Marion Talley

Marion Nevada Talley (December 20, 1906 – January 3, 1983) was an American opera coloratura soprano. In 1926, she was the youngest prima donna to have made a debut at the Metropolitan Opera, but her swift rise to fame was followed by a relatively quick return to obscurity.

Talley was born in Nevada, Missouri, the daughter of a telegraph operator for Missouri Pacific Railroad. She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri after her father was transferred there when she was a baby. At an early age she was taking piano, violin, and voice lessons, singing with church choirs, and growing a reputation among local music critics and audiences.

At the age of fifteen, Talley appeared in a 1922 Kansas City Grand Opera Company production of Mignon by Ambroise Thomas, and was a local sensation. Her career became a cause célèbre for the citizens of Kansas City, who attended benefit concerts and contributed money for her to study in New York, under the famed teacher Frank LaForge, and later in Italy. She unsuccessfully auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera in 1923.

The Metropolitan Opera's general manager, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, hired Talley for the 1925/26 season. On February 17, 1926, she made her debut there as Gilda, the daughter of the title character in Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto. At the age of nineteen, she was the youngest prima donna to sing at the Metropolitan Opera at that time. (Patrice Munsel would perform there at age eighteen in 1943.) Her pending debut caused a media sensation, contrary to Gatti-Casazza's hopes that it would remain low-key. A delegation of two hundred leading citizens of Kansas City, including Mayor Albert I. Beach, arrived via a special train. Tickets were being resold at astronomical prices. A telegraph was set up backstage so her father could send dispatches to the Associated Press. Her performance prompted multiple ovations from the crowd, but critics were less enthusiastic. While they thought her debut promising, it did not live up to the expectations caused by the media frenzy.

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