Frances Ingram Frances Ingram Elizabeth Frances Ingram (5 November 1888 – 12 April 1974) was an American operatic contralto of English birth who had an active career in North America during the 1910s and 1920s. Born in Liverpool, Ingram was a graduate of Normal College in New York City. From 1910–1912 she was a singing pupil of Victor Maurel. She made her professional opera debut on 2 December 1911 with the Chicago Grand Opera Company at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia as Lola in Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana". She remained with that company for two seasons, performing in both Chicago and
Cavalleria rusticana in Chicago on 30 September 1891. The opera premiered in New York on 1 October 1891, with two rival performances on the same day: an afternoon performance at the Casino, directed by Rudolph Aronson, and an evening performance at the Lenox Lyceum, directed by Oscar Hammerstein. The opera received its first performance at the Metropolitan Opera on 30 December 1891 in a double bill with a fragment of Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice", and has since received over 700 performances there. Before the action takes place, the young villager Turiddu had returned from military service to find that his fiancée Lola