Vera Curtis

Vera C. Curtis (1879 or 1880 was an American soprano and voice teacher. Educated at the New England Conservatory and the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School), she was the first singer who was trained exclusively in the United States to become a principal singer at the Metropolitan Opera (Met); performing with that company from 1912 through 1920. one of seven children of John C. Curtis and his wife Adeline Curtis (née Stuart). Sources vary on the year of her birth, with her obituary in Opera News stating she was born in 1880 She also studied with Alfred Giraudet in Boston. After completing her studies at the conservatory, Curtis began her professional stage career in 1905 performing the role of Suzette in the national tour of Alfred Baldwin Sloane and R. H. Burnside's operetta Sergeant Kitty. By the autumn of 1907, she was once again studying singing; this time in New York City at the Institute of Musical Art (now the Juilliard School). There she was a voice student of George Henschel.

Singing career While a student in New York, Curtis made her New York concert debut at a Young People's Concert on December 21, 1907, as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with the New York Philharmonic (NYP) being led by conductor Walter Damrosch. She also performed in a second Young People's Concert with the NYP in 1909 under the baton of Frank Damrosch (Walter's brother); performing the Mother, the Sandman, and the Dewman in a concert version of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.

Curtis made her grand opera debut with the Aborn English Opera Company at McVicker's Theater in Chicago in the title role of Verdi's Aida on June 1, 1910; using the pseudonym Marie Victor. After this she worked as a leading soprano with Albert Clerk-Jeannotte's short lived Montreal Opera Company. In the spring of 1912 she went on a national tour as a featured soloist with the Russian Symphony Orchestra under conductor Modest Altschuler.

Curtis sang with the Met through 1920 in a variety of roles; although she achieved her greatest successes in the stage works of Richard Wagner. and two years later she appeared with the company as Queen Carolina in the world premiere of Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne.

After leaving the Met, Curtis continued to perform. In 1921 she performed the role of Marguerite in a concert version of Faust at Jordan Hall in Boston. In 1922 she toured in concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra. She was heard again with that company as Verdi's Desdemona in 1927; a performance broadcast live on WINS (AM) (then WGBS). In 1929 she performed the role of Venus in Tannhäuser with the Cincinnati Opera; a production which toured to other American cities.

Later life In the 1930s Curtis ceased performing in operas and on the larger concert stage; although she remained an active performer as a recitalist. During the 1930s and 1940s she toured widely throughout the United States giving a series of lecture-recitals in which she would lecture on specific operas or composers in conjunction with performing arias and excerpts from the works being discussed. In 1930 she began to work as a voice teacher out of two studios; one at 1 East 124th St. in Harlem and the other at the parish house of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Port Chester, New York. She continued to work as a voice teacher until May 1961; just nine months prior to her death. She died in Fairfield, Connecticut, on February 6, 1962, at the age of 82.