Zelda Seguin Wallace

Zelda Harrison Seguin Wallace (1848 – February 19, 1914) was an American opera singer and suffragist.

Zelda Seguin Wallace, in an 1876 publicity photograph

Early life

Zelda Harrison was born in New York City. She studied voice with Ann Childe Seguin, who sang at the coronation of Queen Victoria.[1]

Career

Zelda Harrison, a contralto,[2] first appeared on stage in 1865, at age 17, in Saratoga Springs, New York. As Zelda Seguin she found success singing popular French and Italian operas in English translations, including with Emma Abbott in her Abbott English Opera Company.[3] She was well known for being the first to sing the title role of Carmen in English in the United States,[4][5] and as Azucena in Il trovatore, among other parts.[6]

Seguin Wallace's last opera performance was in New York City in 1886, in The Mikado. She continued giving concerts, especially near her home in Indianapolis, Indiana, and for causes she supported, including women's suffrage.[7][8] "It is not generally known, and when asserted usually excites astonishment, that Zelda Seguin-Wallace is a very strong woman suffragist", noted a commentator in 1883.[9]

Wallace was seriously injured[10] in a fatal train derailment in 1895,[11][12] effectively ending her performing days.[13] A house fire at a relative's property in 1911 destroyed many of her costumes, scores, and memorabilia.[6]

Personal life

Harrison married twice; her first husband was singer Edward S. C. "Ned" Seguin, son of her voice teacher Ann Seguin; they married in 1867 and he died in 1879. She had a son, Edward S. R. Seguin, from her first marriage.[14] She married railroad man David Wallace Jr., in 1880, giving up a substantial inheritance from her first mother-in-law's estate.[1] She was widowed again when David Wallace Jr. died in 1911. She died in 1914, aged 65 years.[15]

After her second marriage, Seguin Wallace's brother-in-law was Lew Wallace, author of Ben-Hur. Her mother-in-law Zerelda G. Wallace was a temperance and suffrage activist, wife of Indiana governor David Wallace.[16]

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References
  1. Thomas Allston Brown, A History of the New York Stage from the First Performance in 1732 to 1901, Volume 1 (Dodd, Mead 1903): 250.
  2. "Theatrical Talk: New Roles for Zelda Seguin" Freeport Journal-Standard (August 24, 1883): 2. via Newspapers.com
  3. Sadie E. Martin, The Life and Professional Career of Emma Abbott (1891): 42.
  4. Laura A. Smith, "About Hoosiers in New York" Indianapolis Star (July 2, 1911): 46. via Newspapers.com
  5. "Creator of Carmen Title Role is Dead" Ogden Standard (February 20, 1914): 2. via Newspapers.com
  6. "Scores and Opera Costumes of Zelda Seguin Wallace Burned" Indianapolis News (March 28, 1911): 12. via Newspapers.com
  7. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida Husted Harper, eds., History of Woman Suffrage: 1876–1885 (Fowler & Wells, 1886): 541.
  8. Untitled item, The Eastern Star (April 1894): 168.
  9. "Woman and Home" Aurora Daily Express (September 17, 1883).
  10. "Her Injuries Permanent" Marquette Tribune (November 1, 1895): 2. via Newspapers.com
  11. "Victims of the Vandalia Wreck" The New York Times (January 30, 1895).
  12. "A Jump, A Jolt, and Death" Cincinnati Enquirer (January 29, 1895): 1. via Newspapers.com
  13. "Wants $50,000 Damages" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (October 27, 1895): 1. via Newspapers.com
  14. Untitled item, Cincinnati Enquirer (September 1, 1918): 7. via Newspapers.com
  15. "Death of Mrs. Zelda Seguin-Wallace" The Tribune (February 20, 1914): 6. via Newspapers.com
  16. "Zelda Harrison Seguin Wallace" General Lew Wallace Study & Museum (June 25, 2012).
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