Viola Gillette (1871–1956), born Viola Pratt, was an American

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

from

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. Gillette began her career as a church singer in Salt Lake City. She made her stage debut in Washington, D.C., in 1898. She subsequently moved to New York City where she sang with the Castle Square Opera Company. She was a soloist at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in New York from 1898 to 1899. Gillette's first concert appearance as a soloist was at the

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

, Music Festival in 1899. For a few months in early 1901, Gillette appeared at the

Shaftesbury Theatre The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. It opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, with a capacity of 2,500. The current capacity is 1,416. The title "Shaftesbury Theat ...

in London. From 1901 to 1904, Gillette was employed by

Klaw and Erlanger Klaw and Erlanger was an entertainment management and production partnership of Marc Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger based in New York City from 1888 through 1919. While running their own considerable and multi-faceted theatrical businesses on ...

, appearing for two seasons in their production of ''Beauty and the Beast'' and for one season in ''

Mother Goose Mother Goose is a character that originated in children's fiction, as the imaginary author of a collection of French fairy tales and later of English nursery rhymes. She also appeared in a song, the first stanza of which often functions now as ...

''. In 1907, Gillette appeared as Violetta in ''The Girl and the Bandit''. She managed to turn this role into a position managing her own company, the Viola Gillette Opera Company. In 1909 she played Nichette in ''

The Beauty Spot ''The Beauty Spot'' was a 1909 musical comedy in two acts that played for 137 performances at the Herald Square Theatre in New York with music by Reginald De Koven, a book by Joseph W. Herbert and additional lyrics by Terry Sullivan. The musical ...

'' at the

Herald Square Theatre The Herald Square Theatre was a Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York City, built in 1883 and closed in 1914. The site is now a highrise designed by H. Craig Severance. History The Park Theatre opened in 1883 (also known as the New Park Th ...

in New York City.

Gallery

Viola.gillette.from.actors.birthday.book.png, Viola Gillette DeWolf Hopper.jpg,

DeWolf Hopper William DeWolf Hopper (March 30, 1858September 23, 1935) was an American actor, singer, comedian, and theatrical producer. A star of vaudeville and musical theater, he became best known for performing the popular baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" ...

and Viola Gillette in ''

The Beggar Student ''Der Bettelstudent'' (''The Beggar Student'') is an operetta in three acts by Carl Millöcker with a German libretto by Camillo Walzel (under the pseudonym of F. Zell) and Richard Genée, based on ''Les noces de Fernande'' by Victorien Sardou ...

'' (1913)

References

American women singers American contraltos 1871 births 1956 deaths Actor-managers Musicians from Salt Lake City 20th-century theatre managers {{US-opera-singer-stub