Lizzie Macnichol (fl. late 19th Century), American vocalist and actress
(photo: unknown, probably USA, 1890s)
This real photograph cigarette card of Lizzie Macnichol was issued in the United States during the 1890s with Old Reliable Sweet Caporal Cigarettes.
Besides appearing in The Mikado and other revivals produced by the Castle Square Opera Company at the American Theatre, New York, during 1898 and 1899, Lizzie Macnichol is recorded to have been on tour in the United States in 1890 with the Emma Juch Grand English Opera Company under the management of Locke & Davis. Among further operatic enterprises Miss Macnichol appeared in Rob Roy (Whitney Opera Company, Herald Square Theatre, New York, 20 October 1894), and was still in the cast when the piece toured the United States in 1896.
Lizzie Macnichol appeared as Nancy in the film of the second act of Friedrich von Flotow’s opera Martha (released in 1898 or 1899). Grace Golden was also in this production.
New York, 9 August 1899
‘MISS LIZZIE MACNICHOL, the leading contralto of the Castle-square opera company, died suddenly on 12th inst. [i.e. 12 July 1899], from appendicitis. Miss Macnichol, or Mrs C.L. Reitz, as she was known in private life, having married a second time, her first husband having been Franz Vetta, the basso singer, was one of the most popular members of the Castle-square opera company, and had appeared at the American Theatre in this city in a round of important contralto rôles in both light and grand opera. She made her débût in 1888 with the Emma Juch opera company, in Maritana, and made a pronounced hit six years later in De Koven and Smith’s opera, Rob Roy.’
(The Era, London, Saturday, 26 August 1899, p. 14b)
Footlight Notes 