Queena Mario | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Mario in 1921 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Queena Marian Tillotson |
| Born | August 21, 1896 Akron, Ohio, United States |
| Died | May 28, 1951 (aged 54) New York, United States |
| Genres | Opera |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Years active | 1918–1951 |
Queena Marian Tillotson (August 21, 1896 – May 28, 1951), known professionally as Queena Mario, was an American soprano opera singer, newspaper columnist, voice teacher, and fiction writer.
Queena Marian Tillotson was born in Akron, Ohio,[1] the daughter of James Knox Tillotson and Rose Tillotson. Queena was raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, where she graduated from Plainfield High School.[2][3] She studied voice with Marcella Sembrich,[4] who advised her name change.[5] She paid for voice lessons by writing newspaper advice columns under the name Florence Bryant, including childrearing advice; "You know a lot when you're 16, you have a lot of theories," she explained of her qualifications.[1]
Mario made her stage debut with the San Carlo Opera Company in 1918.[6] She also toured with the Antonio Scotti Opera Company. She sang at the Metropolitan Opera over 300 times, beginning in 1922 and with a last performance in 1938.[7] She also gave concerts.[3] In 1925 Richard Aldrich of The New York Times described Mario's voice: "The voice is light, it has the grace and flexibility of a light voice, together with agreeable quality and much finished skill in vocalism."[8][9]
Mario taught voice at the Juilliard School in New York and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Among her students were Jeanne Madden,[10] Frances Bible,[11] Helen Jepson and Rose Bampton.[12] She can be heard on at least six recordings from 1924 and 1933, made for the Victor Talking Machine Company.[13]
As a writer, Mario published three opera-themed murder mysteries: Murder in the Opera House (E.P. Dutton, 1934), Murder Meets Mephisto (1942), and Death Drops Delilah (1944).[14]
Mario married Metropolitan Opera conductor Wilfred Pelletier on November 23, 1925; they divorced on August 12, 1936.[15] She died in New York in 1951, aged 54 years.[16][17]
