Louise Le Baron

Louise Le Baron
Portrait from The Cosmopolitan Magazine, 1909
Born	Louise Shepherd October 1874 Winchester, Massachusetts
Died	February 11, 1918 Lincoln, Nebraska

Louise Le Baron (1874–1918) was an American contralto singer who performed in opera and musical theatre during the early years of the twentieth century.

Louise Le Baron (née Shepherd) was born in Winchester, Massachusetts in 1874 and at around the age of sixteen began singing with a church choir at Boston area engagements. She received her early training at the Boston Conservatory and under various private instructors including Madame Etta Edwards, then in Boston. Le Baron first sang with the Bostonian Opera Company before joining Fritzi Scheff and her famous company. During this time she played Lady Jane in the The Two Roses by Ludwig Engländer and Stanislaus Stange, with a libretto adapted from Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, and as Marie Louise de Bouvray in Mlle. Modiste by Victor Herbert and Henry Blossom. Over the following seasons she would perform with the Castle Square Opera Company, San Carlo Company and on two separate occasions the Aborn Opera Company. With the latter she played the title role in Carmen, Seibel in Faust and Suzuki in Madame Butterfly. In 1913 she shared the male role of Alan-a-Dale with actress Florence Wickham in the comic opera Robin Hood by Reginald De Koven and Harry B. Smith.