The short shelf of Canadian opera singer biographies

WHEN I STARTED TO RESEARCH A biography of Bertha Crawford (1886-1937), a forgotten Canadian coloratura soprano whose career spanned the first quarter of the previous century, I looked for biographies of other Canadian opera singers. Opera biographies come in many forms. Some are serious studies of the musician and their work that attempt to objectively situate the singer’s life within the wider context of their historical era. Others slip over the line into hagiography, idealizing the singer as a Romantic, larger than life figure, adored by the public. Personal memoirs are also popular, written by the singer to promote or prolong their ‘brand.’ As I delved into Crawford’s life, I hoped that reading about the lives of other Canadian singers would help me understand the broader sweep of opera history in this country.

The first thing I discovered is that only a few Canadian singers have been remembered by biographers. Others may be covered by articles in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography or the Encyclopaedia of Music in Canada, but without the full treatment a committed biographer gives to their subject, they remain lesser figures in the history of Canadian music.

Secondly, it quickly became apparent that being the subject of a full biography depends as much on the singer sparking a writer’s interest, as it does on-century opera houses of Eastern Europe where Crawford had appeared some 80 years before.