Mary C. Carbone (aka Marie Montain) “She Lived for Her Music”

Mary C. Carbone (aka Marie Montain)

“She Lived for Her Music”

Short Bio

Mary C. Carbone was born in the Wyoming mining  coal-camp of Carneyville, Wyo. on 19 January 1914 to the parents, Rosa (Montegna) Carbone and Francisco Carbone.

Mary studied violin and chorus at Sheridan (Wyoming) High School, and in April 1930 won the state high school championship for violin. In 1932 she and her mother set sail for Naples, Italy, where she undertook study for three years at the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella. She studied there under Signora Giuseppina de Rogatis, director of the Neapolitan Quartet and Trio;  Signora Rachele Maragalino Mori, director of the singing school at Consevatory in Naples; pianist, Benedetto Rizzo; and  Ottilia Haffeli, composer and music critic.

She concentrated on voice and after she returned to New York City in late 1935, she sang with the J.J. Schubert Operettas. Eventually during the war years, beginning in 1943, she went on tour with the Philadelphia Opera Company, whose primary mission was to bring opera to the mid- sized and smaller cities in the U.S. and Canada to be sung in English. 

She performed as Adele in Mozart’s “Die Fledermaus (English)”and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (English), as well as other roles, including, Violetta in La Traviata; Micaela in Carmen; Nedda in Pagliacci; Mimi and Musetta in La Boheme; Marguerite in Faust; Norina in Don Pasquale; Gretel (The Dew Fairy & Sandman arias); and Gilda in Rigoletto.

In the late 1940’s she moved to Santa Barbara, California, and continued singing radio concerts and likely did teaching.

By 1975 she retired to her hometown, Sheridan, Wyoming. She passed away on 31 May 2004.

I wish to thank Jerry Carbone for providing me information and photo