Miriam Licette

Miriam Licette (9 September 188511 August 1969) was an English operatic soprano whose career spanned 35 years, from the mid-1910s to after World War II. She was also a singing teacher, and created the Miriam Licette Scholarship.

Career She was born as Miriam Lycett in the village of Over, Cheshire in 1885. (Her cousin was the champion tennis player Randolph Lycett.) She spent some of her early years in places like Hong Kong and Singapore, as her father was a captain with the Blue Star Shipping Line.

She studied singing at Lowther College in Lytham. She was first noticed by Dame Nellie Melba, who advised her to go to Paris for further study with her own teacher, Mathilde Marchesi. She also studied with Melba herself, Jean de Reszke, and in Milan with Vincenzo Sabbatini. She made her debut in Rome on 7 November 1911, as Myriam Licette, in the title role of Madama Butterfly.

On 28 December, Licette appeared as "Good Deeds" in the premiere of Liza Lehmann's opera Everyman. (Liza Lehmann's grandson Steuart Bedford played the organ at Licette's memorial service in 1969.) She was heard as Antonia in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann and Pamina in The Magic Flute. On 14 October 1916, she appeared in a concert of Russian and French music in Manchester, at which the flautist V. L. Needham collapsed and died. In May 1919 she received thirteen curtain calls after the Garden Scene in Faust. She had a similar triumph when she sang this role in Scotland. She also appeared as Mimi in ten performances of Puccini's La bohème. On 26 July, she created the role of Princess Yaroslavna in the first performance in English of Borodin's Prince Igor. In February 1920 she was Eva in The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, and in April she appeared in a revival of Delius's A Village Romeo and Juliet.

Recordings Her recordings include a complete Faust under Sir Thomas Beecham (1930); substantial extracts from William Vincent Wallace's Maritana; and Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana and Nedda in Pagliacci. A complete discography has been prepared.

Her associate artists in these recordings include Dennis Noble, Heddle Nash, Muriel Brunskill, Harold Williams, Frank Mullings and Clara Serena; and the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham, Percy Pitt, Albert Ketèlbey, Hamilton Harty, Hubert Bath, Felix Weingartner, Eugene Goossens, Clarence Raybould and Stanford Robinson.

She was one of the soloists on the first electrical recording of Beethoven's 9th symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Felix Weingartner in march 1926. (Columbia Masterworks Set No. 39)

Principal roles Miriam Licette's principal roles were: Charpentier: title role in Louise Gounod: Marguerite in Faust Gounod: Juliette in Roméo et Juliette Mozart: Pamina in The Magic Flute Mozart: Donna Anna in Don Giovanni Mozart: Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro Offenbach: principal soprano in The Tales of Hoffmann Puccini: Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly Puccini: Mimi in La bohème Verdi: Desdemona in Otello Wagner: Eva in The Mastersingers of Nuremberg.