Marguerite D'Alvarez

Marguerite d'Alvarez (c. 1886 – 18 October 1953) was an English contralto. D'Alvarez was born in Bootle, her father was Peruvian and her mother French. She studied at the Brussels conservatoire, and made her debut in Rouen in 1907, singing in Samson and Delilah. After further studies in Paris she made her first American appearances with the Manhattan Opera Company in 1909 as Fidès in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Le prophète. Following her season in New York City, she went to London to help Oscar Hammerstein inaugurate his London Opera in 1911; that year, she scored great successes in French roles. D'Alvarez subsequently appeared at leading European opera houses such as Covent Garden, and also sang in Chicago and Boston. She made several acoustic recordings in New York in 1920-21, including arias from her operatic repertoire and Spanish songs by Falla, Chapi and Tabuyo. She made three films, Till We Meet Again, in 1944, An Angel Comes to Brooklyn (1945) and Affair in Monte Carlo (1952); her autobiography, Forsaken Altars, was published in 1954, after her death in Alassio, Italy.