Miriam Licette

Miriam Licette (9 September 1885 – 11 August 1969) was an English operatic soprano whose career spanned 35 years, from the mid-1910s to after World War II. She was also a singing teacher, and created the Miriam Licette Scholarship.

She was born as Miriam Lycett in the village of Over, Cheshire in 1885. (Her cousin was the champion tennis player Randolph Lycett.) She spent some of her early years in places like Hong Kong and Singapore, as her father was a captain with the Blue Star Shipping Line.

She studied singing at Lowther College in Lytham. She was first noticed by Dame Nellie Melba, who advised her to go to Paris for further study with her own teacher, Mathilde Marchesi. She also studied with Melba herself, Jean de Reszke, and in Milan with Vincenzo Sabbatini. She made her debut in Rome on 7 November 1911, as Myriam Licette, in the title role of Madama Butterfly.

Her first appearance as Miriam Licette was in London in 1912, at the Kennington Theatre, with the Royal Carl Rosa Opera. That year she married George Edward Webster Robinson, an opera singer. Her roles at this time included Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, and Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute.

On 16 June 1913 she gave birth to her only child, a boy named Maurice Robinson. In May 1915, Sir Thomas Beecham heard her for the first time, in La traviata, and immediately signed her for a Proms Concert two weeks later, to sing Tatiana's Letter Scene from Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. She became Beecham's favourite singer with his Beecham Opera Company. He signed her to sing Juliet in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in October, and she also appeared in concert singing operatic arias such as "Ritorna vincitor!" from Verdi's Aida. Licette sang at the Proms at least six more times during her career.

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