Kate Rolla
{{Short description|American opera singer (1859–1925)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kate Rolla
| image = Marie Burroughs Art Portfolio 241 - Kate Rolla.jpg
| alt = A young white woman with curly dark hair in an updo, wearing a gown with bare shoulders, and pearls
| caption = Kate Rolla, from an 1894 publication
| other_names = Katherine Rammelsberg, Caterina Rolla
| birth_name = Katherine Doane Wheat
| birth_date = 1859
| birth_place = Wheeling, West Virginia, US
| death_date = December 28, 1925
| death_place = Paris, France
| occupation = Opera singer, voice teacher
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives = Larry Wheat (brother)
}}
Kate Rolla (1859Rolla's year of birth appears variously in sources, from 1856 to 1865. She was described as 11 years old in the 1870 U. S. Census, suggesting the 1859 date. (Her 1876 marriage date makes a much later birthdate unlikely.) – December 28, 1925), born Katherine Doane Wheat, was an American opera singer.
Early life and education
Katherine Doane Wheat was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, the daughter of George Keiter Wheat and Fannie Josephine Doane Wheat. Her father was a banker and businessman, and her mother was a suffragist and clubwoman.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=csoxAQAAMAAJ&dq=Kate+Doane+Wheat&pg=PA472|title=History of the Upper Ohio Valley, with Family History and Biographical Sketches: History of the upper Ohio valley, by G. L. Cranmer. Ohio county, W. Va., by the G. L. Cranmer. The Pan-handle, by G. L. Cranmer. Medical history of the Pan-handle, by S. L. Jepson. Biographical sketches, Brooke, Hancock and Marshall cos., W. Va|date=1890|publisher=Brant & Fuller|pages=470–472|language=en}}{{Cite news|date=1906-08-09|title=Noted Woman is Dead|pages=2|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2737079/fannie-j-doane-wheat-death/|access-date=2021-05-15|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=2021-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515211953/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2737079/fannie-j-doane-wheat-death/|url-status=live}} Her younger brother Larry Wheat became an actor.{{Cite journal|date=May 24, 1905|title=Footlights|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKdEAQAAMAAJ&dq=Kate+Rolla&pg=PP324|journal=The Club-Fellow}}{{Cite journal|date=July 1911|title=A Thespian Jack-of-All-Trades|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TXIhAQAAMAAJ&dq=Kate+Rolla&pg=PA211|journal=The Green Book Magazine|volume=6|pages=211}}
After an early first marriage faltered, Rolla went to Paris to train as a singer,{{Cite news|date=1892-04-21|title=Untitled social item|pages=2|work=Pittsburgh Daily Post|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2737633/kate-rolla-and-other-wheats-mentions/|access-date=2021-05-15|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=2021-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515211955/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2737633/kate-rolla-and-other-wheats-mentions/|url-status=live}} with Mathilde Marchesi.{{Cite book|last=Burroughs|first=Marie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RZFBAAAAYAAJ&dq=Kate+Rolla&pg=PP252|title=The Marie Burroughs Art Portfolio of Stage Celebrities: A Collection of Photographs of the Leaders of Dramatic and Lyric Art|date=1904|publisher=A.N. Marquis|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Marchesi|first=Mathilde|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BrinQwUnAI4C&dq=Kate+Rolla&pg=PA237|title=Marchesi and Music: Passages from the Life of a Famous Singing-Teacher|year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-06372-2|page=237|language=en}}
Career
Rolla made her operatic stage debut at the Teatro Carcano in Milan, singing the title role in Linda di Chamounix.{{Cite news|date=January 2, 1885|title=Topics of Interest Abroad|page=1|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest| }}}} She sang in various European cities, from Dublin to Moscow. In 1887 she sang at the Teatro Bellini in Naples,{{Cite news|date=1887-03-19|title=Fighting for Fame, Which She So Well Deserves|pages=4|work=The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77751021/fighting-for-fame-which-she-so-well/|access-date=2021-05-15|via=Newspapers.com}} and returned to Wheeling to give a concert, fresh from "her foreign triumphs".{{Cite journal|date=October 1887|title=Mme. Rolla's Triumph in Wheeling|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=olklAQAAMAAJ&dq=Kate+Rolla&pg=PA6|journal=North's Philadelphia Musical Journal|volume=2|pages=6–7}} She sang at London's Covent Garden in 1888, in Don Giovanni, and in 1891, in Carmen and Le prophète. She sang in one production of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Mirette in 1894.{{Cite web|title=Kate Rolla|url=https://gsarchive.net/whowaswho/R/RollaKate.htm|access-date=2021-05-15|website=The D'Oyly Cartes Opera Company, GSArchive|archive-date=2021-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515211956/https://gsarchive.net/whowaswho/R/RollaKate.htm|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|date=1894-10-13|title=Mirette|pages=15|work=The Era|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77751281/mirette/|access-date=2021-05-15|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=2021-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515211954/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77751281/mirette/|url-status=live}} In 1896, she sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.{{Cite news|date=1896-02-16|title=Fifteenth Symphony Program|pages=15|work=The Boston Globe|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77751484/fifteenth-symphony-program/|access-date=2021-05-15|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=2021-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515214306/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77751484/fifteenth-symphony-program/|url-status=live}}
Contemporary descriptions of Rolla's voice record various estimations of her skill. "Her voice is of pure and bell-like quality," commented one American newspaper in 1887, "with a degree of power that is almost equal to that of Materna."{{Cite news|date=1887-09-17|title=Mme. Kate Rolla|pages=7|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2737620/mme-kate-rolla-wheat-opera-singer/|access-date=2021-05-15|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=2021-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515211957/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2737620/mme-kate-rolla-wheat-opera-singer/|url-status=live}} But a review in The New York Times was ambivalent in 1892, explaining that she "has a powerful voice of a somewhat metallic timbre, but she sang her numbers with considerable taste and fairly won her applause."{{Cite news|date=December 10, 1892|title=Amusements: Chickering Hall|page=4|work=The New York Times|id={{ProQuest| }}}}
Rolla appeared in two Broadway musical productions, The Return of Eve (1909) and Molly May (1910).{{Cite book|last=Dietz|first=Dan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LecZEAAAQBAJ&dq=Kate+Rolla&pg=PA18|title=The Complete Book of 1910s Broadway Musicals|year=2021|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-5381-5028-3|pages=17–18|language=en}} By that time, her singing voice had faded: "Kate Rolla as Mrs. Sparks was excellent till she tried to sing," said one 1910 reviewer.{{Cite news|date=April 16, 1910|title=Hackett – Molly May|page=5|work=The New York Dramatic Mirror|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6txNAQAAMAAJ&dq=Kate+Rolla&pg=RA14-PA5|access-date=May 15, 2021}} Rolla taught voice students in New York City during World War I.{{Cite book|last=Trapper|first=Emma Louise|url=http://archive.org/details/musicalbluebooko00trapuoft|title=The musical blue book of America, 1915– recording in concise form the activities of leading musicians and those actively and prominently identified with music in its various departments|publisher=New York, Musical blue book corporation|others=Music – University of Toronto|page=313}}
Personal life
Katherine Wheat married Oscar Rammelsberg in 1876 and had a son, George, born in 1879 in Ohio. The Rammelsbergs divorced in 1883.{{Cite news|date=1883-12-20|title=Another Broken Home|pages=2|work=The Champaign Daily Gazette|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77754308/another-broken-home/|access-date=2021-05-15|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=2021-05-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515221721/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77754308/another-broken-home/|url-status=live}} She died late in 1925, in her sixties, from an infection after an appendectomy.U.S., Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835–1974, National Archives; report for Mrs. Katherine Wheat Rammelsberg, died December 28, 1925. via Ancestry
References
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External links
- {{IBDB name|58247}}
- [https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/actress-kate-rolla-royalty-free-illustration/1150734776 An illustration depicting Kate Rolla], at Getty Images
- [http://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-wheeling-va-prima-donna-given-her-due.html "A Wheeling, Va prima donna given her due"] Kurt of Gerolstein (December 14, 2020), a blog post about Rolla
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Category:Musicians from Wheeling, West Virginia