Minnie Egener

Minnie Egener (1881–1938) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano whose career encompassed Broadway, major opera houses across Europe and the United States, and a significant tenure at the Metropolitan Opera.

Egener launched her professional career in 1904, making her opera debut at the Metropolitan Opera as one of the flower maidens in Richard Wagner's Parsifal. That same year she appeared on Broadway in the revue Paris By Night. In 1906 she relocated to Italy, where she spent several years performing with various theaters throughout the country. Her Italian engagements included a 1910 appearance as Alissa in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor alongside Luisa Tetrazzini at the Teatro Regio di Parma. During this period she also took on small roles at Covent Garden and at the Manhattan Center.

Returning to North America, Egener performed with both the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company and the Chicago Grand Opera Company over the course of four years before rejoining the Metropolitan Opera in 1914. There she concentrated primarily on comprimario roles for the following eighteen years. Her Metropolitan career included participation in several notable original productions: Frederick Delius's A Village Romeo and Juliet in 1907, Reginald De Koven's The Canterbury Pilgrims in 1917, Puccini's Suor Angelica in 1918, Albert Wolff's L'oiseau bleu in 1919, Deems Taylor's The King's Henchman in 1927, and Taylor's Peter Ibbetson in 1931. Her final Metropolitan Opera performance came in December 1932, when she appeared as Flora in Verdi's La traviata, a performance that marked her 752nd appearance with the company.

Egener also recorded for the Victor Talking Machine Company, among them a 1917 recording of the Sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor featuring Enrico Caruso and Amelita Galli-Curci. Following her retirement from performing, she taught voice in New York City and later in New Orleans. She was married to conductor Louis Hasselmans (1878–1957). Egener died in New York in 1933.