author
Kathleen Howard
1884–1956
A celebrated contralto who later became a memorable Hollywood character actress, she moved with ease from grand opera stages to the screen. Her life joined musical prestige, sharp wit, and a second career that introduced her to a much wider audience.
1 Audiobook
Confessions of an Opera Singer
by Kathleen Howard
About the author
Born in Clifton, Ontario, and raised in Buffalo, Kathleen Howard built her first reputation as a concert and opera singer. She studied in Europe and went on to perform major roles in an international career, becoming especially well known as a contralto with the Metropolitan Opera.
Howard was more than a performer. She wrote and edited for magazines, published memoirs, and developed a public voice that reached beyond the opera world. That mix of artistic experience and lively personality helped make her a recognizable cultural figure in the early 20th century.
In the 1930s and 1940s, she began a successful second act in films, often appearing in character roles that showed warmth, authority, and comic timing. Today she is remembered as a rare talent who managed to thrive in several different worlds: opera, writing, and Hollywood.