A Tale of Two Divas: The Curious Adventures of Jean Forsyth and Edith J. Miller in Canada's Edwardian West by Elspeth Cameron and Gail Kreutzer

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Tale of Two Divas: The Curious Adventures of Jean Forsyth and Edith J. Miller in Canada's Edwardian West by Elspeth Cameron and Gail Kreutzer Michelle Boyd Elspeth Cameron with Gail Kreutzer. A Tale of Two Divas: The Curious Adventures of Jean Forsyth and Edith J. Miller in Canada's Edwardian West. J. Gordon Shillingford, 2016. 250 pp. $24.95. Historical developments at the outset of the twentieth century are often recounted as a march of progress, transforming the rural and rustic past into a new age of sleek urbanism. This perspective applies particularly well to narratives of the settlement of Canada's West, as turn-of-the-century economic growth and population expansion ushered in the transition from frontier outpost to urban centre in cities like Winnipeg and Edmonton. Meanwhile, a similarly-themed "march" was effecting a different kind of transformation—this one a social phenomenon that impacted Western society on both sides of the Atlantic. As civic infrastructure was taming Canada's Wild West, increasing numbers of women throughout North America were rejecting the dilettantism that had long been associated with female musicianship in favour of pursuing music as a profession. While professional equality still remained an elusive ideal, the onset of the twentieth century nonetheless witnessed a surge of women attempting to turn skills once regarded as domestic accomplishment into the means for gaining economic independence (see Tick). Situated within the nexus of these two major developments, Elspeth Cameron's A Tale of Two Divas presents the chronicle of two Canadian singers' quests to become professional musicians as Canada's West was similarly grappling to replace its frontier past with a progressive metropolitan future. Soprano Jean Forsyth (1851 to 1933) and contralto Edith Miller (1875 to 1936) ultimately ended up on very different career paths, but for a short period in the 1890s they were united by their common status as leading voices within Winnipeg's emerging music scene. For this project, Cameron—an experienced biographer—was assisted by Gail Kreutzer, an educator and long-time volunteer with the Winnipeg Humane Society (whs). Cameron had first learned of Jean Forsyth—an early founder of the whs—on a previous book project (Aunt Winnie, 2013); upon Kreutzer's insistence, the two began to research more deeply the life of the Ontario-born soprano who had relocated to Winnipeg in 1893. Hired as a church soloist, Forsyth quickly became ensconced as one of Winnipeg's leading musicians, a respected and highly sought teacher, a member of well-connected social circles, and an integral figure within the city's musical scene and cultural life. [End Page 178] As Cameron and Kreutzer uncovered details of Forsyth's career in Winnipeg, another singer's name began to surface in the copious newspaper clips they consulted. In 1894, Edith Miller—originally from Portage la Prairie—arrived in Winnipeg to teach singing as she also furthered her own studies with lessons from Forsyth at the Winnipeg Conservatory of Music. Miller similarly established her reputation as a first-rate vocalist in short order and became the darling of Winnipeg's musical society. Miller subsequently went abroad to study, first to London and Paris, then to New York City, and, finally, back to London. She did return to the Prairies periodically, most notably in 1900 to embark on a concert tour from Winnipeg to Vancouver, with Forsyth as her accompanist. With each return, Winnipeg's newspapers chart the development of an increasingly accomplished professional singer. Indeed, the training she received upon her final move to London propelled her into success as an opera singer, and before retiring from public appearances following her marriage in 1913, she had performed alongside legendary singers Emma Albani and Dame Nellie Melba. Meanwhile, Forsyth continued to be a highly-respected musician in Winnipeg, although her reputation increasingly rested on her work as an accompanist and teacher. In 1907 Forsyth moved to Edmonton—another rapidly-changing city—and again established herself among the city's elites as a leading vocal teacher. Forsyth retired from both teaching and public performance in 1919; upon her death in 1933, obituaries printed in Edmonton and Winnipeg newspapers memorialized her fondly for her significant...