Alfred Piccaver

Alfred Piccaver (5 February 1884 - 23 September 1958, in Vienna) was a British-American operatic tenor. He was particularly noted for his performances as Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème and other popular mainstream operatic roles.

Piccaver was born on 5 February 1884 in the Lincolnshire town of Long Sutton to chemist Frederick Herman Piccaver (born 1864, died 17 February 1916) and his wife Sarah Ann Sissons. The couple had two children, Alfred and his sister Annie. The Piccaver family origins had been that of farm laborers. At a young age, Alfred immigrated with his family to the United States of America. The family resettled in Albany, NY and took out American citizenship. Frederick Piccaver worked as head brewer of the Beverwyck Brewery. Alfred joined the choir of Albany's St. Peter's Episcopal Church as a boy soprano. He also became a soloist at a church in Watervliet. The young Piccaver went on to study voice with S. Graham Nobbes, chief instructor of the Emma Willard Conservatory of Music and with Allan Lindsay, conductor of the Troy Conservatory of Music. Alfred later trained to be electrical engineer but he had a talent for singing and in 1905 he enrolled at the Metropolitan School of Opera. The school's director Heinrich Conried recognised his considerable vocal ability and in 1907 sent the young Alfred to Prague, where he studied with Ludmilla Prochazka-Neumann (1872–1954).

His studies led to a three-year contract with the Deutsches Landes-Theater in Prague where he made his debut on 9 September 1907 in Otto Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor. In the following three years, he sang in operas by Flotow, Verdi, Wagner, Mozart, Puccini and Gounod. This variety stood him in good stead, because in 1910, he was invited to appear as a guest in Mattia Battistini’s touring company that was performing in Prague. He must have impressed Battistini because Piccaver was persuaded to travel with the company to their next venue in Vienna where the Vienna Hofoper showed an interest in him. However, he continued to sing with the Prague company for the remainder of his contract and it was not until 6 September 1912 that he gave his first performance with the Vienna State Opera as a permanent member.

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