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Why the Name Queena?

  • Jan 5
  • 2 min read

Updated: Jan 10


Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Hieronymous Bosch — Prominent detectives deserve provacative names.


In looking for a name that wasn't run-of-the-mill, and could be worked into the titles for a mystery series. I had a long list of names that might work before starting my research. Was the name used before in a novel? Is there a famous person with that name?


When I got to Queena, I found Queena Mario, famous lyric soprano with the Metropolitan Opera.


And when I looked further, lo and behold, Queena Mario was also a frequent bright light at the San Francisco Opera Company where she was best known for originating the role of Gretel in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.


But, that wasn't all. In addition to achieving great acclaim as one of the most famous sopranos of her day, Queena Mario was a published author. She paid for her singing lessons as a teen working as a newspaper columnist under the name Florence Bryant, and later, she wrote three murder mysteries (!!!) under her own name.


It was supposed to be.


See below for a quick biography of Queena Mario (1896-1951).



Queena Mario Biography


The daughter of a Civil War drummer boy, Queena Marion Tillotson — known professionally as Queena Mario — was born in Akron, Ohio in 1896 and was raised in Plainfield, New Jersey. As a teenager, he paid for voice lessons by writing newspaper advice columns under the name Florence Bryant, including childrearing advice; "You know a lot when you're 16, you have a lot of theories," she explained of her qualifications.


Her stage debut came in 1918 with the San Carlo Opera Company, which toured North America, making several stops in San Francisco. There, she worked alongside another key figure in American opera: a young Neapolitan conductor named Gaetano Merola.


That encounter would prove fortuitous: Merola went on to found San Francisco Opera, and he invited Mario to perform at the company’s first-ever opening night on September 26, 1923. She starred as Mimì in La Bohème opposite another big star of the age — Giovanni Martinelli.


She sang with the Metropolitan Opera over 300 times, beginning in 1922 and with a last performance in 1938. Mario taught voice at Juliard in New York and the Curtis Institue of Music in Philadelphia. She can be heard on at least six recordings from 1924 and 1933, made for the Victor Talking Machine Company.


As a writer, Mario published three opera-themed murder mysteries: Murder in the Opera House (1934), Murder Meets Mephisto (1942), and Death Drops Delilah (1944).


She passed away in 1951 at age 54.


Read Queena Mario's obituary in the New York Times here




 
 
 

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