Background
Sophie Braslau was born on August 16, 1892 in New York City, of Russian parentage. Her father was a physician, Abel Braslau, and her mother was Alexandra (Goodelman) Braslau.
Sophie Braslau was born on August 16, 1892 in New York City, of Russian parentage. Her father was a physician, Abel Braslau, and her mother was Alexandra (Goodelman) Braslau.
She was educated academically in New York schools and began her musical education as a pianist under Alexander Lambert.
The Italian-American singing teacher and composer, Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, a family friend, discovered that she had a contralto voice of great possibilities. He accordingly gave her singing lessons, which she later supplemented by studying with Gabriele Sibella, Herbert Witherspoon, Marcella Sembrich, and Mario Marafioti.
In 1913 Sophie Braslau was engaged for the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York and made her debut, off-stage, as A Voice, in the Thanksgiving Day performance of Wagner's Parsifal. On the evening of the next day, November 28, 1913, she appeared on the stage as Theodor in Moussorgsky's Boris Godounov.
In later years, just before leaving the company in 1920, she sang the more important role of Marina in the same opera. In addition to roles in the routine works of the repertoire, she sang the part of Mercédès in the revival of Carmen which Toscanini conducted in 1914 (first performance November 18); she appeared as Hua Qui in Leoni's L'Oracolo (February 4, 1915); as Altichiara in Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini (December 22, 1916), and as one of "die Knaben" in Mozart's Die Zauberflote (November 20, 1916). When Verdi's Requiem was substituted for the usual Good Friday performance of Parsifal at the Metropolitan on March 29, 1918, Braslau was one of the soloists.
For the company's first production of Rimsky-Korsakoff's Le Coq d'Or (March 6, 1918), she sang the part of Amelfa. In the latter production a double cast of singers and dancers was employed, the dancers to interpret the action while the singers sang from seats banked at the sides of the stage. Queenie Smith danced the part of Amelfa while Braslau sang it.
On March 23, 1918, Braslau created the titlerole of Shanewis, the Robin Woman, in Charles Wakefield Cadman's opera, Shanewis. This production occurred only two seasons before she left the Mettropolitan.
In 1920 she retired from the opera company to devote herself to concert work, for which she was in great demand. Her concert tours, both alone and in joint-recital with other artists, took her throughout the United States and extensively in Europe. In the years around 1916 she was a member of the so-called Victor Quartet, which made phonograph records of operatic selections.
Her death occurred in New York, where she had her residence, after a lingering illness.