Viola Gillette

Viola Gillette (1871–1956), born Viola Pratt in Salt Lake City, was an American contralto whose career spanned Broadway and opera from the late nineteenth century into the 1920s.

Gillette's earliest professional work was as a church singer in Salt Lake City. She made her stage debut in Washington, D.C., in 1898, the same year she relocated to New York City to sing with the Castle Square Opera Company. Also in 1898, she took a position as soloist at the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in New York, a post she held through 1899. Her first solo concert appearance came at the Springfield, Massachusetts, Music Festival in 1899.

In the early months of 1901, Gillette performed at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London before returning to the United States to begin a sustained period of stage work. From 1901 to 1904, she was employed by the producing firm Klaw and Erlanger, spending two seasons in their production of Beauty and the Beast and one season in Mother Goose. Her Broadway career, which ran from 1901 to 1926, included a starring role in Patience as well as appearances in Rainbow Rose, A Lucky Break, and China Rose.

In 1907, Gillette took on the role of Violetta in The Girl and the Bandit, a credit that led directly to her founding the Viola Gillette Opera Company, which she managed herself. Two years later, in 1909, she played Nichette in The Beauty Spot at the Herald Square Theatre in New York City.