Born on February 7, 1859, in Alpha, near Nevada City, California, Emma Wixom grew up in Nevada City and in Austin, Nevada. From an early age singing was her greatest joy, and in childhood she sang for miners and in church. She graduated from Mills Seminary (now College) in 1876. In Vienna on a European study tour in 1877 she met and was taken as a pupil by Mathilde Marchesi, with whom she remained for three years.
She made her operatic debut under the name Emma Nevada in La Sonnambula at Her Majesty╒s Theatre in London in May 1880. She was quickly recognized as one of the great coloratura sopranos of the day. Her voice, while small, was remarkably flute-like, and her art concealed what defects it suffered. For two years she sang in Trieste, Florence, and Genoa, where Verdi is said to have heard her and arranged for her appearance at La Scala in Milan. In May 1883 she opened at the OpÄra Comique in Paris in La Perle du BrÄsil. At the OpÄra Comique she vied with fellow American Marie van Zandt for popular honors. Sir Alexander Mackenzie╒s oratorio The Rose of Sharon, 1884, contained a part written especially for her; she sang it at Covent Garden, London, that year.
Late in 1884 Nevada returned to America in the opera company of Colonel James H. Mapleson as alternate coloratura to Adelina Patti. She sang La Sonnambula at the New York Academy of Music in November 1884 and then toured the country with Mapleson╒s company. She received a particularly enthusiastic welcome in California, In 1885 she returned to Europe. In October of that year she married Dr. Raymond S. Palmer, who was thereafter her manager. She continued to tour Europe for several years. She gave command performances for Queen Victoria and later Edward VII and was a particular favorite of Queen Christina of Spain. Her performances in Madrid and Seville were usually the occasion of outbursts of adulation.
Nevada╒s favorite roles were in LakmÄ, Faust, Les Contes d╒Hoffman, Mireille, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Mignon and Lucia di Lammermoor. She made tours of the United States in 1899, 1901╨1902, and 1907. After a final LakmÄ in Berlin in 1910 she retired from the stage. For some years thereafter she taught voice in England. She died in Liverpool, England, on June 20, 1940.
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