Opera Singer, Actress, Author. After a noted stage career, she found success as a journalist, director, and novelist. Raised in London, little is known of her early years, beyond supposition that her father was named "Solden"; married to John Powell in 1859, she began voice training with William Howard Glover in 1861. Her recital career started soon after, initially at an event sponsored by Glover, then at St. James Hall, London, and after an 1865 audition with Charles Morton, at the Canterbury Music Hall, and at the Oxford Music Hall, where she was billed as "Miss Fitz-Henry". At that time, English translations of French comic operettas were becoming popular in England, and Emily was to gain renown in the works of Jacques Offenbach and others. She was the creator of the title lead in Offenbach's "The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein" for Covent Garden's touring company in 1867, while in 1870 she was the title character in Herve's "Chilperic" and Marguerite in H J Byron's "Little Faust" at the Lyceum, London. In 1871, she was first heard in perhaps her best-known role, Drogan in Offenbach's "Genevieve de Brabant", while 1873 saw her as Mlle. Lange in Lecoq's "La fille de Madame Angot". In the mid 1870s, Emily founded her own company, and took it on her first American tour; upon her 1876 return to England, she sang in Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury", Offenbach's "Madame l'Archiduc", and Charles Dibdin's "The Waterman". A second trip to America saw her perform in Offenbach's "La belle Helene", Gilbert and Sullivan's seldom-produced "La poule aux oeufs d'or", and other fare, while back in England she assayed the title role from Bizet's "Carmen" (in English). Her husband's 1881 death left her a single mother of four, while advancing age and increasing weight limited her ability to obtain 'sexy' roles; switching to character work, she was kept busy on both sides of the Atlantic, appearing at Drury Lane in "Frivoli" and on Broadway in "Lorraine", before settling in San Francisco. An unsuccessful 1892 tour of Australia left her broke, but a friend's offer of a job as music critic for the "Sydney Evening News" led her into a long career as a gossip columnist for several London daily papers. Her one novel, "Young Mrs. Staples", sold well, as did her 1896 autobiography, "My Theatrical and Musical Recollections"; the last, however, caused much societal furor due to Emily's 'naming of names' and blunt recounting of the indiscretions of the rich and famous. Emily lived her last years in Bloomsbury, London, and died of heart disease.