Her father died in 1903 and she went to Paris the following year to become a pupil of the celebrated tenor
Jean de Reszke. She made her first public appearance in Paris in 1906 when she sang Cherubino in
The Marriage of Figaro and Zerlina in
Don Giovanni, both conducted by
Reynaldo Hahn. Her professional debut took place at the
Opera House in
Monte Carlo on 1 February 1907, where she performed Tyrcis in
Myriame et Daphné (
André Bloch's arrangement of
Jacques Offenbach's
Daphnis et Chloé), with
Paderewski. The following week, again at the Opera House in Monte Carlo, she sang Zerlina. Finding that her surname was generally mispronounced in France, she changed it from Tate to Teyte before joining the
Opéra-Comique in Paris. After a few small parts, she was cast as Mélisande in
Pelléas et Mélisande by
Debussy, replacing the originator of the role,
Mary Garden. To prepare for
Pelléas et Mélisande, she studied with Debussy himself, and she is the only singer ever to be accompanied by Debussy on the piano with an orchestra in public (see
Beau Soir). In 1910, Sir
Thomas Beecham cast Teyte as Cherubino and Mélisande and also as Blonde in
Die Entführung aus dem Serail for his London season. Despite her early singing successes, Teyte did not easily establish herself in the main opera houses. Instead, she moved to America and performed with the
Chicago Grand Opera Company from 1911 to 1914 and the
Boston Opera Company from 1914 to 1917, singing in
Philadelphia and elsewhere, but not in New York, though she created the title role in
Henry Kimball Hadley's opera,
Bianca, at
Manhattan's Park Theater in 1918. Returning to Britain in 1919, she created the rôle of Lady Mary Carlisle in
André Messager's operetta,
Monsieur Beaucaire, at the
Prince's Theatre. She married for a second time in 1921, to Canadian millionaire Walter Sherwin Cottingham, and went into semi-retirement until 1930, when she performed as Mélisande and played the title role in
Puccini's
Madama Butterfly.
Later years After difficulty in reviving her career, she ended up performing
music hall and variety (24 performances a week) at the Victoria Palace in London. Finally, in 1936, her recordings of Debussy songs accompanied by
Alfred Cortot attracted attention, and recordings remained an important factor in her renewed fame, as she gained a reputation in England and the United States as the leading French art song interpreter of her time. She sang at the
Royal Opera House in 1936–37 in
Hansel and Gretel, as
Eurydice in
Gluck's
Orfeo ed Euridice and as Butterfly in
Madama Butterfly. In 1938–39, she broadcast performances of
Massenet's
Manon in English, with
Heddle Nash as des Grieux, in addition to an ill-advised Eva in
Wagner's
Die Meistersinger. She also appeared in operetta and musical comedy between the wars. She made her first New York appearances in 1948, including a Town Hall recital followed by performances of Pelléas at the
New York City Center Opera. She continued to record and perform in opera until 1951, making her final appearance in the part of Belinda (to
Kirsten Flagstad's Dido) in
Purcell's
Dido and Aeneas at the
first Mermaid Theatre in London. Her final concert appearance was at the
Royal Festival Hall on 22 April 1956, aged 68. She spent her last years teaching. She died in London in 1976, aged 88. ==Personal life==