Adele Ritchie (December , â€" April , ) was an American prima donna
of comic opera and star of Edwardian musical comedies and vaudeville.
Her career began in the early s and continued for nearly twenty-five
years. Her life would end tragically in a murderâ€"suicide involving a
close friend.Ritchie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the
daughter of Quaker parents of French descent and, by the age of three,
the step-daughter of Jacob Benclift Pultz, founder of the J.B. Pultz
Company. She attended the Catholic girl’s preparatory school, Villa
Maria Academy at Malvern, and made her first stage appearance as a
singer in a production of a French comedy entitled The Isle of
Champagne at Miner's Fifth Avenue Theatre on June , . With the aid of
Reginald De Koven, Ritchie appeared in the fall of at the Park
Theatre, Philadelphia, playing a minor role in his comic opera, The
Algerians. Her rendition of "Song of the Rose" became an audience
favorite when The Algerians appeared in New York at the Garden Theatre
and later Daly's Theatre. When Marie Tempest, the prima donna, left
the production at the end of the year, Ritchie was chosen as her
replacement. The Algerians like many other road tours found it
difficult to achieve profitability in the face of the economic
consequences resulting from the Panic of .On July , , Ritchie and the
German tenor Conrad Behrens sang with the Sousa Band in a summer
concert performed at Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. At Abbey's Theatre,
that September, Ritchie opened as Princess Mirane in The Devil’s
Deputy, an operetta adapted from the French by J. Cheever Goodwin and
composer Edward Jakobowski. The following week she was replaced by the
more experienced Amanda Fabris, who manager Al Canby and lead actor
Francis Wilson felt would give the stronger performance. Ritchie was
next engaged at the American Theatre in January as Madge Brainerd in
the Harrison Grey Fiske political drama The District Attorney, and
that summer at the Garrick Theatre, New York, she played Little Willie
in the burlesque Trilby by Joseph W. Hebert and Charles Puener.In /
Ritchie toured in the Reginald De Kovan and Harry B. Smith comic opera
The Mandarin playing Ting-ling, favorite wife of the Mandarin and, at
London’s Shaftesbury Theatre later in , appeared as Cleopatra in the
Victor Herbert and Harry B. Smith comic opera, The Wizard of the Nile;
or, The Egyptian Beauty. By January Ritchie was reported to be in
Paris studying under the Italian tenor Giovanni Sbriglia.
of comic opera and star of Edwardian musical comedies and vaudeville.
Her career began in the early s and continued for nearly twenty-five
years. Her life would end tragically in a murderâ€"suicide involving a
close friend.Ritchie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the
daughter of Quaker parents of French descent and, by the age of three,
the step-daughter of Jacob Benclift Pultz, founder of the J.B. Pultz
Company. She attended the Catholic girl’s preparatory school, Villa
Maria Academy at Malvern, and made her first stage appearance as a
singer in a production of a French comedy entitled The Isle of
Champagne at Miner's Fifth Avenue Theatre on June , . With the aid of
Reginald De Koven, Ritchie appeared in the fall of at the Park
Theatre, Philadelphia, playing a minor role in his comic opera, The
Algerians. Her rendition of "Song of the Rose" became an audience
favorite when The Algerians appeared in New York at the Garden Theatre
and later Daly's Theatre. When Marie Tempest, the prima donna, left
the production at the end of the year, Ritchie was chosen as her
replacement. The Algerians like many other road tours found it
difficult to achieve profitability in the face of the economic
consequences resulting from the Panic of .On July , , Ritchie and the
German tenor Conrad Behrens sang with the Sousa Band in a summer
concert performed at Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn. At Abbey's Theatre,
that September, Ritchie opened as Princess Mirane in The Devil’s
Deputy, an operetta adapted from the French by J. Cheever Goodwin and
composer Edward Jakobowski. The following week she was replaced by the
more experienced Amanda Fabris, who manager Al Canby and lead actor
Francis Wilson felt would give the stronger performance. Ritchie was
next engaged at the American Theatre in January as Madge Brainerd in
the Harrison Grey Fiske political drama The District Attorney, and
that summer at the Garrick Theatre, New York, she played Little Willie
in the burlesque Trilby by Joseph W. Hebert and Charles Puener.In /
Ritchie toured in the Reginald De Kovan and Harry B. Smith comic opera
The Mandarin playing Ting-ling, favorite wife of the Mandarin and, at
London’s Shaftesbury Theatre later in , appeared as Cleopatra in the
Victor Herbert and Harry B. Smith comic opera, The Wizard of the Nile;
or, The Egyptian Beauty. By January Ritchie was reported to be in
Paris studying under the Italian tenor Giovanni Sbriglia.
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