Lucy Arbell was a French mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano

A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

 whose operatic career was mainly centred in Paris, and who was particularly associated with the composer Jules Massenet

Jules Massenet

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...

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Life and career

Arbell made her stage debut as Dalila at the Paris Opéra on 23 October 1903. She also sang there Amneris in Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

, Madalena in Rigoletto

Rigoletto

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...

, Uta in Sigurd

Sigurd (opera)

Sigurd is an opera in four acts and nine scenes by the French composer Ernest Reyer on a libretto by Camille du Locle and Alfred Blau. Like Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, the story is based on the Niebelungenlied and the Eddas, with some crucial differences from the better known Wagnerian version...

, Fricka in La Valkyrie

Die Walküre

Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...

and Thérèse

Thérèse (opera)

Thérèse is an opera in two acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jules Claretie. It was first performed at the Opéra in Monte Carlo on 7 February 1907, with Lucy Arbell in the title role...

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She had a close relationship with the late operas of Massenet, creating roles in Ariane

Ariane

Ariane is a feminine name. It is a French translation of the Greek name Ariadne. It may refer to:-People:* Princess Ariane of the Netherlands * Ariane Ascaride , French actress and screenwriter...

(Perséphone), Thérèse (title role), Bacchus

Bacchus (opera)

Bacchus is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Catulle Mendès after Greek mythology. It was first performed at the Palais Garnier in Paris on May 5, 1909....

(Queen Amahelli), Don Quichotte

Don Quichotte

Don Quichotte is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Caïn.Massenet's comédie-héroïque, like so many other dramatized versions of the story of Don Quixote, relates only indirectly to the great novel by Miguel de Cervantes...

(Dulcinée), Roma

Roma (opera)

Roma is an opera in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Cain based on the play Rome vaincue by Alexandre Parodi. It was first performed at the Opéra in Monte Carlo on February 17, 1912....

(Postumia) and Panurge

Panurge (opera)

Panurge is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Georges Spitzmuller and Maurice Boukay, after Pantagruel by Rabelais...

(Colombe).

At the Opéra-Comique she sang Charlotte (Werther

Werther

Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....

) up to the 1920s.

As a singer she is described as having a strong, vibrant ‘mezzo-contralto’ and a vivacious personality.