Bettina Freeman (Soprano) (Boston 1889 - ?)

She was a Boston-born opera singer with the San Carlo Opera Company who was active from 1913-1920.  Her mother is French and her father an American of German descent. She was educated in the public schools and began to take lessons on the piano at the age of thirteen, her teacher being Madame de Berg Lofgren, who began to teach her singing also when she was sixteen. When the Boston Opera enterprise was launched Madame Lofgren took her young pupil to the opera school, and after some coaching with Minetti and Conti, Miss Freeman made her debut as Siebel in " Faust," and sang with the Boston Opera Company for one season. Seeking an opportunity for larger parts she went to New York where she was engaged for the Quinlan Opera Company, and made a tour through England and Scotland, singing leading parts, — Madame Butterfly, Micaela, Gretel, and she even sang Elizabeth in Tannhauser, a role considered much too taxing for a young singer. Her voice is of mezzo-soprano quality with an unusual range. Miss Freeman had a rather unusual experience, for in 1907 being consumed with the desire to study abroad, she went to Paris, took three or four lessons, was taken ill, and returned to Boston in time to resume her lessons, in the fall, with Madame Lofgren. She thus made her operatic debut with practically no European study or experience

Chronology of some appearances

1909 Boston Opera House Aida (Sacerdotessa)

1910 Chicago Auditorium Carmen (Mercedes)

1916 New York Hotel Astoria Aida (Aida)

1918 Città del Messico Teatro Virginia Fabregas Gioconda (Gioconda)

1919 Winnipeg Teatro Walker Cavalleria rusticana (Santuzza)

1920 Calgary Grand Theater Faust (Margherita)

1921 Los Angeles Philarmonic Theater Trovatore (Leonora)

1922 New York Academy Theater Otello (Desdemona)

1924 Gorizia Teatro Sociale Andrea Chenier (Maddalena)

1925 Sanremo Teatro del Casinò Fedora (Fedora)

1926 Messina Teatro Mastroieni Fedora (Fedora)

RECORDINGS FOR SALE

Columbia, New York 1910-03-17

Nozze di Figaro (Mozart): Voi, che sapete H1050 30388

Columbia, New York 1910-03-23

Ugonotti (Meyerbeer): Nobil, Signori  A5215 30393
Trovatore (Verdi): Stride la vampa A5215 30399

Columbia, New York 1910-04-11

Rigoletto (Verdi): Bella figlia dell'amore with Florencio Constantino, Ramon Blanchart and Eugenia Bronskaja H1029 30422

Columbia, New York 1910-04-15

Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti): Chi mi frena with Florencio Constantino, Luigi Cilla, Ramon Blanchart, Eugenia Bronskaja and Jose Mardones A5177 30443

Columbia, New York 1910-04-23
A little thief (Stern) A856 4452
The little Irish girl (Löhr) A856 4451