Lillian Nordica

Lillian Nordica was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country.

She was born Lillian Allen Norton in a small Cape Cod style farmhouse built by her grandfather on a hill in Farmington, Maine. The Nordica stage name was bestowed by an Italian maestro at the beginning of her operatic career. He convinced her that European operagoers would not tolerate a diva with a plain sounding, AngloAmerican name. The adopted name, Giglia Nordica, meant Lily of the North but she soon became known as Madame Nordica or simply as Nordica.

Source: Wikipedia