Emma Eames was a soprano who had major opera roles in New York, London and Paris during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was born Aug. 13, 1865, in Shanghai, China. Her parents separated when Emma was five and her mother brought her back to the United States to live with her grandparents at 955 Washington St. in Bath.

When Emma was about 15, she sang “Oh, For the Wings of a Dove” at the Swedenborgian Church on Middle Street in Bath. A cousin of her uncle, Thomas W. Hyde, heard her and encouraged her family to further her singing ability.

By 1882, Emma was studying music in Boston. She and her mother sailed for Europe in 1886. She made her operatic debut as Juliette in Romeo et Juliette in Paris on March 13, 1889. Two years later, she performed for the first time at Covent Garden, London.

Her debut in the United States was at the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York on December 14, 1891. She gave 400 performances at the Met between 1891 and 1909. She gave her farewell operatic performances during the 1911-12 season with the Boston Opera Company.

Eames was married twice. She and her second husband, the baritone Emilio de Gogorza, lived in Europe until World War I when they bought the James T. Patten house on North Street in Bath. They lived there from 1915 to 1923. In 1927, Emma published her autobiography, “Some Memories and Reflections.”

Emma Eames died on June 13, 1952 in New York City. She is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Bath. Along the sides of her Carrara marble gravestone are motifs from two of her favorite operas: the Holy Grail from Parsifal and the swan from Lohengrin.

From an article by Gordon Struble, Bath Historical Society Newsletter #5, 1990.

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