Opera Scotland

Florence Easton Suggest updates

Florence Gertrude Easton.

Born Middlesbrough, 25 October 1882.

Died New York, 13 August 1955.

English soprano.

Florence Easton had a long career as an astonishingly versatile soprano, able to continue singing lyric roles even when her repertoire was centred on the heaviest dramatic parts, such as Isolde, Brünnhilde, Elektra and Turandot.

She studied in London at the Royal College of Music and in Paris, making her professional debut in 1903 as the Shepherd in Tannhäuser with Moody-Manners in Newcastle. In 1905 she transferred to the Henry Savage Company.

It is an odd feature of her career that she was based in Germany for ten years, including the last two when Britain and Germany were at war. From 1907 to 1913 she lived in Berlin, moving to the Hamburg company from 1913-16. Before the outbreak of war she had returned to Britain to sing leading roles with the Denhof company, as did her husband, the tenor Francis MacLennan.  It was presumably his American nationality that permitted them to continue living in Germany until the USA entered the war in 1917.

During the Hamburg years they sang together leading roles in works by Meyerbeer (Les Huguenots); Wagner (Der fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Die Walküre, Die Meistersinger); Verdi (Aïda, Otello); Leoncavallo (Pagliacci); Mascagni (Cavalleria Rusticana); Puccini (Madama Butterfly) and the Glasgow-born Eugen d'Albert's Die toten Augen.  She also sang Minnie in La fanciulla del West during Caruso's period as a guest with the company.

They had made a trip to Chicago and dïid not return east.  They were therefore in New York for the December 1918 premiere of Puccini's Trittico at the Met and she created the role of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She continued to work at the Met until 1929, returning for the 1935-6 season. In 1927 she created a second role there, Aelfrida in The King's Henchman by Deems Taylor.

She appeared in Britain again later in her career, singing at Covent Garden in 1927 (Turandot) and 1932 (Brünnhilde, Isolde). She also worked at Sadler's Wells in 1934, performing Tosca.

There is a recording (Vocalion) of her singing Lauretta's solo  'O mio babbino caro' (Gianni Schicchi) made in 1920.