Virginia MacWatters

Who was Virginia MacWatters?

Virginia MacWatters was an American coloratura soprano.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, MacWatters studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, and sang 611 Broadway performances of Adele in Rosalinda, conducted by Erich Korngold, from 1942 to 1944. She made her formal operatic debut at the San Francisco Opera, as Musetta in La bohème, in 1944.

The soprano also appeared on Broadway in La serva padrona and Mr Strauss Goes to Boston. MacWatters sang at the New York City Opera from 1946 to 1951, in The Pirates of Penzance, Rigoletto, Il barbiere di Siviglia, The Old Maid and the Thief, Le nozze di Figaro, Les contes d'Hoffmann, and Ariadne auf Naxos.

MacWatters appeared at the first season of opera in English at Covent Garden following World War II, in the name part of Manon and as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, in 1947. At the New Orleans Opera Association, the coloratura was seen in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Die Fledermaus and Le nozze di Figaro.