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999.
Later Work of Aubrey Beardsley, The. New York: Dover, 1967.
“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.
Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia. Orlando Figes. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 2002.
“Nietzsche contra Wagner.” In The Portable Nietzsche. Walter Kaufmann, ed. and trans. New York: Viking Penguin, 1954.
Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities. Monroe A. Majors. Chicago: Donohue and Henneberry, 1893. Google digital edition.
“Professional Beauties of the Last Century, The.” Alice Comyns Carr. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Volume LXIX, June to November, 249-265. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1884. Harper’s digital edition.
Real Traviata, The,: The Song of Marie Duplessis. René Weis. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2015.
"Redressing Classical Statuary: The Eighteenth Century "Hand-in-Waistcoat" Portrait." Arline Meyer. 77 The Art Bulletin, No. 1 (March 1995), 45-63.
Scènes de la Vie de Bohème. Henry Murger. Paris: Michel Lévy, ed. 1861. Paris: reprinted Éditions d’Aujourd’hui, 1979.
Smile Revolution in Eighteenth-Century Paris, The. Colin Jones. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ.. Press, 2014.
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.
Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. Volumes I and II. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, 1854. Google digital edition.
"Sorrows and Grandeur of Richard Wagner, The." Thomas Mann. Pro and Contra Wagner. Allan Blunden, trans. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1985.
Tiara. Diana Scarisbrick. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000.
Tiaras: A History of Splendor. Geoffrey Munn. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: Antique Collectors Club, 2001.
Tiaras: Past and Present. Geoffrey Munn. New York: Abrams, 2002.
To Marry An English Lord. Gail MacColl, Carol Wallace. Reprinted New York: Workman Publishing, 2012.
To The Hermitage. Malcolm Bradbury. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2001.
Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comédie-Française. Rachel M. Brownstein. New York: Knopf, 1993.
Twilight of the Wagners, The: The Unveiling of a Family’s Legacy. Gottfried Wagner. New York: Picador USA, 1999.
Wives and Property: Reform of the Married Women's Property Law in Nineteenth-Century England. Lee Holcombe. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1983.
Woman as Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities. Mary Ritter Beard. New York: Macmillan, 1946.
By Singer Last Name
Sophie Arnould
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 Univ. Press, 2001.
Erotic Exchanges: The World of Elite Prostitution in Eighteenth Century Paris. Nina Kushner. Ithaca, New York: Cornell Univ. Press, 2013.
Listening in Paris: A Cultural History. James H. Johnson. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1995.
Marie Antoinette: The Life of an Ordinary Woman. Stefan Zweig. London: Cassell, 1952.
Neveu de Rameau, Le. Diderot. Paris: Flammarion, 1983.
Prima Donna, The: Her History and Surroundings from The Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century. Volume II. Henry Sutherland Edwards. London: Remington And Co., 1888. Google digital edition.
Smile Revolution in Eighteenth Century Paris, The. Colin Jones. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, 2014.
Arnoldiana, ou Sophie Arnould et ses Contemporaines: Receuil choisis d'anecdotes piquantes, de reparties et des bon mots de Mlle Arnould. Albéric Deville. Paris: Gerard, 1813. Digital edition: https://archive.org/details/arnoldianaousop00devigoog (accessed May 2017).
Sophie Arnould, d'après sa correspondance et ses mémoires inédits. Edmond et Jules Goncourt. 2e éd. Paris: Poulet-Malassis, 1859. Gallica digital edition: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58315120 (accessed May 2017).
Sophie Arnould, Actress and Wit. Robert Bruce Douglas and Adolphe Lalauze. Paris: Charles Carrington, 1898. Google digital edition.
“Sophie Arnould, 1740-1803.” Francis Rogers. The Musical Quarterly. Volume 6, 1920. New York: G. Schirmer, 57-61.
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. Volume 1. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Women Writing Opera: Creativity and Controversy in the Age of the French Revolution. Jacqueline Letzter and Robert Adelson. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2001.
Elizabeth Billington
“Attitudes with a Shawl: Performance, Femininity, and Spectatorship at the Italian Opera in Early Nineteenth Century London.” Rachel Cowgill. In The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and other Stage Personnel in London, 1660 to 1800. “A.” Volume 2. Philip H. Highfill, Kalman A. Burnim, Edward A. Langhan. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1973.
“Elizabeth Billington.” British Musical Biography. James Brown and Stephen Stratton. London: William Reeves, 1897. Reprinted Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1971.
Face of Britain, The: A History of the Nation through Its Portraits. Simon Schama. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2016.
Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780 - 1880. Jennifer Hall-Witt. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2007.
“Mrs. Billington’s Embonpoint: Scandal, Hysteria, and Mozart.” Michael Burden. New College, Oxford Univ. British Society for 18th-century Studies Annual Conference, 4 January 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:db1f0ebf-6791-4949-a127-a210909d21a0/datastreams/ATTACHMENT01; accessed by article title October 2016.
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Second edition. Stanley Sadie, ed. London: Macmillan, 2001.
Notorious Muse: The Actress in British Art and Culture, 1776 to 1812. Robyn Asleson, ed. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2003.
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. Volume 1. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Faustina Bordoni/Francesca Cuzzoni
Five Centuries of Women Singers. Isabella Putnam Emerson. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2005.
Observations on the Florid Song, or Sentiments on the Ancient and Modern Singers. Pier. Francesco Tosi. Galliard, trans. London: J. Wilcox, 1743. Reprinted second edition, London: William Reeves, 1905. Google digital edition.
Prima Donna: A History. Rupert Christiansen. London: The Bodley Head, 1984.
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. Volume 1. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Emma Calvé
Bernhardt and the Theatre of her Time. Eric Salmon, ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.
Disruptive Acts: The New Woman in Fin-de-Siècle France. Mary Louise Roberts. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press, 2002.
Emma Calvé: Her Artistic Life. Arthur Gallus. New York: R.H. Russell, 1902.
Lost Divas. André Tubeuf. Nicholas Elliott, trans. New York: Assouline, 2005.
My Life. Emma Calvé. Rosamond Gilder, trans. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1922. Google digital edition.
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 digital edition.
“Yvette Guilbert: La Femme Moderne on the British Stage.” Geraldine Harris. The New Woman and Her Sisters. Vivien Gardner and Susan Rutherford, eds. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1992.
Angelica Catalani
“Attitudes with a Shawl: Performance, Femininity, and Spectatorship at the Italian Opera in Early Nineteenth Century London.” Rachel Cowgill. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780 - 1880. Jennifer Hall-Witt. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2007.
"Gothic Divas, " Chapter 5 in Exotic Woman in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction and Culture, The: A Reconsideration. Piya Pal-Lapinski. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2005.
Great Singers. Anna Dunphy, Comtesse de Brémont. London: Gibbings, 1892.
International Dictionary of Opera. C. Steven Larue, ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1993.
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Second Edition. Stanley Sadie, ed. London: Macmillan, 2001.
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. Volumes 1 and 2. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Secret Memoirs of Madame Catalani, The. Arthur Simpson. M. Gye: Bath, 1811. Boston Public Library volume has numerous newspaper clippings pasted inside, including “On Engagement of Mad. Catalani at Covent Garden Theatre" and "The Italian Opera. By a True Briton.”
Thirty Years’ Musical Recollections. Henry F. Chorley. Ernest Newman, ed. New York: Knopf, 1926.
Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early 19th Century Italian Opera. Naomi Adele André. Bloomington: Univ. of Indiana Press, 2006.
Lina Cavalieri
Grand Opera Singers of To-day, The. Henry C. Lahee. Boston: L.C. Page, 1912. Google digital edition.
Great Singers, The: From the Dawn of Opera to Our Own Time. Henry Pleasants. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.
Lina Cavalieri: The Life of Opera’s Greatest Beauty, 1874-1944. Paul Fryer and Olga Usova. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & CO, 2004.
Lost Divas. André Tubeuf. Nicholas Elliott, trans. New York: Assouline, 2005.
My Secrets of Beauty . . . Including More Than 1,000 Valuable Recipes for Preparations Used and Recommended by Mme. Cavalieri Herself. Lina Cavalieri. NewYork: The Circulation Syndicate, 1914.
Prima Donna: A History. Rupert Christiansen. London: The Bodley Head, 1984.
“The Man Who Launched 1,000 Plates.” Alice Rawsthorne. The New York Times, November 10, 2010 (Piero Fornasetti).
Isabella Colbran
Assoluta Voice in Opera, The. Geoffrey S. Riggs. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Co., 2003.
"Colbran, Isabella Angela." L’Enciclopedia Italiana. Volume 26 (1982). http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/isabella-angela-colbran/; accessed October 2016.
Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera. Philip Gossett. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press, 2006.
Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780 - 1880. Jennifer Hall-Witt. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2007.
Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi, The: The Role of the Impresario. John Rosselli. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press: 1984).
Prima Donna: A History. Rupert Christiansen. London: The Bodley Head, 1984.
Prima Donna, The: Her History and Surroundings from The Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century. Volume I. Henry Sutherland Edwards. London: Remington And Co., 1888. Google digital edition.
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. Volume 2. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Rossini. Gaia Servadio. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003.
Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early 19th Century Italian Opera. Naomi Adele André. Bloomington: Univ. of Indiana Press, 2006.
Geraldine Farrar
Always First Class: The Career of Geraldine Farrar. Elizabeth Nash. Washington, DC: Univ. Press of America, 1981.
“Geraldine Farrar: A Star from Another Medium.” Anne Morey. Flickers of Desire: Movie Stars of the 1910s. Jennifer M. Bean, ed. Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 2011.
Geraldine Farrar: The Story of an American Singer by Herself. Geraldine Farrar. Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing Company, 1915. Project Gutenberg digital edition.
Interpreters. Carl Van Vechten. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. Project Gutenberg edition.
Opera in a New Age: Mass Media, the "Popular," and Opera, 1900-1960. Rebecca M. Mitchell. PhD diss. Univ of Michigan, 2016. https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/110455/rmmitch_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (Accessed October 2017). Two chapters on Geraldine Farrar.
Rainbow Bridge, The. Mary Watkins Cushing. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1954.
“Screening the Diva.” Mary Simonson. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
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 digital edition.
Such Sweet Compulsion: The Autobiography of Geraldine Farrar. Geraldine Farrar. New York: The Greystone Press, 1938.
“Three American Singers: Louise Homer, Geraldine Farrar, Olive Fremstad.” Willa Cather. McClure’s Magazine, 42 December 1913, 33-48. The Willa Cather Archive, Univ. of Nebraska, www.cather.unl.edu; accessed October 2016.
Olive Fremstad
Interpreters. Carl Van Vechten. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. Project Gutenberg edition.
Of Lena Geyer. Marcia Davenport. New York: Scribner’s, 1936.
Painted Veils. James Huneker. Boni and Liveright: New York, 1920. Google digital edition.
Rainbow Bridge, The. Mary Watkins Cushing. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1954.
Song of the Lark, The. Willa Cather. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1915.
“Three American Singers: Louise Homer, Geraldine Farrar, Olive Fremstad.” Willa Cather. McClure’s Magazine, 42 December 1913, 33-48. The Willa Cather Archive, Univ. of Nebraska, www.cather.unl.edu; accessed October 2016.
Tower of Ivory. Gertrude Atherton. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910.
Elizabeth Greenfield/Madame Selika
And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert. Rosalyn M. Story. New York: Warner Books, 1990.
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.
American Opera Singer, The: The Lives and Adventures of America’s Great Singers—in opera and concert—from 1825 to the present. Peter G. Davis. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
“Black Swan, The.” The Illustrated News. New York: April 2, 1853. http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/notices/noar16dt.html; accessed by key words October 2016.
“Grand Concert at Stafford House.” The Illustrated London News, 92 July 30, 1853, 64, with illustration of Greenfield. Google digital edition.
"Madame Selika, Once Famous Singer, Dies; 88 Years Old," The New York Age, May 29, 1937. http://fultonhistory.com/New York NY Age 1937-1938 Grayscale - 0462.pdf; accessed October 2016.
"Madame Selika Opens Her Class in Voice Culture," The New York Age, January 11,1930. http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2011/New%20York%20NY%20Age/New%20York%20NY%20Age%201929-1930%20%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Age%201929-1930%20%20Grayscale%20-%200525.pdf; accessed October 2016.
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.
Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. Volume II. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, 1854. Google digital edition.
“Testimonial for Madame Marie Selika, Harlem’s Oldest Singer, May 9.” The New York Age. May 1, 1937, 9. http://fultonhistory.com/New York NY Age 1937-1938 Grayscale - 0422.pdf; accessed October 2016.
World of Women in Classical Music, The. Anne K. Gray. La Jolla, CA: Word World Publications, 2007.
Giulia Grisi
Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century, The. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Changing The Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance. Hilary Poriss. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009.
Consuelo et La Comtesse de Rudolstadt, Tomes I et 2. George Sand. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2004.
“Gautier’s Diva: The First French Uses of the Word.” J.Q. Davies. In The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Mademoiselle de Maupin. Théophile Gautier. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1966.
Mademoiselle de Maupin. Théophile Gautier. Translation Helen Constantine. London: Penguin Classics, 2005.
Mario and Grisi: A Biography. Elizabeth Forbes. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1985.
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Second edition. Stanley Sadie, ed. London: Macmillan, 2001.
Prima Donna and Opera, The: 1815-1930. Susan Rutherford. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006.
Some Famous Singers of the 19th Century. Francis Rogers. New York: H.W. Gray, Co., 1914.
“Théophile Gautier on Bellini: ‘Notice Sur Norma.’ ” E. Thomas Glasow, trans. 17 Opera Quarterly, 2001, 423-34.
Thirty Years’ Musical Recollections. Henry F. Chorley. Ernest Newman, ed. New York: Knopf, 1926.
Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early 19th Century Italian Opera. Naomi Adele André. Bloomington: Univ. of Indiana Press, 2006.
Lilli Lehmann
Angels and Monsters. Male and Female Sopranos in the History of Opera. Richard Somerset Ward. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2004.
How to Sing. Lilli Lehmann. New York: Macmillan, 1902, Revised edition, 1914.
My Path Through Life. Lilli Lehmann. Alice Benedict Seligman, trans. New York: Arno Press, 1977. Repr. New York: G.P. Putnam, 1914.
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.
Wagner and the Erotic Impulse. Lawrence Dreyfus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2010.
Jenny Lind
Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780 - 1880. Jennifer Hall-Witt. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2007
Great Singers, The: From the Dawn of Opera to Our Own Time. Henry Pleasants. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.
“Jenny Lind and the Voice of America.” Lowell Gallagher. En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera. Corinne E. Blacker and Patricia Juliana Smith, eds. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1995.
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.
Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt. Her Early Art Life and Career, 1820 -1851. From Original Documents, Letters, MS. Diaries, &c.. Collected by Mr. Otto Goldschmidt. Henry Scott Holland, and W.S. Rockstro. Volume 2. London: John Murray, 1891. Google digital edition.
Prima Donna, The: Her History and Surroundings from The Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century. Volume II. Henry Sutherland Edwards. London: Remington And Co., 1888. Google digital edition.
Struggles and Triumphs; Or, Forty Years’ Recollections of P.T. Barnum. Written By Himself. Phineas Taylor Barnum. Revised edition, Buffalo: Warren, Johnson & Co., 1873. Google digital edition.
Sissieretta Jones
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds. New York: Basic Books, 1999.
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.
And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert. Rosalyn M. Story. New York: Warner Books, 1990.
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.
“Black Prima Donnas of the 19th Century.” E. Southern and J. Wright. VII The Black Perspective in Music, 1979.
"Early Life and Career of the 'Black Patti,' The: The Odyssey of an African American Singer in the Late Nineteenth Century." John Graziano. 53 Journal of the American Musicological Society, No 3 (Autumn 2000) pp. 543-596.
History of African American Theatre. A. Errol Hill and James V. Hatch. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003.
Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities. Monroe A. Majors. Chicago: Donohue and Henneberry, 1893. Google digital edition.
"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/; accessed by key words, October 2016.
"Sissieretta Jones at Carnegie Hall." Carnegie Hall Archives: http://www.carnegiehall.org/BlogPost.aspx?id=4294994554; accessed by key words, October 2016.
Sissieretta Jones: “The Greatest Singer of her Race," 1868-1933. Maureen Lee. Columbia, SC: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 2012.
Maria Malibran
Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century, The. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Changing The Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance. Hilary Poriss. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009.
“Gautier’s Diva: The First French Uses of the Word.” J.Q. Davies. In The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Maria Malibran. A Biography of the Singer. Howard Bushnell. Univ. Park: Penn. State Univ. Press, 1979.
Maria Malibran: Diva of the Romantic Age. April Fitzlyon. London: Souvenir Press, 1987.
Memoirs of Madame Malibran with a Selection from her Correspondence and Notices of the Progress of the Musical Drama in England. Volumes I and II. Countess de Merlin. London: Henry Colburn, 1840. Google digital edition.
Opera in America: A Cultural History. John Dizickes. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1995.
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. Volume 2. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Thirty Years’ Musical Recollections. Henry F. Chorley. Ernest Newman, ed. New York: Knopf, 1926.
Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comédie-Française. Rachel M. Brownstein. New York: Knopf, 1993.
Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early 19th Century Italian Opera. Naomi Adele André. Bloomington: Univ. of Indiana Press, 2006.
La Maupin
Baker’s Dictionary of Opera. Laura Kuhn. New York: Schirmer, 2000.
Mademoiselle de Maupin. Théophile Gautier. Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1966.
Mademoiselle de Maupin. Théophile Gautier. Translation Helen Constantine. London: Penguin Classics, 2005.
“Maupin.” Dictionnaire des Théâtres de Paris, 1767-1770. François Parfaict, Tome 3, page 350. Cesar.org.uk edition; accessed October 2016.
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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. Volume 1. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Nellie Melba
American Wives and English Husbands. Gertrude Atherton. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1898. Google digital edition.
Divas: Mathilde Marchesi and Her Pupils. Roger Neill. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2016.
Great Singers, The: From the Dawn of Opera to Our Own Time. Henry Pleasants. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.
Marvelous Melba: The Extraordinary Life of a Great Diva. Ann Blainey. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2009.
Men, Women, and Tenors. Frances Alda. 1937. Reprinted Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
Red Plush and Black Velvet: The Story of Melba and Her Times. Joseph Wechsberg. Boston: Little, Brown, 1961.
Stars of the Opera: A Description of Operas and Series of Personal Interviews with Marcel Sembrich, Emma Eames, Emma Calve, Lillian Nordica, Lilli Lehmann, Geraldine Farrar and Nellie Melba. Mabel Wagnalls. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1899, 1907. Project Gutenberg digital edition.
To Marry An English Lord. Gail MacColl, Carol Wallace. Reprinted New York: Workman Publishing, 2012.
Lillian Nordica
"Critical Reception of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in the English-Speaking World, The." Thomas Rizzuto, Thesis, Master of the Arts in Musicology, City College of the City Univ. of New York, 2010.
"Famous Prima Donna Champions Woman Suffrage Cause," The New York Times, June 26, 1910.
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 digital edition.
Yankee Diva: Lillian Nordica and the Golden Days of Opera. Ira Glackens. Coleridge Press, NY: 1963.
Giuditta Pasta
Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century, The. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Changing The Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance. Hilary Poriss. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009.
Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera. Philip Gossett. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press, 2006.
Fashionable Acts: Opera and Elite Culture in London, 1780 - 1880. Jennifer Hall-Witt. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2007
“Forty Years A Manager: Career of Maurice Strakosch as Musician and Impresario.” The New York Times, October 11, 1887.
Great Singers, The: From the Dawn of Opera to Our Own Time. Henry Pleasants. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.
Life of Rossini. Stendhal. New York: Orion Press, 1970.
Opera Industry in Italy from Cimarosa to Verdi, The: The Role of the Impresario. John Rosselli. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press: 1984.
Prima Donna, The: Her History and Surroundings from The Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century. Volume II. Henry Sutherland Edwards. London: Remington And Co., 1888. Google digital edition.
Prima Donna and Opera, The: 1815-1930. Susan Rutherford. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006.
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. Volume 2. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Thirty Years’ Musical Recollections. Henry F. Chorley. Ernest Newman, ed. New York: Knopf, 1926.
Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early 19th Century Italian Opera. Naomi Adele André. Bloomington: Univ. of Indiana Press, 2006.
Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti: Queen of Hearts. John Frederick Cone. Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1993.
Angels and Monsters. Male and Female Sopranos in the History of Opera. Richard Somerset Ward. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2004.
“Forty Years A Manager: Career of Maurice Strakosch as Musician and Impresario.” The New York Times, October 11, 1887. (Adelina Patti's manager.)
Mapleson Memoirs, 1848-1888, The. In Two Volumes. Vol. II. James Henry Mapleson. London: Remington, 1888. Google Books edition.
Prima Donna, The. Her History and Surroundings from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century. Volume 2. Henry Sutherland Edwards. London: Remington and Co, 1888. Google digital edition. Chapter IV.
Prima Donna: A History. Rupert Christiansen. London: The Bodley Head, 1984.
Reign of Patti, The. Herman Klein. New York: The Century Co., 1920. Google digital edition.
Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
“From Opera to Music Drama. ” Lydia Goehr. In Richard Wagner and his World. Thomas Gray, ed. New Haven: Princeton Univ. Press, 2009.
Great Singers, The: From the Dawn of Opera to Our Own Time. Henry Pleasants. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.
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. Volume 2. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero. William Makepeace Thackeray. New York: Random House, 1958. Chapter 62: “Am Rhein.”
“Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient: Wagner’s Theatrical Muse.” Susan B. Rutherford. Women, Theatre and Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies. Maggie B. Gale and Vivien Gardner, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press, 2000.
“Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and Wagner’s Dresden, Claire Von Glümer and Henry Chorley.” Thomas Grey. Richard Wagner and his World. Thomas Gray, ed. New Haven: Princeton Univ. Press, 2009.
Wagner and the Erotic Impulse. Lawrence Dreyfus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2010.
Henriette Sontag
“Gautier’s Diva: The First French Uses of the Word.” J.Q. Davies. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Life of Henriette Sontag, Countess de Rossi, The. Various contributors, including Hector Berlioz and Théophile Gautier. New York: Stringer and Townsend, 1852. Project Gutenberg edition.
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. Volume 2. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Pauline Garcia Viardot
Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century, The. Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss, eds. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Changing The Score: Arias, Prima Donnas, and the Authority of Performance. Hilary Poriss. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009.
Consuelo et La Comtesse de Rudolstadt, Tomes I et II. George Sand. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2004.
Daniel Deronda. George Eliot. New York: Knopf, 2000.
Divas: Mathilde Marchesi and Her Pupils. Roger Neill. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2016.
Diva’s Mouth, The: Body, Voice, Prima Donna Politics. Susan J. Leonardi and Rebecca A. Pope. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1996.
Enchantress of Nations. Pauline Viardot: Soprano, Muse and Lover. Michael Steen. Cambridge, UK: Icon Books, 2007.
"Gothic Divas, " Chapter 5 in Exotic Woman in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction and Culture, The: A Reconsideration. Piya Pal-Lapinski. Durham, NH: Univ. of New Hampshire Press, 2005.
Life and Work of Pauline Viardot Garcia, The. Volume 1: "The Years of Fame, 1836-1863." Barbara Kendall-Davies. Buckinghamshire, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2004.
Price of Genius, The: A Life of Pauline Viardot. April Fitzlyon. London: John Calder, 1964.
Prima Donna and Opera, The: 1815-1930. Susan Rutherford. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006.
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. Volume 2. Ellen Creathorne Clayton. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1863. Google digital edition.
Some Famous Singers of the 19th Century. Francis Rogers. New York: H.W. Gray, Co., 1914.
Thirty Years’ Musical Recollections. Henry F. Chorley. Ernest Newman, ed. New York: Knopf, 1926.
"Viardot sings Handel." Ellen T. Harris. In Fashions and Legacies of Nineteenth-Century Italian Opera. Roberta Montemorra Marvin and Hilary Poriss, eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.
Voicing Gender: Castrati, Travesti, and the Second Woman in Early 19th Century Italian Opera. Naomi Adele André. Bloomington: Univ. of Indiana Press, 2006.
Note: Ivan Turgenev's "superfluous man:" Spring Torrents. Translation and introduction by Leonard Schapiro. London: Penguin, 1980; Rudin and On the Eve, trans. David McDuff. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999.
Zhemchugova (b. Parasha Kuznetsova)
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Robert K. Massie. New York: Random House, 2011.
Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy. Douglas Smith. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.
“Gender of Russian Serf Theatre and Performance, The.” Catherine Schuler. Women, Theatre and Performance: New Histories, New Historiographies. Maggie B. Gale and Vivien Gardner, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester Univ. Press, 2000.
Literary Lorgnette, The: Attending Opera in Imperial Russia. Julie A. Buckler. Palo Alto: Stanford Univ. Press, 2000.
Pearl, The: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in Catherine the Great's Russia. Douglas Smith. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2008.
Women in Russian Theatre: The Actress in the Silver Age. Catherine A. Schuler. New York and London: Routledge, 1999.
Kathleen McDermott, 2008-2018.