Alice Eversman

Alice Eversman (September 4, 1885 — February 1, 1974) was an American opera singer and voice teacher, and later a music critic for over twenty years.

Alice Eversman, from a 1917 publication.

Early life

Alice Mary Eversman was born in Effingham, Illinois and raised in Washington, D.C., the daughter of John Eversman Sr. and Frances Caroline Gibbons Eversman. Encouraged by organist John W. Bischoff,[1] she studied music at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, and in Karlsruhe, Germany.[2]

Career

Eversman sang soprano with the Chicago Grand Opera Company.[3] With them, she appeared in a New Year's Day show at the county jail, and "brought tears to the eyes of many prisoners" with her songs.[4] She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company for the 1916-1917 season. She was a fortunate understudy on at least two occasions: once in 1912, when Carmen Melis failed to appear for her starring role in Aida,[5] and again as Aida in 1915, when Ester Adaberto was called to Italy on a family emergency.[6] She starred in Aida again in 1917, in a stadium performance to benefit the Civilian Relief Committee during World War I.[7] She also gave recitals on the Chautauqua circuit, with violinist Elena de Sayn.[8][9][10]

Eversman wrote music criticism for The Washington Star newspaper from 1932 to 1953. She was also a music critic for the Paris edition of the New York Herald.[11] In her work as a critic, she reviewed the president's daughter, Margaret Truman, on her singing tour in 1949,[12] and described a 1933 recital at a church auditorium by Marian Anderson, lamenting that "her extraordinary singing was enjoyed only by a small audience."[13] She also reviewed the 1943 production of La Traviata by the National Negro Opera Company, with particular praise for Lillian Evanti.[14] She was president of the American Newspaper Women's Club three times, and a member of the Women's National Press Club.[2]

Personal life

Eversman died from a stroke in 1974, aged 88 years, in Fairfax, Virginia.[15] In 2012 her cousin Mary Ellen Eversman published a biography, Alice Eversman: Dramatic Opera Soprano, and gave lectures on the subject.[16]

References
  1. "Alice Eversman, Local Prima Donna, to Sing Here Saturday" The Washington Herald (October 3, 1915): 3. via Newspapers.com
  2. Alfred Victor Frankenstein, Sigmund Gottfried Spaeth, John Townsend Hinton Mize, The International Who is Who in Music (Who is Who in Music, Incorporated, Limited, 1951): 169.
  3. "Amusements" The Reform Advocate (December 16, 1911): 677.
  4. "Sing for Chicago Prisoners" New York Times (January 2, 1912): 12.
  5. "Capital Girl Saves Opera; Leaves Bath for the Stage" Washington Herald (March 24, 1912): 3. via Newspapers.com
  6. "Alice Eversman in Opera 'Aida'" The Morning News (March 17, 1915): 13. via Newspapers.com
  7. "Miss Eversman to Sing in Aida" New York Times (June 11, 1917): 9.
  8. Alice Eversman program (1924), "Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century", University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections.
  9. "Eighteen Joint Recitals for Alice Eversman and Elena de Sayn" Musical Courier (April 19, 1917): 39.
  10. "Eversman-De Sayn Success" Musical Courier (May 3, 1917): 51.
  11. "Alice Eversman, Star Critic, Former Opera Singer, Dies" Washington Post (February 3, 1974): B6.
  12. Ernest B. Vaccaro, "Miss Truman Ends Song Tour; Father Spectator" Daytona Beach Morning Journal (November 28, 1949): 2.
  13. Raymond Arsenault, The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America (Bloomsbury Publishing 2010): 93. ISBN 9781608190560
  14. Rosalyn M. Story, And So I Sing (St. Martin's Press 1990): 96. ISBN 9780446710169
  15. "Alice M. Eversman" New York Times (February 3, 1974): 49.
  16. Bill Grimes, "Local Woman Portrays Late Relative's History in Opera" Effingham Daily News (July 22, 2014).
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