Queena Mario

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 Mario
Mario in 1921
Background information
Birth nameQueena Marian Tillotson
Born(1896-08-21)August 21, 1896
Akron, Ohio, United States
DiedMay 28, 1951(1951-05-28) (aged 54)
New York, United States
GenresOpera
Occupation(s)Soprano, columnist, voice teacher, author
Years active1918–1951

Early life

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]

Career

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] Helen Jepson and Rose Bampton.[11] She can be heard on at least six recordings from 1924 and 1933, made for the Victor Talking Machine Company.[12]

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).[13]

Personal life

Mario married Metropolitan Opera conductor Wilfred Pelletier in 1925; they divorced in 1936.[14] She died in New York in 1951, aged 54 years.[15][16]

References
  1. Josephine Van Der Grift, "Famous Opera Singer Born in Akron Will Sing At Armory" Akron Beacon Journal (March 24, 1925): 1, 9. via Newspapers.com
  2. Staff. "Queena Mario Sings to Students", The New York Times, May 26, 1927. Accessed November 9, 2017. "Queena Mario of the Metropolitan Opera Company, formerly of this city, was a guest of the Plainfield High School today where she sang a group of four numbers to the student body ... The opera star whose family name was Tillotson is a graduate of the local high school and has been a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Albert L. Coddington of Sheridan Avenue."
  3. "Queena Mario Gives Concert Here Tomorrow" Courier-News (March 2, 1932): 6. via Newspapers.com
  4. Frank D. Quattrone, Penn State Abington and the Ogontz School (Arcadia Publishing 2016): 77. ISBN 9781439657775
  5. "Queena Mario To Be Guest Artist Monday" Star Tribune (April 5, 1931): 16. via Newspapers.com
  6. "Queena Mario Proves a Human Nightingale" Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (April 22, 1919): 10. via Newspapers.com
  7. Queena Mario, Archives, MetOperaFamily.org.
  8. "Queena Mario Most Promising of Young Singers" Post-Crescent (October 9, 1925): 7. via Newspapers.com
  9. "Torch Song or Rigoletto, it's All Same to Queena" Pittsburgh Press (November 29, 1936): 48. via Newspapers.com
  10. "Broke All Rules to Make Jeanne Madden a Star" Truth (November 1, 1936): 35. via Trove
  11. "Whistler's Murder" The New Yorker (January 19, 1935): 12.
  12. "Queena Mario" Discography of American Historical Recordings UC Santa Barbara Library.
  13. "Queena Mario, 54, Soprano, is Dead" The New York Times (May 29, 1951): 23.
  14. "Miss Queena Mario Gets Divorce in Reno" The New York Times (August 13, 1936): 12.
  15. "Queena Mario Tillotson, Met Opera Singer, Dies" Plainfield Courier News 15. via Newspapers.com
  16. "Queena Mario Rites Tomorrow" The New York Times (May 30, 1951): 17.
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