I HOME I SITEMAP I DIVA PRINCIPLE I DIVAS I FORUM I EXPERTS I LITTLE EXTRAS* I FEEDBACK I

American-born Geraldine Farrar was an opera singer and film actress whose stage presence earned her a fanatic following of Gerryflappers (New York's young female opera-goers) in the early 20th century. She studied voice in Boston, New York, Paris, and with famed soprano Lilli Lehmann in Berlin where she created a sensation with her debut as Marguerite in Gounod's Faust in 1901. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Romeo et Juliette in 1906 and appeared in the first Met performance of Madama Butterfly in 1907. Farrar also starred in over a dozen silent movies. Perhaps her most notable screen role was as Joan of Arc in the 1917 film Joan the Woman. Farrar, noted for her temperamental and fiercely independent nature, had affairs with Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, Arturo Toscanini and Enrico Caruso. She died in Ridgefield, Connecticut of a heart attack in 1967 aged 85.