Mary Henderson

Henderson, Mary

Mary Henderson. Soprano, teacher, b Longueuil (near Montreal) 17 Dec 1912. A study of the violin, begun at 10, led to a licentiate from McGill University. Her vocal studies, begun with Henri Pontbriand and Pauline Donalda in Montreal, were pursued in New York with C. Waldemar Alves and Paul Althouse. She sang Violetta in La Traviata and Marguerite in Faust in May 1940, both with the short-lived Dominion Grand Opera Company in Montreal. She made her Montreal recital debut in a Sarah Fischer Concert in March 1942. Two months later she sang in the inaugural presentation of Pauline Donalda's Opera Guild of Montreal. By autumn she was a member of New York's New Opera Company; her roles included Lisa in The Queen of Spades and Parassia in Moussorgsky's The Fair at Sorochintsy. For two seasons, 1943-5, she toured the USA and Canada as a leading soprano with Fortune Gallo's San Carlo Opera Company, singing almost 400 performances in such roles as Aida, Marguerite, Micaela, Nedda, Violetta, Mimi, and Butterfly. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut 30 Mar 1946 as Micaëla and remained for two seasons with the company. Subsequently she sang with various orchestras, on radio, and with such touring troupes as the Wagner Opera and the Nine O'Clock Opera. After 1950 she and her husband, the US conductor Emerson Buckley, taught at the Manhattan School of Music. She began to teach voice at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla, in 1963. In the early 1950s she recorded an operatic recital (Allegro-Royale 1637).