Born: 9 December 1850, United States
Died: 5 January 1891
Country most active: International
Also known as: NA
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Emma Abbott, an American singer. She began her musical experience in the choir of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, and afterwards studied in Milan and Paris.
After making her début at Covent Garden, London, she came to the United States and sang for a number of years with the English opera company known by her name.
She appeared successfully in the Operas of Verdi, Gounod, Bellini, etc., and was one of the most popular sopranos of her time.
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
She was born in Chicago. In 1854, her father, a music teacher, decided to settle with his family in Peoria, and it was there her musical talents were recognized by her father at a very early age and carefully fostered by him. At a concert which he gave in 1859, Emma Abbott was the prima donna and guitar player, when she was sixteen years old she sang in the synagogue in Peoria. At that age she joined a concert company of Chicago, and when the company disbanded she found herself in Grand Haven, Michigan, friendless and without funds. With her guitar she started out alone and gave concerts in Michigan and the neighbouring states, and thus worked her way to New York City. Here she gave parlour concerts in the hotels in which she stayed, thus earning her expenses. She possessed a desire to study for the stage, and finally, after many setbacks and failures, she began, in 1870, this study. At the same time she was engaged to sing in Dr. Chapin’s church. In 1872 Mr. Lake, with the aid of Dr. Chapin’s congregation, raised money to send her to Europe for musical training. She studied in Milan and Paris and her debut was overwhelmingly successful. In 1874 she was married to Eugene Wetherell. Her refusal to sing the leading role in La Traviatta on moral grounds cancelled her engagement to sing in London, and in 1876 she returned to America, where she became the manager of her own company with her husband as her partner. Her operas were all in English, her company carefully selected, her costumes and scenery carried out with great faith as to historical detail, her work was an outstanding success. She tolerated no shams or makeshifts and the stage, neither before nor since, has ever seen such magnificent costumes as were hers. She sang with profit throughout the United States, and her great personal charm, her generosity to her company, her endless gifts to charity, and her industry and perseverance, made her the idol of all who heard her.