Louise Homer

She lived part of her childhood in St. Paul, where her father was a Presbyterian minister, and so this leading Metropolitan Opera contralto – who sang regularly with Enrico Caruso – was naturally delighted to come back to perform for old Minnesotan friends. At the first of her two Schubert Club recitals in 1902 (partnered by another local celebrity, Emil Oberhoffer, who would become the new Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra’s first conductor a year later), her typical potpourri program of German, French, Italian and American songs and arias included Schubert’s grand hymn to the Deity, Die Allmacht. She recorded the song with orchestra in 1909:

One of Homer’s most celebrated roles at the Met was Gluck’s Orfeo, which she sang many times under Toscanini. The New York Times critic wrote: “Mme. Homer’s impersonation of Orpheus was one of nobility, dignity, and plastic grace for the eye and of full-throated and beautiful song for the ear.” She recorded the opera’s most famous aria and performed it for her second Schubert Club audience in 1913:

In both of her recitals, she included songs by her husband, the composer Sidney Homer. Louise Homer was also the aunt of another American composer, Samuel Barber.

Artist Note by Richard Evidon