Clara Louise Kellogg was an American soprano singer. She toured the major opera houses of the United States from 1868 to 1873 and then she headed her own English Opera Company from 1873 until 1876.
Background
Clara Louise Kellogg, the daughter of George Kellogg and Jane Elizabeth Crosby, was born on July 12, 1842 in Sumterville, South Carolina, United States. She was a niece of Albert Kellogg. Her mother was musically gifted; her father an inventor. From 1846 to 1855 he manufactured surgical instruments and other devices of his own invention in Birmingham, Connecticut, and during his later years was active in photographic experiment in New York. Clara Louise accompanied her parents to New York in 1857.
Education
Kellogg received her education at the Ashland Seminary, Catskill, and studied singing in New York City.
Career
After a concert tour in which Kellogg sang selections from the part of Linda in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix, she made her New York début in 1861, as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, at the Academy of Music. She sang in Sonnambula in Boston before Civil War conditions ended the season. In 1863 she appeared in Gounod's Faust as Marguerite. After its first New York presentation in the Academy of Music on November 25, 1863), Faust became one of the major attractions offered by rival operatic companies during the next three decades. It was nearly always sung in Italian, and Clara Louise Kellogg was outstandingly identified with the role of its heroine. In this role she made her London debut in 1867.
From 1868 to 1873 she toured the United States in Italian opera and concert, and appeared in London as Linda. In 1873 she organized her own company and attempted to popularize Italian and French opera in English in the United States, even extending her supervision of detail to the translation of the libretti, to the stage settings, and to the training of principals and chorus.
During the winter season of 1874-1875 she sang no less than 125 nights. Thereafter she divided her time between Europe and America, singing in London, in Italian opera in Vienna, and in St. Petersburg.
After her retirement, she established herself in her home, "Elpstone, " New Hartford, Connecticut, where she died. In 1913 she published her autobiography, Memoirs of an American Prima Donna. As a singer she was equally at home both in dramatic and in more purely lyric roles. Her voice was a pure, sweet soprano of penetrating quality and extraordinary range. In the course of her long and successful career she established a deserved reputation for her readiness to respond to charitable appeals, especially in connection with musical objects, and for her generosity in encouraging and financing struggling aspirants to musical fame. She had the usual prima-donna complex regarding her musical superiority, as her autobiography reveals, but in this characteristic she was only true to type.
Achievements
Kellogg's major achievement was that for some twenty years she maintained the best traditions of Italian and French operatic singing in the United States, and by means of her artistic gifts and popularity as a native prima donna advanced the cause of opera sung in English. During her career, her repertory included more than forty roles.
Connections
In 1887 Kellogg married her impresario, Carl Strakosch.
