Queena Mario

{{Short description|American opera singer (1896–1951)}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Queena Mario | image = Queena Mario, opera singer (SAYRE 6137).jpg | alt = | caption = Mario in 1921 | birth_name = Queena Marion Tillotson | alias = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1896|08|21}} | birth_place = Akron, Ohio, United States | origin = | death_date = {{Death date and age|1951|05|28|1896|08|21}} | death_place = New York, United States | genre = Opera | occupation = {{flatlist| * Soprano * columnist * voice teacher * author }} | years_active = 1918–1951 | label = | associated_acts = | website =  }}

'''Queena Marion Tillotson''' (August 21, 1896 – May 28, 1951), known professionally as '''Queena Mario''', was an American soprano opera singer, newspaper columnist, voice teacher, and fiction writer.

==Early life== Queena Marion Tillotson was born in Akron, Ohio,<ref name="VanDerGrift">Josephine Van Der Grift, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14992983/queena_mario_of_akron_1925a/ "Famous Opera Singer Born in Akron Will Sing At Armory"] ''Akron Beacon Journal'' (March 24, 1925): 1, 9. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref> the daughter of James Knox Tillotson and Rose Tillotson. Queena was raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, where she graduated from Plainfield High School.<ref>Staff. [https://www.nytimes.com/1927/05/26/archives/queena-mario-sings-to-students.html "Queena Mario Sings to Students"], ''The New York Times'', May 26, 1927. Accessed November 9, 2017. "Queena Mario of the Metropolitan Opera Company, formerly of this city, was a guest of the Plainfield High School today where she sang a group of four numbers to the student body ... The opera star whose family name was Tillotson is a graduate of the local high school and has been a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Albert L. Coddington of Sheridan Avenue."</ref><ref name="Plainfield">[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14992739/queena_mario_1932/ "Queena Mario Gives Concert Here Tomorrow"] ''Courier-News'' (March 2, 1932): 6. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref> She studied voice with Marcella Sembrich,<ref>Frank D. Quattrone, [https://books.google.com/books?id=bb3rDAAAQBAJ&dq=Queena+Mario&pg=PA77 ''Penn State Abington and the Ogontz School''] (Arcadia Publishing 2016): 77. {{ISBN|9781439657775}}</ref> who advised her name change.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14993243/queena_mario_1931/ "Queena Mario To Be Guest Artist Monday"] ''Star Tribune'' (April 5, 1931): 16. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref> She paid for voice lessons by writing newspaper advice columns under the name ''Florence Bryant'', including childrearing advice; "You know a lot when you're 16, you have a lot of theories," she explained of her qualifications.<ref name="VanDerGrift" />

==Career== Mario made her stage debut with Fortune Gallo’s San Carlo Opera Company in 1918.<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14993456/queena_mario_1919/ "Queena Mario Proves a Human Nightingale"] ''Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette'' (April 22, 1919): 10. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref> She also toured with the Antonio Scotti Opera Company. She sang at the Metropolitan Opera over 300 times, beginning in 1922 and with a last performance in 1938.<ref>[http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/gisrch2k.r?Term=Mario,%20Queena%20%5BSoprano%5D&limit=50&vsrchtype=no&xBranch=ALL&xmtype=&Start=&End=&theterm=Mario,%20Queena%20%5BSoprano%5D&srt=&x=0&xHome=&xHomePath= Queena Mario] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110005402/http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/gisrch2k.r?Term=Mario,%20Queena%20%5BSoprano%5D&limit=50&vsrchtype=no&xBranch=ALL&xmtype=&Start=&End=&theterm=Mario,%20Queena%20%5BSoprano%5D&srt=&x=0&xHome=&xHomePath= |date=2017-11-10 }}, Archives, MetOperaFamily.org.</ref> She also gave concerts.<ref name="Plainfield" /> In 1925 Richard Aldrich of ''The New York Times'' described Mario's voice: "The voice is light, it has the grace and flexibility of a light voice, together with agreeable quality and much finished skill in vocalism."<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14992852/queena_mario_1925/ "Queena Mario Most Promising of Young Singers"] ''Post-Crescent'' (October 9, 1925): 7. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref><ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14993580/queena_mario_1936/ "Torch Song or Rigoletto, it's All Same to Queena"] ''Pittsburgh Press'' (November 29, 1936): 48. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref>

Mario taught voice at the Juilliard School in New York and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Among her students were Jeanne Madden,<ref>[http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169590810?searchTerm=&searchLimits= "Broke All Rules to Make Jeanne Madden a Star"] ''Truth'' (November 1, 1936): 35. via Trove{{open access}}</ref> Frances Bible,<ref>{{cite news|author=Elizabeth Forbes|date=10 February 2001|title=Frances Bible|work=The Independent}}</ref> Helen Jepson and Rose Bampton.<ref>[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1935/01/19/whistlers-murder "Whistler's Murder"] ''The New Yorker'' (January 19, 1935): 12.</ref> She can be heard on at least six recordings from 1924 and 1933, made for the Victor Talking Machine Company.<ref>[http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/13607/Mario_Queena_vocalist_soprano_vocal "Queena Mario"] ''Discography of American Historical Recordings'' UC Santa Barbara Library.</ref>

As a writer, Mario published three opera-themed murder mysteries: ''Murder in the Opera House'' (E.P. Dutton, 1934), ''Murder Meets Mephisto'' (1942), and ''Death Drops Delilah'' (1944).<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/111964081/15DCD8C9E4484895PQ/6 "Queena Mario, 54, Soprano, is Dead"] ''The New York Times'' (May 29, 1951): 23.</ref>

==Personal life== Mario married Metropolitan Opera conductor Wilfred Pelletier on November 23, 1925; they divorced on August 12, 1936.<ref>[https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/101781664/15DCD8C9E4484895PQ/36 "Miss Queena Mario Gets Divorce in Reno"] ''The New York Times'' (August 13, 1936): 12.</ref> She died in New York in 1951, aged 54 years.<ref>"Queena Mario Tillotson, Met Opera Singer, Dies" ''Plainfield Courier News'' 15. via Newspapers.com{{open access}}</ref><ref>[https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/112038001/15DCD8C9E4484895PQ/4 "Queena Mario Rites Tomorrow"] ''The New York Times'' (May 30, 1951): 17.</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|Queena Mario}} *{{find a Grave|70647464}} * [http://archive.sfopera.com/qry3webcastlist.asp?Submit=GO&psearch=Queena%20Mario Queena Mario's listing]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} in the San Francisco Opera Performance Archive.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mario, Queena}} Category:1896 births Category:1951 deaths Category:20th-century American novelists Category:American operatic sopranos Category:20th-century American women opera singers Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:American mystery novelists Category:American women mystery writers Category:Writers from Akron, Ohio Category:Novelists from Ohio Category:Musicians from Akron, Ohio Category:Singers from Ohio Category:Writers from Plainfield, New Jersey Category:Musicians from Plainfield, New Jersey Category:Plainfield High School (New Jersey) alumni Category:Novelists from New Jersey Category:Singers from New Jersey Category:Juilliard School faculty Category:Curtis Institute of Music faculty Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania Category:Classical musicians from Ohio Category:Classical musicians from New Jersey Category:American music educators Category:American women music educators Category:20th-century American women academics