Introduction
Greta Risley (July 1869 — 1 February 1923) was an American stage actress and mezzo soprano vocalist.
Early life
Greta Risley was born Margaret Percy Beery in July 1869 in Wilmington, North Carolina to Virginia Constance Risley and step father Robert Avery of the Union Army. She later took her mother's maiden name for the stage.
Acting career
Risley received her musical education at the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York.
She made her debut in the early 1890s with the Gustav Hinrichs's Grand Opera Company in Philadelphia, playing the role of "Marguerite" in Faust — an opera in five acts by French composer Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbierand Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part One.
Risley then worked with Boston Ideal Opera Company (also known as "The Bostonians",) where she met her future husband, actor Louis Casavant. The two appeared in first production of Reginald De Koven's comic opera Robin Hood in 1891 (lyrics by Harry Bache Smith and Clement Scott)
Risley joined the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York under the management of Henry Eugene Abbey, John B. Schoeffel, and Maurice Grau, in the role of "Frasquito" in Carmen in 1893.
In March 1897, she performed at Macauley's Theatre, Louisville, Kentucky, in Victor Herbert's burlesque operetta The Wizard of the Nile, with Frank Daniels.
In December 1900, Risley performed in the musical Sweet Anne Page at Manhattan Theatre, New York (music by William Harold Neidlinger; book by Louis De Lange; lyrics by Edgar Smith; musical director: Albert Krausse).
In early 1900s, Risley appeared in Raymond Hitchcock's comedy opera King Dodo as "Queen Lili" alongside Hitchcock ("King Dodo"), Cheridah Simpson ("Piola"), Gertrude Quinlan ("Annette"), Margaret McKinney ("Angela"), Arthur Wooley ("Dr. Fizz"), Robert Lett, Flora Zabelle Hitchcock, and James MacDonald, at the Old Daly's Theatre in New York City.
In 1907, Risley played "Elizabetta" in Charles Emerson Cook-directed The Rose of Alhambra (music by Lucius Hosmer; Lyrics by Charles Emerson Cook; Based on a story by Washington Irving; Musical Director: J. E. Nicol)
Risley's last performance was in 1919 with the Gallo English Opera Company in the Mikado and Pinafore, at the Shubert Theatre in New York City.
Personal life
Risley and Louis Casavant married on March 19, 1896. The couple did not have any children.
Death
Risley died on February 1, 1923, at her home in Manhattan, New York. She is buried at Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.