Ramsey County History – Winter 2012: “How Nettie Snyder Put the City on the Musical Map”

How Nettie Snyder Put the City on the Musical Map
Author: Roger Bergerson

When Enrico Caruso and the stars of the New York Metropolitan Opera Company took the stage at the brand-new St. Paul Auditorium in the spring of 1907, the arias soared and so did civic pride. “The great building was filled for every performance and the audiences made a brave display in the way of costumes and jewels,” the St. Paul Dispatch enthused. “The assemblages were representative of the whole Northwest-representative of its riches and of its culture.” This gala event and more like it were the work of Mrs. Fred H. (“Nettie”) Snyder, a dynamo who had studied voice in Italy, and when her career as a soloist ended, turned instead to organizing and promoting opera in St. Paul. After her first husband died, Nettie married Fred Snyder in 1889 and gave voice lessons while Fred operated the Frederic Hotel, beginning in 1904. Her work as an opera impresario peaked in 1912. Thereafter, she continued to stage events in St. Paul, but they were less frequent and she spent much of her time in New York City. A divorce from Fred in the early 1920s allowed her to live for a time in Italy and then in California, where she died in 1929.
PDF of Bergerson article