Beatrice Miranda | Opera Scotland

Beatrice Miranda Suggest updates

Born Melbourne, 1884.

Died Buffalo, NY, 1964.

Australian soprano.

Beatrice Miranda had a notable career as a versatile operatic soprano. Both her parents, David Miranda (Spanish) and Annette Hirst (from Yorkshire) were singers. Her elder sister Lalla Miranda (1876-1948) enjoyed a very successful career, particularly on the continent and in the USA (where she sang in Rigoletto with Caruso).

Early Scottish interest arises from the sisters' uncle, Samuel Hirst, an organist and conductor who moved from Huddersfield to Dundee and spent over five decades as an influential figure in the musical life of North-East Scotland.

Beatrice Miranda started, like her sister, as a coloratura soprano, and sang Gilda at Covent Garden in 1909. Her Carl Rosa repertoire initially included Philine and Queen of Night, though she was quickly able to take on Leonora and heavier lyric roles, eventually singing Elsa and Elisabeth. In Bradford on 6 Feb 1922 she sang in the opening performance of BNOC, as Aïda. She also appeared at Covent Garden as Tosca (with Joseph Hislop and Dinh Gilly), and as Sieglinde. Her repertoire eventually included Brünnhilde and Isolde, and she recorded brief extracts from both roles.

She married baritone Hebden Foster, also a leading Carl Rosa artist. From 1924 on, the couple lived in Edinburgh, taught singing, and continued with concert and recital work, rather than opera. They were leading enthusiasts in the encouragement of amateur performing groups in the city. It may have been their influence that brought Joseph Hislop back to Edinburgh for some performances in 1929.

In Opera, January 1970, reviewing a book Singers of Australia, Lord Harewood quotes an anecdote from Joan Cross about Beatrice Miranda. It seems that at very short notice during a Sadler’s Wells tour of Scotland in the Second World War (actually 1941), Miranda came out of retirement to save a performance of Butterfly in Edinburgh. Cross, whose indisposition had caused the crisis, was thrilled by the brilliance and power of the soprano's top notes. Miranda was then 57.

Beatrice Miranda died in the USA while on a visit to stay with her daughter.

Roles in Scotland

Elsa von Brabant sister of the missing Count Gottfried: Lohengrin 1909
Lohengrin 1914
Lohengrin 1921
Elisabeth niece of the Landgrave: Tannhäuser 1909
Tannhäuser 1918
Tannhäuser 1919
Tannhäuser 1921
Tannhäuser 1922
Tannhäuser 1923
Tannhäuser 1924
Tannhäuser 1924
Donna Anna the Commendatore's daughter: Don Giovanni 1909
Nedda Canio's wife: Pagliacci 1909
Pagliacci 1910
Pagliacci 1911
Pagliacci 1913
Pagliacci 1915
Pagliacci 1916
Pagliacci 1917
Pagliacci 1918
Pagliacci 1919
Pagliacci 1920
Pagliacci 1921
Pagliacci 1922
Pagliacci 1923
Pagliacci 1924
Pagliacci 1925
Marguerite: Faust 1910
Faust 1915
Faust 1923
Faust 1925
Mrs Ford Frau Fluth, wife of Ford: Lustigen Weiber von Windsor 1910
Lustigen Weiber von Windsor 1912
Lustigen Weiber von Windsor 1918
Lustigen Weiber von Windsor 1920
Gilda Rigoletto's daughter: Rigoletto 1910
Rigoletto 1917
Susanna the Countess's maid: Nozze di Figaro 1910
Nozze di Figaro 1911
Micaëla a peasant girl: Carmen 1910
Philine an actress: Mignon 1911
Mignon 1912
Mignon 1913
Mignon 1914
Mignon 1915
Mignon 1916
Sulamith the High Priest's daughter: Queen of Sheba 1911
Leonora a Duchess, lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Aragon: Trovatore 1913
Trovatore 1914
Trovatore 1918
Trovatore 1919
Trovatore 1923
Trovatore 1928
Queen of Night: Zauberflöte 1913
Zauberflöte 1914
Zauberflöte 1916
Zauberflöte 1917
Maliella adopted daughter of Carmela: Jewels of the Madonna 1915
Jewels of the Madonna 1920
Françoise the miller's daughter: Attaque du Moulin 1916
Attaque du Moulin 1917
Aïda an Ethiopian slave: Aïda 1916
Aïda 1917
Aïda 1921
Aïda 1922
Aïda 1923
Aïda 1924
Aïda 1926
Cio-Cio-San known as Madam Butterfly: Madam Butterfly 1917
Madam Butterfly 1918
Madam Butterfly 1919
Madam Butterfly 1921
Madam Butterfly 1924
Madam Butterfly 1941
Giulietta a courtesan: Tales of Hoffmann 1917
Beatrice: Dante and Beatrice 1918
Floria Tosca a famous singer: Tosca 1919
Tosca 1923
Isolde an Irish princess: Tristan und Isolde 1920
Tristan und Isolde 1922
Tristan und Isolde 1926
Marga: Stella Maris 1920
Sieglinde a Volsung, sister of Siegmund: Valkyrie 1921
Valkyrie 1922
Valkyrie 1923
Marchesa Dolores: Goldsmith of Toledo 1922
Mrs Waters Landlady of 'The Beehive': Boatswain's Mate 1923
Santuzza a village girl: Cavalleria Rusticana 1923
Cavalleria Rusticana 1925
Brünnhilde now a mortal: Siegfried 1924
Brünnhilde Siegfried's lover: Götterdämmerung 1927
Choreography: Hérodiade 1931
Cid 1932
Conductor: Mignon 1957