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 an LP, it is available on CD under several historical recording labels. A double-bill performance of "Cavalleria" and "Pagliacci" was transmitted as the first broadcast by New York City's Metropolitan Opera on 11 December 1910. Radio pioneer Lee de Forest talked Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Met manager, into sending the program over the airwaves by using a backstage radio transmitter and a rooftop antenna, "using a long fishing pole for his mast." Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn were in the leading roles. Few listened. There were no radios. But public receivers had been set up in several well-advertised locations in New