Mariska Aldrich

Mariska Horvath, known by her married name Mariska Aldrich and prior to her marriage as Matilda Agan, Mathilde Agan or Mariska Agan, was an American singer, actress, and voice teacher. Born in Boston and raised in Brooklyn, Mariska studied singing in New York and London before appearing in her first operas in Europe in 1900 under conductor Auguste Vianesi. In 1901 she married former United States congressman J. Frank Aldrich, and later that same year made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as the Witch in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. She ceased performing to start a family, giving birth to two children early in her marriage to Aldrich. Their daughter, the stage and film actress Meeka Aldrich, was born in 1903. After this she studied singing at the Institute of Musical Art and privately with teachers in New York and Europe.