Patrice Munsel

Patrice Munsel, born Patrice Beverly Munsil on May 14, 1925, in Spokane, Washington, was an American coloratura soprano who became the youngest singer ever to debut at the Metropolitan Opera. She died on August 4, 2016, at her home in Schroon Lake, New York, at the age of 91.

An only child, Munsel was raised in Spokane until age fifteen, when she left Lewis and Clark High School to travel to New York City with her mother to study voice under coach Giacomo Spadoni (1884–1960). Her father, Audley J. Munsil, was a dentist in Spokane. She later changed the spelling of her surname from Munsil to Munsel.

At seventeen, Munsel competed on Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air, the Met's annual singing competition. Her rendition of the "Mad Scene" from Lucia di Lammermoor earned her a contract with the company. She made her official Metropolitan debut on December 4, 1943, at age eighteen, singing the role of Philine in Mignon, receiving popular enthusiasm though mixed critical notices. Her initial contract ran three years at $40,000 per year, and with additional engagements she earned approximately $100,000 annually. Over the course of her Met career, Munsel performed there 225 times, with her final appearance on January 28, 1958, in the title role of La Périchole. Sir Rudolf Bing described her as a "superb soubrette" and suggested she was the finest in the world. Among her most celebrated roles were Adele in Die Fledermaus and Despina in Così fan tutte, as well as Rosina in The Barber of Seville and Gilda in Rigoletto. In 1966, she appeared as a guest at the Gala Farewell to the old Metropolitan Opera house at Broadway and 39th Street, though she never performed at the company's new Lincoln Center location.

Munsel's screen career included the 1953 film Melba, in which she portrayed the title role, depicting the life of opera singer Dame Nellie Melba. On television, she starred in The Patrice Munsel Show, an ABC primetime variety series conceived and produced by her husband, Robert C. Schuler, which aired during the 1957–1958 season. She appeared in a January 15, 1955, live telecast of the operetta Naughty Marietta, playing Marietta, Countess d'Altena. Her other television credits included the role of Lola Tuscany in the series Checkmate, the role of opera singer Rosa Monetebello in a 1969 episode of The Wild, Wild West, and frequent appearances on The Bell Telephone Hour. She was the celebrity guest on the February 2, 1958, episode of What's My Line? and served as the central performer in the Camp Fire Girls' television commercial for the song "Sing Around the Campfire (Join the Camp Fire Girls)," broadcast in the mid-1960s. A former Camp Fire Girl herself, she also served as a spokeswoman for the organization.

In 1964, Munsel starred in a California production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, staged by the Civic Light Opera Companies of Los Angeles and San Francisco. She went on to appear on Broadway in multiple productions between 1969 and 1982, including Applause, A Musical Jubilee, the revue Tintypes, and Mame. Munsel ended her opera career in 1981 and transitioned to performing in musical comedies, retiring from the stage altogether in 2008.

In 1952, Munsel married Robert C. Schuler, an advertising and public relations executive, producer, and writer. The couple were married for 55 years until Schuler's death at age 90 in 2007. They had four children: Heidi, born in 1953; Rhett, born in 1955 and died in 2005; Scott, born in 1958; and Nicole, born in 1959, with the younger two born prematurely. Munsel and Schuler co-authored a 2005 memoir titled The Diva & I: My Life with Metropolitan Opera Star Patrice Munsel. For a period of years, Munsel resided in Flower Hill, New York.