Johannes in retroland

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 7, probably in 1870 (some sources give 1868 or 1876), Alice Nielsen grew up in Warrensburg and then Kansas City, Missouri. She sang in a church choir and received some voice instruction from a local teacher. About 1886 she had the opportunity to sing in a touring juvenile production of The Mikado. Her marriage to Benjamin Nentwig in 1889 was short-lived. In 1892 she and three other singers formed the Chicago Church Choir Company, and, after an unsuccessful tour through Missouri, she joined the Burton Stanley traveling opera company. In Oakland, California, she appeared as Yum-Yum in the Stanley production of The Mikado in 1893. The next year, after a period at the Wigwam, a San Francisco music hall, she joined the Tivoli Opera Company, with which she made her grand operatic debut in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Bron: britannica.com