Louisa Melvin Delos Mars

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Louisa Melvin Delos Mars

Louisa Melvin Delos Mars (c.1860 – after 1926

New England Conservatory. She is best known for composing five full length operettas
.

Life and career

Born Louisa Melvin in Providence and later a resident of Boston, Melvin Delos Mars was one of the earliest African-American women to achieve recognition as a

New England Conservatory and first achieved notice in the 1880s singing alongside her sister, Carrie Melvin Lucas, who played cornet and violin.[3][2] Her sister was the wife of vaudeville entertainer Sam Lucas, and their daughter and Louisa's niece, Maria Lucas, also became a popular trombonist, pianist, and conductor who eventually became the music director at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.[4][5][6]

Melvin Delos Mars was the first African-American woman to have an opera she composed produced: Leoni, the Gypsy Queen in Providence, Rhode Island in 1889.[7] She went on to compose and star in four more full length operettas which were staged in either Boston, Massachusetts or Providence, Rhode Island between 1880–1896, including Fun At A Boarding School, and Love In Disguise; or, Things Are Not What They Seem. None of her works survive.[2]

Personal life

Melvin Delos Mars was married to William Delos Mars (1856–1927), and the couple had two sons who were born in Providence: Charles (born May 19, 1883) and Christian (born December 23, 1886). Not much is known about her activities or whereabouts after 1896.[1]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9780786421091
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780252026232
    .
  3. ^ Nicole N. Aljoe (Fall 2012). "Aria for Ethiopia: The Operatic Aesthetic of Pauline Hopkins's of One Blood". African American Review. 45 (3).
  4. ISBN 9780393038439
    .
  5. ISBN 9780313262340
    .
  6. ISBN 9780252065095 – via Internet Archive
    .
  7. ISBN 9780415965880
    .
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