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Alice Nielsen

Alice Nielsen (1872-1943) was a Broadway performer and operatic soprano who had her own opera company and starred in several Victor Herbert operettas.

Early life and career

Alice Nielsen in 1900, about 25, was America's most famous singing star. "We love our Nielsen, and proud she is an American," said the press. Touring 40,000 miles a year in North America between 1896 and 1901, her shows were Standing Room Only.

Her father, Ramsus was a Danish troubadour. Her mother Sara Kilroy, was an Irish musician from Donegal. Rasmus and Sara met in South Bend, Indiana where Sara studied music at St. Mary's. After Rasmus was injured in the Civil War, the couple moved to Nashville, Tennessee where Alice was born about 1874. The Nielsens moved to Warrensburg, Mo. when Alice was two. Rasmus died a few years later. Sara moved to Kansas City with four surviving children.

Alice Nielsen roamed downtown Kansas City as a child singing to human face. Outside Kansas City Club she was heard by a wealthy meat packer Jakob Dold and invited to sing at his daughter's birthday party. Alice was a hit. Dold sent her to represent Missouri at a musicale at the Grover Cleveland White House.

At fifteen, Nielsen joined St. Patrick's choir. She married the church organist and had a boy. The marriage turned violent. She left for San Francisco on the vaudeville circuit, joined by Arthur Pryor with Burton Stanley and Pyke Opera. In San Francisco she became a soloist at the St. Patrick's and a star in Balfe's "Satanella." Joining the Tivoli Opera Company, trained by Ida Valegra, Nielsen played 150 roles in two years. In 1895, Nielsen was hired by The Bostonians, America's greatest musical group of that era, who took her to New York and national fame in 1896.

Broadway and later career

In New York, Nielsen became a Broadway star in Victor Herbert's The Serenade. Forming her own production company, Nielsen toured North America for three years before reaching London in 1901 in The Fortune Teller. Pushed by business conflicts, Nielsen abandoned her Company and left to study Opera in Italy. She eventually returned to London with Enrico Caruso and Antonio Scotti for a season of opera at Covent Garden in 1904. Their La Bohème was regarded as a masterpiece of ensemble performance.

In the summer of 1905 Nielsen opened the Shubert's Waldorf Theatre with Eleonora Duse in a joint program of related opera and drama. One night Duse would act Camille, the next night Nielsen woud sing Traviata. That fall Nielsen returned to America, touring in operas. She added Lillian Nordica and Constantino to her company. They made a winter season of opera in New Orleans for two years. After a week of Boston concerts, Eben Jordan offered to build the Boston Opera House for Alice Nielsen and her Company. The plan was quickly realized.
In 1908 Boston Opera House opened, the finest in America {fact}. The Boston Opera folded amid the turmoil of World War One.

Nielsen was a popular recording artist in sessions conducted by Arthur Pryor, an old friend from St. Joseph, Missouri. Her concert tours were also popular. Nielsen was the highest-paid singer on the Chautauqua circuit, traveling in a private train car with entourage and dog. She sang in joint concerts with John McCormack and others. "I only sang the songs I wanted to sing," she stated.^{[citation needed]}

Victor Herbert wrote four shows for Nielsen. After a brief return to Broadway in 1917's Belasco-inspired "Kitty Darlin'," with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse, who was fired three weeks before opening, Nielsen married New York surgeon LeRoy Stoddard. She stopped touring, yet continued concerts until shortly before her death in 1943.

Critical response

Eleonora Duse— "Her voice makes one dream and forget the realities of life."
San Francisco Chronicle— She is chic and vivacious and filled with indefinable magnetism.
NY World— At the present moment she has no rival in her field.
Evening World— America's greatest lyrical soprano.
Post— Miss Nielsen is thoroughly a great singer, and showed clearly that she has attained the high place she holds in the musical world through sheer merit.
Musical Courier— It is difficult to imagine a more perfect Mimi than Miss Nielsen, who sings with a lovely lyric beauty of a voice that has not its counterpart anywhere.^[1]

References

^ Wilson, Dall. "Alice Nielsen and the Gaiety Of Nations," published in Mu Phi Epsilon, Spring 2006

[1] Wilson, Dall. "Alice Nielsen and the Gaiety Of Nations," published in Mu Phi Epsilon, Spring 2006

[1]

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 ==Early life and career==
+Alice Nielsen in 1900, about 25, was America's most famous singing star. "We love our Nielsen, and proud she is an American," said the press. Touring 40,000 miles a year in North America between 1896 and 1901, her shows were Standing Room Only.
-Nielsen's father Rasmus was a Danish troubadour. Her mother Sara Kilroy, was an Irish musician whose family came from Donegal. Rasmus and Sara met in [[South Bend, Indiana]] where Sara was studying music at St. Mary's.  After Rasmus was injured in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the couple moved to [[Nashville, Tennessee]] where Alice was born. The Nielsens moved to Warrensburg, Mo. when Alice was two. Rasmus died a few years later, and Sara moved to [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] with four surviving children.
+Her father, Ramsus was a Danish troubadour. Her mother Sara Kilroy, was an Irish musician from Donegal. Rasmus and Sara met in [[South Bend, Indiana]] where Sara studied music at St. Mary's. After Rasmus was injured in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the couple moved to [[Nashville, Tennessee]] where Alice was born about 1874. The Nielsens moved to Warrensburg, Mo. when Alice was two. Rasmus died a few years later. Sara moved to [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] with four surviving children.
-Alice Nielsen roamed downtown Kansas City as a child, singing to every person she saw. One day outside a Kansas City club, she was heard by a wealthy meat packer and invited to his daughter's birthday party. At the party, Alice sang dozens of songs. She soon became well known in the area eventually being asked to perform at the  White House.  As a teenager,she joined the choir at Old St. Patrick's and was soon the soloist.
-She married the church organist and ending up in [[San Francisco]]. While in San Francisco, she joined the Tivoli Opera Company where she played 150 roles in two years. In 1896, Nielsen was hired by The Bostonians, who took her to New York.
+Alice Nielsen roamed downtown Kansas City as a child singing to human face. Outside Kansas City Club she was heard by a wealthy meat packer Jakob Dold and invited to sing at his daughter's birthday party. Alice was a hit. Dold sent her to represent Missouri at a musicale at the Grover Cleveland White House.
+At fifteen, Nielsen joined St. Patrick's choir. She married the church organist and had a boy. The marriage turned violent. She left for [[San Francisco]] on the vaudeville circuit, joined by [[Arthur Pryor]] with [[Burton Stanley]] and [[Pyke Opera]]. In San Francisco she became a soloist at the St. Patrick's and a star in [[Balfe]]'s "Satanella." Joining the Tivoli Opera Company, trained by Ida Valegra, Nielsen played 150 roles in two years. In 1895, Nielsen was hired by [[The Bostonians]], America's greatest musical group of that era, who took her to New York and national fame in 1896.
 ==Broadway and later career==