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Mary Garden was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. Her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, USA in her childhood. She showed promise as a young singer, and after training with the best in Chicago was sent to Paris to receive further instruction there. She made her public debut in April of 1900, in Gustave Charpentier's Louise at the Opéra-Comique. Two years later, Claude DebussyClaude Achille Debussy ( August 22, 1862 March 25, 1918), composer of impressionistic classical music. Born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Yvelines, France, Claude Debussy studied with Guiraud and others at the Paris Conservatoire ( 1872- 84) and as an 1884 Pr selected her to play the female lead at the Opéra-Comique debut of his Pelléas et MélisandePelleas et Melisande is a famous Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. The play has been the basis of several pieces of music. Perhaps the best known is the Impressionist opera by Claude Debussy, f. Garden's performances met with considerable critical aclaim. She also created a sensation as SaloméSalom like Dismas, or the various names of the Three Magi, is a name given to a character in the Bible whose name is not given in the Bible itself. The name "Salome;" is preserved in the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus. She was the step-daughter of Herod A in Richard StraussRichard Strauss ( June 11, 1864 September 8, 1949) was a German composer of classical music particularly noted for his tone poems and operas. He was also a noted conductor. He was born on June 11, 1864 in Munich, Germany, the son of Franz Strauss who was's Opera of that name.

Mary Garden first performed in the USA at the ManhattanFor other uses, see Manhattan (disambiguation . Manhattan is the name of an island alongside the lower Hudson River and also of one of the five boroughs that form the City of New York. The borough is coterminous with New York County and includes the Islan Opera House in 1907Events January events January 6 Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome Casa dei Bambini in San Lorenzo). January 14 An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than a 1,000 January 23 Charles Curtis in the title role in ThaïsThais is an opera by Jules Massenet. The libretto was written by Anatole France. It was first performed in Paris in 1894. Thais is part of the standard operatic repertoire. There are a several recordings of it, and it is occasionally performed. The most r.

She starred at the Chicago Civic Opera from 1910 through 1931, the year in which she retired from the operatic stage. She stayed active giving recitals, lectures, and master classes for another 2 decades.

Garden was known a dramatic example of the diva archetype, and had a number feuds with various musical colleagues. Her flamboyant personal life was often the subject of as much media attention as her public performances, and some of her affairs were made scandals by the newspapers.

Mary Garden made a number of gramophone records between 1903 and 1929, for G & T, Columbia and Victor. Her recordings continue to be reissued and are of interest to historic opera lovers, although Garden herself was said to have been generally disappointed with the results of her work in the recording studio.

Her autobiography, "Mary Garden's Story", was published in 1951.

Mary Garden died in Aberdeen, the city of her birth.