Evelyn Scotney (11 July 1896 – 5 August 1967)[1] was an Australian lyric coloratura soprano of great renown in the period from 1913 to the late 1920s. Her range extended to E in altissimo.[2] She was compared very favourably with Amelita Galli-Curci, Luisa Tetrazzini and others.[3][4] Her recording of "Caro nome" from Verdi's Rigoletto was described by a critic as "one of the best soprano records in existence",[4] and her recording of The Blue Danube and other Strauss vocal waltzes was described as "absolutely perfect coloratura singing".[5] She appears in The Record of Singing.
During World War I she had various tours of Australia with her husband.[15][16] Her only brother Henry died in 1915, aged 21.[6] She returned to the US after the war.[7] It was Evelyn Scotney who appeared opposite Enrico Caruso in his final performance, in La Juive, on Christmas Eve 1920.[17] She sang in Melbourne in 1923.[18] By 1925 she was singing Gilda (Rigoletto) in London.[19] She sang with the Beecham Opera Company and appeared at The Proms in the 1920s.[20]
Evelyn Scotney remarried in London in the 1920s, to B. H. Russell, London manager of the Cunard Line.[21] Their wedding was attended by Sir Joseph Cook (then Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and a former Prime Minister of Australia) and Lady Cook.[22] She and Russell had a son in 1924[23] and another son in mid-1926.[21]
She gave a series of six Farewell Concerts in Australia in 1926.[24]
Scotney Place, in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm, is named in her honour.[25]