Local Talent at the San Francisco Opera: Flossita Badger

source: San Francisco Opera Company. Annual season, 1925-1926

During the early seasons of the San Francisco Opera, the company hired internationally known stars for lead parts. Smaller, yet important, roles were handled by Bay Area talent. Flossita Badger sang in a handful of these parts between 1923 and 1934.

Born in Vermont in 1899, Flossita Badger grew up in California’s Central Valley. She moved to San Jose to attend the Conservatory of Music at the College of the Pacific where she graduated in Public School Music. Howard Hanson, then on the composition faculty, dedicated his opus 10 song "Exaltation" to her. 

After graduation she became a high school teacher, teaching music in Chowchilla and San Luis Obispo before being appointed head of the Music Department at Lowell High School in San Francisco. She took leave during this time to study opera in France and Italy.  During that time she performed with the San Carlo Opera Company in Naples.

Badger played one of the two lay-sisters ("due converse") in Puccini's Suor Angelica in the San Francisco Opera’s inaugural 1923 season. In 1925 she appeared in von Flotow’s Martha and later also played roles in Gounod’s Faust and Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor during the 1926 season. 

Alfred Metzger wrote favorably of the latter performance in the Pacific Coast Musical Review: "as Alice [Badger] revealed a very delightful voice and interpreted her role in a manner decidedly satisfactory."

During these years she was a regular in the Opera Chorus.  She also sang as a member of the San Francisco Opera on the airwaves of KPO.  At the same time, Flossita Badger was also a frequent vocal recitalist in the Bay Area.  She married her piano accompanist Lincoln Batchelder in 1931.

Flossita Badger (image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection)

In 1935 she was selected to head the Music Department at the newly established San Francisco Junior College (today known as the City College of San Francisco). There she directed the A Cappella Choir and organized many opera workshops. The Examiner's Alexander Fried described her as the "skilled, lively director" of the opera program. While on the faculty of City College she took a six month sabbatical to continue her studies at Columbia University and Julliard. Throughout her performance career, Flossita Badger appeared on the radio, gave solo recitals, and performed with other opera troupes. She died in San Francisco in 1961, one year after retiring from City College.

Bibliography:

"Choir Director Returns in Spring from Sabbatical Leave in NY," The Guardsman January 20, 1948.

Directory of Secondary and Normal Schools for The School Year 1919-1920 (California. State Board of Education, 1919).

"Flossita Badger," San Francisco Examiner September 22, 1929.

"Flossita Badger Dies Here," San Francisco Chronicle March 28, 1961

"Flossita Badger, Musician," [obituary] San Francisco Examiner March 28, 1961.

Fried, Alexander, "Opera Excerpts Bring Campion Festival to End," San Francisco Examiner August 30, 1952.

Howard Hanson Collection: Series 3: Manuscripts (Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester).

Metzger, Alfred, "Winter Opera Season at Columbia Theatre Artistic Success," Pacific Coast Musical Review January 5, 1926

"Jr. College Music," San Francisco Examiner September 8, 1935.

"Reception to Girls at College of Pacific," San Jose Mercury-News October 14, 1917

"Roseville High School," Placer Herald June 21, 1913.

"S.F. Musicians Plan Troth," San Francisco Chronicle January 4, 1931.

"Training Teachers Lags in America, Says Columbia Man; Spirited Talk at High School," Santa Cruz Evening News October 19, 1920.

"Varied Musical Fare to Be Broadcast by KPO," San Francisco Examiner September 16, 1926.

"Voice Students Given Opera Training Chance," San Francisco Examiner October 31, 1948