Marguerite Sylva

Marguerite Sylva
Marguerite Sylva as Carmen, her signature role. (Paris circa 1906)
Born	Marguerite Alice Hélène Smith (1875-07-10)10 July 1875 Brussels, Belgium
Died	21 February 1957(1957-02-21) (aged 81) Glendale, California, U.S.A.
Occupation	Mezzo-soprano

Marguerite Sylva (also known as Marguerita Sylva) (10 July 1875 – 21 February 1957) was a Belgian born mezzo-soprano who achieved fame not only on the opera stage but also in operetta and musical theatre. She was particularly known for her performances in the title role of Bizet's Carmen, which she sang over 300 times in the course of her career. Sylva was a pioneering recording artist for Edison Records and made many recordings for the company between 1910 and 1912.

Marguerite Sylva was born Marguerite Alice Hélène Smith in Brussels, 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. 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.

According to Marguerite Sylva's entry in the 1935 edition of American women, it was W. S. Gilbert 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 from Carmen to him. He offered her a part in his upcoming production of The Grand Duke, but she turned it down saying that she wanted to "try grand opera first". After an audition with Augustus Harris, she was engaged to sing for the Drury Lane Theatre, 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's theatre company for a production of Gilbert Parker's The Seats of the Mighty at the Knickerbocker Theatre. Amongst the actors in the company was Gerald Du Maurier to whom she became engaged. The young couple had planned to pursue musical theatre 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.