Kate Rolla

Kate Rolla, born Katherine Doane Wheat on an unrecorded date in 1859 in Wheeling, West Virginia, was an American opera singer who later appeared on Broadway. Her father, George Keiter Wheat, worked as a banker and businessman, while her mother, Fannie Josephine Doane Wheat, was active as a suffragist and clubwoman. Her younger brother, Larry Wheat, also pursued a career as an actor.

Following the breakdown of an early first marriage, Rolla traveled to Paris to study voice under the celebrated teacher Mathilde Marchesi. Her operatic debut took place at the Teatro Carcano in Milan, where she performed the title role in Linda di Chamounix. She subsequently built a career across numerous European cities, ranging from Dublin to Moscow. In 1887 she performed at the Teatro Bellini in Naples before returning to Wheeling to give a concert. The following year she appeared at London's Covent Garden in Don Giovanni, and returned to that stage in 1891 for productions of Carmen and Le prophète. In 1894 she took part in one D'Oyly Carte Opera Company production, Mirette, and in 1896 she performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Contemporary accounts of Rolla's voice varied in their assessments. An American newspaper in 1887 described it as being of "pure and bell-like quality" with considerable power, while a New York Times review in 1892 characterized her voice as powerful but of a "somewhat metallic timbre," noting that she nonetheless sang with taste and earned her applause.

Rolla appeared in two Broadway musical productions during the 1909–1910 season: The Return of Eve in 1909 and Molly May in 1910. By that point, reviewers noted a decline in her vocal abilities; one critic in 1910 remarked that she was excellent in her role until she attempted to sing. During World War I, Rolla taught voice students in New York City.

In her personal life, Katherine Wheat had married Oscar Rammelsberg in 1876. The couple had a son, George, born in Ohio in 1879, before divorcing in 1883. Rolla died on December 28, 1925, from an infection following an appendectomy.