Charlotte Maconda (March 12, 1863 – May 15, 1952) was an American soprano singer.
Early life Charlotte Maconda Maginnis was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the daughter of William Henry Maginnis and Jenette Morgan Whittlesey Maginnis. She was named for her maternal grandmother, Charlotte Maconda Morgan Whittlesey (1805–1865), who helped her husband Oramel Whittlesey (1801–1876) to found Music Vale Seminary in Salem, Connecticut.C. B. Whittelsey, Genealogy of the Whittelsey-Whittlesey family (1898): 171.Cindy Lee Corriveau, Salem (Arcadia Publishing 2006): 45. She studied voice with Emma Fursch-Madi."Charlotte Maconda" New York Times (December 19, 1897): 51. via Newspapers.com
Sculptor Bela Pratt was Charlotte Maconda Maginnis's first cousin.
Career
Early in her career, she was sometimes billed as "Carlotta Maconda","Gilmore is Coming" Democrat and Chronicle (March 8, 1888): 4. via Newspapers.comUntitled music news item, The Buffalo Commercial (October 20, 1888): 4. via Newspapers.com and toured as a member of the Boston Ideal Opera Company from 1888 to 1890, in the same cast as Jessie Bartlett Davis."Albaugh's Holliday Street Theatre" Baltimore Sun (November 9, 1888): 1. via Newspapers.com"The Bostonians: 'Suzette'" Detroit Free Press (December 27, 1889): 4. via Newspapers.com In 1890 she sang in the operas Der Freischütz, Mignon, Les Huguenots, and L'Africaine, with the Emma Juch Grand English Opera Company.Untitled music news item, The Tennessean (September 30, 1890): 5. via Newspapers.com"The Stage" Detroit Free Press (September 20, 1890): 8. via Newspapers.com"A Great Rendition" The Pittsburgh Press (December 6, 1890): 3. via Newspapers.com Maconda sang at the Metropolitan Opera House twice in 1899.Charlotte Maconda, Archives, Metropolitan Opera Family. In 1903-1904 she and Max Bendix toured with several others as the Maconda Concert Company.Maconda Concert Company (1903-1904) brochure, Redpath Chautauqua Collection, Iowa Digital Library. "Maconda has such unusual personal magnetism, in addition to a voice of delightful quality," reported a 1907 magazine, "that she quickly becomes a favorite wherever she sings.""Madame Charlotte Maconda Coming" Up-to-the-Times (October 1907): 535.
In 1910, she traveled to Havana, Cuba to sing in La Bohème at the city's new opera house."Mme. Maconda Sings in Havana" New York Times (October 15, 1910): 9. via Newspapers.com Among her students in the 1920s was Daisy Pettit Elgin of Texas.Laurie E. Jasinski, ed., The Handbook of Texas Music (Texas A&M University Press 2012).
Personal life Charlotte Maconda married theatrical manager William Wellington Walters"Maconda and Flonzaley Quartet in St. Louis" Musical Courier (February 12, 1908): 34. in 1894. "In private life Madame Maconda has no striking peculiarities to make her remarkable," opined a 1907 newspaper writer. "When she is not filling concert and orchestral engagements she lives quietly in New York with her husband.""Musical" Salt Lake Tribune (October 27, 1907): 41. via Newspapers.com She died in 1952, aged 89 years, in New York City.
References
External links "Recital tour: Mme. Charlotte Maconda, prima donna soprano", touring brochure, Redpath Chautauqua Collection, Iowa Digital Library.