Marguerite Sylva
Encyclopedia
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
born mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
who achieved fame not only on the opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
stage but also in operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
and musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
. She was particularly known for her performances in the title role of Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, which she sang over 300 times in the course of her career. Sylva was a pioneering recording artist for Edison Records
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
and made many recordings for the company between 1910 and 1912.
Biography
Marguerite Sylva was born Marguerite Alice Hélène Smith in BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, to Mathilde (Schearer) Smith and Dr. Christian Charles Louis Smith, a Belgian of English parentage who was a consulting physician to the royal court of Belgium
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...
. Both she and her sister Edith were trained in music at the Belgian Royal Conservatory. Marguerite primarily studied the piano but also took private singing lessons. Edith went on to become a concert violinist of some renown, performing as Nadia Sylva.
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
who gave the sisters their stage names. In early 1896 they were in London, where Edith was to play her violin for Gilbert, with Marguerite providing the piano accompaniment. Sylva recalled that after Edith finished playing, Gilbert asked her, "Don't you do anything?". She told him she "sang a little" and proceeded to sing the Habanera
Habanera (aria)
In the form of habanera, there is a famous aria from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. It is sometimes referred to as "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle." . Its score was adapted from the habanera "El Arreglito," originally composed by the Spanish musician Sebastián Yradier...
from Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
to him. He offered her a part in his upcoming production of The Grand Duke
The Grand Duke
The Grand Duke; or, The Statutory Duel, is the final Savoy Opera written by librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, their fourteenth and last opera together. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on March 7, 1896, and ran for 123 performances...
, but she turned it down saying that she wanted to "try grand opera
Grand Opera
Grand opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events...
first". After an audition with Augustus Harris
Augustus Harris
Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris , was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist.-Early life:Harris was born in Paris, France, the son of Augustus Glossop Harris , who was also a dramatist, and his wife, née Maria Ann Bone, a theatrical costumier...
, she was engaged to sing for the Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, and made her debut there in Carmen. However, with Harris' death in June 1896, her opera aspirations ended. Instead she went to the United States with Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the...
's theatre company for a production of Gilbert Parker
Gilbert Parker
Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker, 1st Baronet PC , known as Gilbert Parker, Canadian novelist and British politician, was born at Camden East, Addington, Ontario, the son of Captain J. Parker, R.A....
's The Seats of the Mighty at the Knickerbocker Theatre
Knickerbocker Theatre (Broadway)
The Knickerbocker Theatre — previously known as Abbey's Theatre and Henry Abbey's Theatre — was a Broadway theatre located at 1396 Broadway in New York City. It operated from 1893 to 1930...
. Amongst the actors in the company was Gerald Du Maurier
Gerald du Maurier
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...
to whom she became engaged. The young couple had planned to pursue musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
careers together in the United States, but in the end the engagement was broken off. According to Beerbohm Tree, Sylva's mother had been opposed to the marriage.
Du Maurier returned to the London stage. Sylva remained in the United States where she carved out an increasingly successful career in musical comedy
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, operetta and vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. She appeared in the world premiere of The Fortune Teller
The Fortune Teller (operetta)
The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898 at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances...
by Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
and toured several U.S. cities playing the leading roles in The Princess Chic, Miss Bob White, and The Strollers. She eventually formed the Marguerite Sylva Opera Company to produce comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
s and operettas under the management of Samuel F. Nixon and J. Fred Zimmerman. In 1902 she married the theatrical manager William David Mann. The couple left for France in 1904 where Sylva again became fascinated by opera. She found a teacher, Madame Delattre, and was soon engaged by the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
. She made her debut there on 14 September 1906 in the title role of Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
to very good reviews. For the next three years Sylva sang with great success throughout France and Germany where she was a particular favourite. In 1909, Oscar Hammerstein
Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I was a businessman, theater impresario and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America...
invited her to return to America to sing for his opera company. On 1 September 1909, Marguerite Sylva made her American operatic debut as Carmen at the Manhattan Opera House
Manhattan Center
The Manhattan Center building, built in 1906 and located at 311 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, houses Manhattan Center Studios , its Grand Ballroom, and the Hammerstein Ballroom, one of New York City's most renowned performance venues...
.
In the ensuing years Sylva sang with Hammerstein's company (until a contractual dispute ended their professional relationship), the Boston Opera Company
Boston Opera Company
The Boston Opera Company was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts that was active from 1909 to 1915.-History:The company was founded in 1908 by Bostonian millionaire Eben Dyer Jordan, Jr. and impresario Henry Russell...
and with the San Carlo Opera Company
San Carlo Opera Company
The San Carlo Opera Company was the name of two different opera companies active in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century.-History:...
in the United States. She also sang in Europe, including an acclaimed 1912 performance in Carmen at the Berlin Royal Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
with Enrico Caruso as Don José. She continued to appear on Broadway as well, with performances in the premieres of Gypsy Love and The Skylark. For a time, Sylva enjoyed a celebrity status normally accorded to movie stars, and even had her own line of cosmetics. In 2008, Mark Swed wrote in Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
:
"Carmen" is not new to the Hollywood BowlHollywood BowlThe Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
. On July 8, 1922, three days before the first season of "Symphonies Under the Stars," the Los Angeles PhilharmonicLos Angeles PhilharmonicThe Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
, itself only 3 years old, mounted a lavish production of Bizet's opera. The cast numbered nearly 500. Massive sets of SevilleSevilleSeville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
surrounded the brand-new amphitheater. When soprano Marguerita Sylva, who starred, rolled into Union Station five days earlier, reporters were there to greet her as if she were a movie star. Proceeds from the performance financed the installation of the Bowl's first benches.
Sylva and her husband, William Mann, had become estranged during her years in France and were divorced in 1912. On 1 December 1915, Sylva married Lieut. Bernard L. Smith, who at the time was the assistant naval attaché
Attaché
Attaché is a French term in diplomacy referring to a person who is assigned to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency...
at the American Embassy in Paris. The couple later had two daughters, Daphnee and Marita, both of whom went on to have minor careers as actresses. The marriage ended in divorce on grounds of desertion in 1929. In her later years, Sylva lived in North Hollywood
North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
North Hollywood is a district in the San Fernando Valley region of the city of Los Angeles, California, along the Tujunga Wash. It is bounded on the south by Moorpark Street and the Ventura Freeway, on the southwest by Burbank Blvd...
where she played a series of small character roles in films and taught singing. A year before her death, she was the subject of the popular NBC television show This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience including friends and family.Edwards...
. Amongst those paying tribute to Sylva was the mezzo-soprano Mariska Aldrich
Mariska Aldrich
Mariska Aldrich was an American dramatic soprano singer and actress. She was born Mariska Horvath in Boston, Massachusetts. She was a pupil of Alfred Giraudet and Georg Henschel. She debuted at the Manhattan Opera House in 1908, as the Page in Les Huguenots. She sang with the Manhattan Opera...
who had sung with her in Hammerstein's opera company and whose career path had been somewhat similar to Sylva's. On 20 February
1957, Marguerite Sylva was driving her car when it went off the road and plowed into a house. She was severely injured in the accident and died the following day at the age of 81 in Behrens Memorial Hospital in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
.
Opera roles
Although Marguerite Sylva's basic voice type was mezzo-sopranoMezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
, she often took on soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
roles as well. (Her roles in operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
and comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
are also included in this list.)
- CarmenCarmenCarmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
(Carmen) - Cavalleria rusticanaCavalleria rusticanaCavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
(Santuzza) - ErminieErminieErminie is a comic opera in two acts composed by Edward Jakobowski with a libretto by Claxson Bellamy and Harry Paulton, based loosely on Charles Selby's 1834 Robert Macaire...
(Erminie) - FaustFaust (opera)Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
(Marguerite) - Gypsy Love (Zorika)
- La bohèmeLa bohèmeLa bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
(Musetta (?)) - La favoriteLa favoriteLa favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
(Léonore) - Le ChemineauXavier LerouxXavier Henry Napoleón Leroux was a French composer.Leroux was the son of a military bandleader. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Jules Massenet and Théodore Dubois, and won the Prix de Rome in 1885 with the cantata Endymion...
(Catherine) - Le Point d'Argentan (Rose-Marie)
- Les contes d'Hoffmann (Giulietta)
- ManonManonManon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
(Manon) - MignonMignonMignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
(Mignon) - MireilleMireille (opera)Mireille is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Michel Carré after Frédéric Mistral's poem Mireio.-Composition history:...
(Taven) - PagliacciPagliacciPagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
(Nedda) - The Fortune TellerThe Fortune Teller (operetta)The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898 at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances...
(Mlle. Pompom) - The Princess Chic (Princess Chic of Normandy)
- ToscaToscaTosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
(Tosca) - WertherWertherWerther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
(Charlotte)
On Broadway
Marguerite Sylva's American stage debut was in the play, The Seats of the Mighty (1896). However, her early appearances on BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
were mainly in musical comedies
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
, comic operas and operettas. Sylva toured widely in the United States in this repertoire. This list is restricted to her known Broadway performances only:
- Mlle. Pompom in the premiere of The Fortune TellerThe Fortune Teller (operetta)The Fortune Teller is an operetta in three acts written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Harry B. Smith. After a brief tryout in Toronto, it premiered on Broadway on September 26, 1898 at Wallack's Theatre and ran for 40 performances...
an operetta by Victor HerbertVictor HerbertVictor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
(26 September - 29 October 1898) - Lady Janet Belford in the premiere Mam'selle 'Awkins, a musical comedy by Herman Perlêt and Alfred E. Aarons (26 February - 31 March 1900.
- Erminie in the revival of ErminieErminieErminie is a comic opera in two acts composed by Edward Jakobowski with a libretto by Claxson Bellamy and Harry Paulton, based loosely on Charles Selby's 1834 Robert Macaire...
, a comic opera by Edward JakobowskiEdward JakobowskiEdward Jakobowski was an English composer best known for writing the comic opera Erminie. Jakobowski was a significant figure on the London musical stage during the last two decades of the 19th Century. He did not challenge Sullivan, nor quite equal Fred Clay or Alfred Cellier but his gift of...
(19 October - 28 November 1903) - Zorika in the premiere of Gypsy Love, an English version of Zigeunerliebe, an operetta by Franz LehárFranz LehárFranz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
, (17 October - 11 November 1911) - Elsie in the premiere of The Skylark, a comedy by Thomas P. Robinson (25 July - August 1921)
- Sonya Orlova Varilovna in the premiere of Cousin Sonia, a comedy by Louis VerneuilLouis VerneuilLouis Jacques Marie Collin du Bocage , better known by the pen name Louis Verneuil, was a French playwright, screenwriter, and actor....
(7 December 1925 - January 1926) - Mooda in the premiere of Golden Dawn a musical by Emmerich KalmanEmmerich KalmanEmmerich Kálmán was a Hungarian-born composer of operettas.- Biography :Kálmán was born Imre Koppstein in Siófok, on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, Hungary in a Jewish family.Kálmán initially intended to become a concert pianist, but because of early-onset arthritis, he focused on composition...
(30 November 1927 - 5 May 1928) - Mahuna in the premiere of Luana a musical comedy by Rudolf FrimlRudolf FrimlRudolf Friml was a composer of operettas, musicals, songs and piano pieces, as well as a pianist. After musical training and a brief performing career in his native Prague, Friml moved to the United States, where he became a composer...
(17 September - 4 October 1930 - Giulia Sabittini in the revival of The Great Lover, a comedy by Frederic and Fanny Hatton and Leo DitrichsteinLeo DitrichsteinLeo Ditrichstein was an American actor and playwright of Austrian-Hungarian birth, born in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary. He was educated in Vienna and was naturalized as an American citizen in 1897. He made his New York début in Die Ehre, . This was followed by: Mr. Wilkinson's Widows, Trilby,...
(11 October - October 1932) - Countess von Hohenbrunn in the premiere of Three Waltzes, a musical by Clare Kummer and Rowland Leigh from the play by Paul Knepler using music by Johann Strauss IJohann Strauss IJohann Strauss I , born in Vienna, was an Austrian Romantic composer famous for his waltzes, and for popularizing them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty...
, Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, and Oscar StrausOscar Straus (composer)Oscar Nathan Straus was a Viennese composer of operettas and film scores and songs. He also wrote about 500 cabaret songs, chamber music, and orchestral and choral works...
(25 December 1937 - 9 April 1938)
In film
Sylva's earliest venture into cinema was probably the title role in a 1913 silent film of CarmenCarmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
shot in Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
with M. Habay (an actor with the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
) as Don José. Her first major role in a Hollywood film came in 1920 when she played Hilda Wilson in The Honey Bee directed by Rupert Julian
Rupert Julian
Rupert Julian was the first New Zealand cinema actor, director, writer and producer.Born Thomas Percival Hayes in Whangaroa, New Zealand, Son of John Daly Hayes and Eliza Harriet Hayes...
. Her other film roles included:
- Countess Marlik in They Dare Not Love (1941), directed by James WhaleJames WhaleJames Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
- Marta in The Leopard ManThe Leopard ManThe Leopard Man is a horror movie directed by Jacques Tourneur based on the book Black Alibi by Cornell Woolrich. It is one of the first American films to attempt an even remotely realistic portrayal of a serial killer .-Plot summary:The story, set in New Mexico, begins as Jerry Manning hires a...
(1943) directed by Jacques TourneurJacques TourneurJacques Tourneur was a French-American film director.-Life:Born in Paris, France, he was the son of film director Maurice Tourneur. At age 10, Jacques moved to the United States with his father. He started a career in cinema while still attending high school as an extra and later as a script clerk... - Mrs. Bella Romari in The Seventh VictimThe Seventh VictimThe Seventh Victim is a 1943 horror and film noir starring Tom Conway, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, Kim Hunter , and Hugh Beaumont, directed by Mark Robson, and produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures...
(1943) directed by Mark RobsonMark RobsonMark Robson was a Canadian-born film editor, film director and producer in Hollywood.-Career:Born in Montreal, Quebec, he moved to the United States at a young age. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles then found work in the prop department at 20th Century Fox studios... - Older Woman in The Conspirators (1944) directed by Jean NegulescoJean NegulescoJean Negulesco was a Romanian-born American film director and screenwriter....
- Cashier in To Have and Have NotTo Have and Have Not (film)To Have and Have Not is a 1944 romance-war-adventure film. The movie was directed by Howard Hawks and stars Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan, and Lauren Bacall in her first film...
(1944) directed by Howard HawksHoward HawksHoward Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era... - Doña Maria Sandoval in Gay Senorita (1945) directed by Arthur Dreifuss
- Diplomat's Wife in Her Highness and the BellboyHer Highness and the BellboyHer Highness and the Bellboy is a 1945 film starring Hedy Lamarr and Robert Walker.- Plot synopsis :In a fictional European country, a beautiful princess meets a handsome American reporter and falls in love with him. On a trip to New York, she hopes to find him again. While staying at one of the...
(1945) directed by Richard ThorpeRichard ThorpeRichard Thorpe was an American film director.Born Rollo Smolt Thorpe in Hutchinson, Kansas, he began his entertainment career performing in vaudeville and onstage. In 1921 he began in motion pictures as an actor and directed his first silent film in 1923. He went on to direct more than one hundred...
Recordings
External links
- Marguerite Sylva portrait Univ of Louisville Macauley's Theatre collection
- Marguerite Sylva selected recordings at InternetArchive.com(downloadable acoustic format)