Opera and Concert Singer Jessie Bartlett Davis
Famous for Her Role of Alan-a-Dale in the Opera Robin Hood
May 25, 2009
Jessie Fremont Davis was born to Elian Lyman and Rachel Ann Bartlett on a farm near Morris, Illinois, in 1860. Her father was a good singer and he started her on her studies, after which she received the bulk of her musical education from Frederick Root (1846-1916), a prominent vocal teacher in Chicago
She soon became a member the choir of the Church of the Messiah in Chicago,.where she became their leading contralto. In 1879 she joined the Chicago Church Choir Company during their tour of HMS Pinafore, by Gilbert and Sullivan,singing the role of Buttercup.
Although she appeared mostly in light operetta, her next appearance was in Faust, by Charles Gounod (1818-1893), in which she sang Siebel to Mme. Adelina Patti's Marguerite.
Touring American Opera Companies
Jessie Bartlett next became a member of the Carleton Opera Company and the American Opera Company and toured the United States.
After a year of study in Paris, she became prima donna of the Bostonians, a famous American touring opera company, where her greatest success came from the role of Alan-a Dale in the opera Robin Hood, by Reginald De Koven (1859-1920). It was in this opera that she introduced Oh Promise Me to enthusiastic audiences.
Carrie Jacobs Bond
Along the way, Jessie Bartlett gave aid to a struggling composer of songs named Carrie Jacobs Bond (1862-1946) by financing Bond's composition Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose. This collection included the world-famous song I Love You Truly.
So, in an interesting way, Jessie Bartlett introduced to the world the two songs that became extremely popular for weddings.
Vaudeville
In 1901 Jessie Bartlett tried her hand at vaudeville, which was very popular at the time.She stayed with the troupe for a while and drifted between vaudeville and opera. At this time her health began to bother her, and apparently she was in the beginning stages of a kidney disease.
However, she married Will J.Davis, a theatrical manager in Chicago, in 1880, and they had a home in Chicago as well as a summer home, Ellendale, in Crown Point, Indiana. She gave birth to a son, William J.Davis, Jr.
Jessie Bartlett as Author and Composer
As well as having a triumphant career on the stage, Jessie wrote a book, Only a Chorus Girl, and composed several songs. Her last performance was in the opera Ernani a year before her death in 1905. She died of a heart condition most probably brought on by Bright's Disease , and is buried in the Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.
Source
Famous American Women ed. Robert McHenry Dover Publications Inc., New York 1980
For further reading see Alice Nielsen
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