Mary Shaw

Mary Shaw was an English contralto who created Cuniza in Verdi's first opera, Oberto, at La Scala in 1839. Born Mary Postans, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music and with Sir George Smart, and sang in concerts for five years, including under Mendelssohn in Leipzig. Her stage debut was at Novara in 1839. From 1842 she sang at Covent Garden and Drury Lane, where in 1844 she was in the first performance of Benedict's The Brides of Venice. Later that year her husband went insane, and the shock so affected her voice that she left the stage.