Alice Gentle

Alice Gentle (June 30, 1885 – February 28, 1958) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano.[1]

Alice Gentle in 1918 on the telephone
Gentle (second from left) in a scene from the 1930 film Song of the Flame.

Biography

She was reportedly born on June 30, 1885, in Chatsworth, Illinois,[1] but Alice appears as a 2 year-old child in the 1880 US Census for her family, indicating she was actually born in 1878.[2]

She began her career in 1908 as a member of the opera chorus in Oscar Hammerstein I's Manhattan Opera Company (MOC). Impressed with Gentle's talents, Hammerstein began casting her in secondary roles in MOC productions in 1909, beginning with the role of Mercédès in Georges Bizet's Carmen. She sang roles with the MOC and with Hammerstein's Philadelphia Opera Company through 1910; including Emilia in Otello, the First maid in Elektra, Flora in La traviata, Lola in Cavalleria rusticana, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann, and Siébel in Faust among others.[3]

Gentle also performed in two Broadway musicals, The Opera Ball (1912) and All for the Ladies (1912-1913).[4]

In 1916 Gentle portrayed the role of Federico in Ambroise Thomas's Mignon at La Scala in Milan. She sang one season at the Metropolitan Opera, making her debut with the company in 1918 as Preziosilla in La forza del destino. Later that year she created the role of Frugola in the world premiere of Puccini's Il Tabarro. Her only other role at the Met was Fatima in Oberon in 1919. In 1923 she toured the United States as Carmen with the San Carlo Opera Company. She appeared in three films during the early 1930s: Song of the Flame (1930), Golden Dawn (1930), and Flying Down to Rio (1933). In 1940 she made her final stage appearance at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera as Mrs. Cripps in H.M.S. Pinafore.[1]

She died on February 28, 1958, in Oakland, California.[1]

References
  1. "Alice Gentle Dies. Ex-Opera Star, 69. Mezzo Sang With La Scala and the Metropolitan. Started in Chorus". The New York Times. March 2, 1958.
  2. familysearch.org 1880 US Census https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXVD-FK1?from=lynx1UIV8&treeref=9S3G-KSR. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. Free Library of Philadelphia: Folder: Philadelphia Opera Company 1908-1910
  4. Dan Dietz (2021). "All for the Ladies". The Complete Book of 1910s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 199-200. ISBN 9781538150283.
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