Grace Angelau

Grace Angelau (born Grace A. Strasburger, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1899; died Melbourne, Australia, October 1958) was an American opera singer whose career spanned operatic stages across the United States, Europe, Australia, and the Americas from the 1910s through the early 1940s. Though she was billed variously as a contralto and a soprano at different points in her career, a 1942 article in Pix magazine identified her as a mezzo-soprano. She was the daughter of Emmanuel Strasburger and Maud Strasburger (née Hay, 1871–January 17, 1954, Oriskany, New York), and received her early education at Desborough Academy.

Angelau began her vocal training with Louis Aschenfelder at the Pittsburgh Musical Institute, where she gave a recital in 1917 as a soprano. She subsequently attended the Chicago Musical College on a vocal scholarship, studying with baritone Dr. Fery Lulek and performing a recital there in 1922 as a contralto. In New York City during the 1920s and 1930s she studied further with Estelle Liebling, who was also the voice teacher of Beverly Sills.

Her Broadway debut came in 1922 at the Broadhurst Theatre, where she appeared in the ensemble of Hugo Felix's operetta Marjolaine. In 1925 she played a Court Lady in the original Broadway production of Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King at the Casino Theatre. That same year she performed as a featured singer in concerts held in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Astor in New York City, organized by the Drama-Comedy Club, and served as Vice Chairman of the Professional Women's League in New York City. The League provided the platform for her New York recital debut in 1926, the same year she began singing on New York radio, where she was billed as a contralto.

A critical turning point in her international career came in 1930, when she appeared as Azucena in Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, Italy. Throughout the 1930s she performed at La Scala and other European opera houses, as well as in theaters across South America, Central America, Canada, England, and the United States. Her international repertoire included Leonora in Donizetti's La favorite, Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma, the title role in Bizet's Carmen, and multiple roles in operas by Verdi. She was particularly recognized for her portrayals of Amneris in Verdi's Aida and Azucena in Il trovatore. In 1932 she toured Australia with the Imperial Grand Opera Company, and she made additional appearances with the National Theatre, Melbourne in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

In 1933 Angelau portrayed Amneris in Aida at the Broadway Theatre, 53rd Street, with Della Samoiloff in the title role, and later that year appeared as Azucena at the Forrest Theatre alongside Marguerite Ringo as Leonora, Pasquale Ferrara as Manrico, and Rocco Pandiscio as Count di Luna. In July 1933 she performed the role of Siébel in Gounod's Faust before a crowd of 1,800 at Atlantic City's Steel Pier, returning to the same venue in September as Pitti-Sing in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. In March 1934 she appeared as Amneris at the Cosmopolitan Theatre in New York City, and in April of that year returned to the Broadway Theatre as Laura Adorno in Ponchielli's La Gioconda. During 1934 she was also a regular performer on WMCA radio in New York City, where she was billed as a soprano.

That year Angelau joined Fortune Gallo's touring San Carlo Opera Company, performing Maddalena in Verdi's Rigoletto and Azucena in Il trovatore in New York and San Francisco under conductor Carlo Peroni, alongside singers including Josephine Lucchese, Anna Leskaya Asch, Sydney Rayner, Aroldo Lindi, Mostyn Thomas, Natale Cervi, and Mario Valle. She also sang Azucena with the Chicago Opera Company in 1934, in a production at the New York Hippodrome featuring Caterina Jarboro in the title role and Bernardo de Muro as Radames. On November 25, 1934, she starred in the world premiere of Jacob Weinberg's opera The Pioneers at the Mecca Temple.

In 1935 Angelau toured the United States with the New York Opera Comique, performing at venues including the Auditorium Building, the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut, and on Broadway, in productions of The Tales of Hoffmann (as Antonia), La Vie parisienne, and Die Fledermaus. In 1936 she performed with Alfredo Salmaggi's opera company at the New York Hippodrome and at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, appearing as Carmen and as Amneris in Aida. In 1937 she sang Suzuki in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with the San Carlo Opera Company at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles, and spent a month performing at the Teatro Municipal of Caracas in a tour organized by impresario Giorgio D'Andria at the invitation of President Eleazar López Contreras.

In 1938 Angelau performed Suzuki with the New York Grand Opera Company in productions featuring Rose Tentoni as Cio-Cio-San, Armand Tokatyan as Pinkerton, and Joseph Royer as Sharpless, at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., and in New York City. That season she also sang Azucena opposite Rose Bampton's Leonora. In December 1938 she starred in Rigoletto at The Mosque Theater in Newark, New Jersey, alongside Robert Weede and Jan Peerce. She returned to the New York Hippodrome as Azucena in 1939 and performed at the 20th anniversary concert of the Catholic Writers Guild at the Waldorf Astoria on April 21, 1939. During the late 1930s she taught singing at The Alviene School of Dance Arts, an institution that had also trained Fred Astaire, Una Merkel, and Peggy Shannon.

In 1938 Angelau married Guy Hutchison, a former football coach at Amherst College and Yale University who was serving as Vice President of the Hoffman Specialty Company in New York City at the time of their marriage. In 1939 she relocated with her husband and their two sons, Guy Jr. and Jay Benjamin, to Melbourne, Australia. She retired from performing in 1941 following the purchase of the Coonara Springs Restaurant & Gardens at 129 Olinda-Monbulk Road in Olinda, Victoria, in the Dandenong Ranges, which she operated as a tea room during the 1940s. The property is now listed on the Victorian Heritage Database of historic sites. Her husband died on December 9, 1941, in Melbourne; his obituary noted two surviving daughters from a previous marriage, Carra H. Matthews and Marjorie H. Young.

Angelau died in Melbourne in October 1958. Many of her costumes, pieces of jewelry, photographs, and other personal artifacts are held in the Australian Performing Arts Collection at the Arts Centre Melbourne.