#lula mysz-gmeiner

[postcard-from-the-past]

Opera singer Lula Mysz-Gmeiner on a vintage postcard

[opera-ghosts]

Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch (24 November 1848 – 17 May 1929) was a German operatic soprano. She was also a voice teacher. Her first lessons were from her mother, who had been a prima donna under Spohr at the Cassel opera. After singing small parts on the stage, for example in Mozart's Magic Flute at Prague in 1866, and studies under Heinrich Laube in Leipzig,  Lehmann made her proper debut in 1870 in Berlin as a light soprano in Meyerbeer's Das Feldlager in Schlesien. She subsequently became so successful that she was appointed an Imperial Chamber Singer for life in 1876. Lehmann sang in the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, singing in the first complete performances of The Ring Cycle as Woglinde and Helmwige. She performed in London in 1884, and appeared at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1885–1899. Together with her Met colleagues  Fischer, Alvary, Brandt, and Seidl, she helped to popularise Wagner's music in America. By remaining in America beyond the leave granted her by the Berlin Opera, she faced a ban following her return to Germany. After the personal intervention of the Emperor, the ban was lifted. She appeared at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1899 and sang in Paris and Vienna in 1903 and 1909 respectively. In 1905, she sang at the Salzburg Festival, later becoming the festival's artistic director. Lehmann was also renowned as a Lieder singer. She continued to give recitals until her retirement from the concert stage in the 1920s. Her mature voice, of splendid quality and large volume, gained for her the reputation of being not only one of the greatest Wagnerian singers of her day but also an ideal interpreter of Bellini's Norma and the operatic music of Mozart. She was considered unsurpassed in the roles of Brünnhilde and Isolde but sang an astonishingly wide array of other parts. Indeed, across the span of her career, she performed 170 different parts in a total of 119 German, Italian and French operas. She was noted not only for her rendering of the musical score, but also as a tragic actress. She was also a noted voice teacher. Among her pupils were the famous sopranos Geraldine Farrar, Viorica Ursuleac, Edytha Fleischer, Olive Fremstad and the mezzo-sopranos Lula Mysz-Gmeiner and Marion Telva. Longtime Juilliard School professor of voice Lucia Dunham, who trained many other famous singers, was also one of her pupils.

[todayclassical]

August 07 in Music History

1491 Death of Dutch choir master Maitre Jacques Barbireau, in Antwerp. 

1580 Birth of Italian composer, singer and organist Baldassare Donato.

1615 Death of German cantor and composer Melchior Vulpius in Weimar.

1802 Death of French baritone Henri Larrivee. 

1804 FP of Boieldieu: "Abderkhan" St Petersburg.

1815 Birth of German bass Karl Formes.

1818 Birth of English composer Henry Charles Litolff in London. 

1823 Birth of composer Faustina Hasse Hodges.

1835 Birth of Irish-American bass Allan James Foley in Tipperary.  1847 FP of Suppe: "Das Mädchen vom Lande" Vienna.

1857 Birth of French composer Cecile Chaminade in Paris. 

1864 FP of Grandval: "La Comtesse Eva" Paris.

1868 Birth of British composer Sir Granville Ransome Bantock.

 1883 Birth of American baritone Reinald Werrenrath in Brooklyn, NY. 

1887 Birth of composer Luckey Roberts. 

1893 Death of Italian opera composer Alfredo Catalani at age 39, in Milan

1903 Birth of Japanese composer Saburo Moroi in Tokyo. 

1903 Birth of English soprano Margaret Ritchie, in Grimsby. 

1903 Birth of Austrian soprano Maria Reining, in Vienna. 

1906 Birth of composer Gerhard Frommel.

1912 FP of Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1 in Moscow. Prokofiev soloist.

1913 Death of Czech composer and cellist David Popper.

1919 Birth of Finnish bass and composer Kim Borg in Helsinki. 

1920 Birth of Hungarian baritone Gyorgy Radnai. 

1921 Birth of Czech born, American composer and conductor Karel Husa. 1925 Birth of Spanish-born American composer Julián Orbon.

1926 Birth of American composer Marilyn Ziffrin.

1930 Birth of Estonian composer Veljo Tormis in Kuusalu.

1931 Birth of American composer Betty Dardess.

1944 Death of Paraguayan composer Augustín Barrios Mangoré.

1945 Birth of Russian composer Alexander Zhurbin in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

1946 Birth of American soprano Gail Robinson.

1947 Death of German tenor Karl Seydel.

1948 Death of German soprano Gertrud Runge. 

1948 Death of Hungarian contralto Lula Mysz-Gmeiner. 

1949 Death of Spanish bass-baritone Emilio Sagi-Barba. 

1949 Birth of American composer Dan Locklair.

1952 Birth of English pianist and conductor Ian Hobson in Wolverhampton.

1954 Death of German tenor Curt Taucher. 

1957 Birth of German violinist Christian Altenburger.

1959 Birth of bass Harry Peeters, in Roermond.

1961 FP of Lockwood: "Early Dawn" Denver.

1965 Birth of English composer Francois Evans in London.

1973 Death of American bass Chase Baromeo.

1975 Death of Italian tenor Ettore Bergamaschi. 

1977 FP Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 7 at Interlochen.

1981 FP of John Harbison's Piano Quintet at the Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico.

1984 Birth of American composer Joseph Trapanese.

1984 Death of German tenor Martin Ritzmann.

1984 FP of Berio's "Un Re in ascolto" Salzburg.

1981 FP of Friedrich Cerha's opera Baal at the Salzburg Festival in Austria.

1981 FP of John Harbison's Piano Quintet. Edward Auer, piano; Ani Kavafian, violin; Walter Trampler, viola; Timothy Eddy, cello. Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival in NM.

1984 Birth of American composer Joseph Trapanese.

1991 FP of David Del Tredici's An Alice Symphony. Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, MA.

2001 FP of Augusta Read Thomas' Murmurs in the Mist of Memory. International Sejong Soloists at the Aspen Music Festival in CO.

[postcard-from-the-past]

Opera singer Lula Mysz-Gmeiner on a vintage postcard

[opera-ghosts]

Lula Mysz-Gmeiner (15 August 1876 – 7 August 1948) was a German concert contralto and mezzo-soprano born in Transylvania, who performed lieder recitals in Europe and the United States. She was an academic voice teacher in Berlin and taught both Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Peter Anders. She was born Julie Sophie Gmeiner in Kronstadt (Brassó), in the region of Transylvania, in Austria-Hungary (today Brașov, Romania). She was the third of ten siblings, called Lula. Lula learned the violin at age six and played in the Kronstadt orchestra at age 15. A year later, she began voice lessons with the composer Rudolf Lassel, who dedicated a composition to her and premiered it with her.[1] From age 18, she studied at the Vienna Conservatory with Gustav Walter, a notable voice teacher of the time.  About 1898, she moved to Berlin, where she studied with Emilie Herzog, Etelka Gerster and Lilli Lehmann. She performed Lieder by Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Max Reger, among others, many of them written for her or dedicated to her. She married the Transylvanian engineer Ernst Mysz in Kronstadt in 1900. The couple had three daughters, two of whom died young, while the third, Susanne, would marry the tenor Peter Anders, who studied with her mother. Lula Mysz-Gmeiner was awarded the title of an Austrian-Hungarian Kammersänger in 1905.  She made concert tours in Europe and the United States. She often collaborated with the pianists Eduard Behm [de], Emil Mattiesen, Arthur Nikisch, Siegfried Ochs, and Reger. Reger dedicated several lieder to her including his Vier Gesänge, Op. 88, published in 1905.[3][5] She also appeared in concerts, singing for example the Alto Rhapsody by Johannes Brahms and Lieder by Hugo Wolf with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Oskar Fried, on 8 April 1907.  In October 1923, she sang in two concerts of a program in memory of Reger at St. Nikolai in Kiel. Fritz Stein conducted the Oratorienverein and the Städtisches Orchester in Die Nonnen, Requiem and Der 100. Psalm. From 1920, she was a voice teacher at the Staatlich akademische Hochschule für Musik zu Berlin. Among her students were Carla Henius, Maria Müller, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Carla Spletter.

[opera-ghosts]

Etelka Gerster (25 June 1855, Košice – 20 August 1920, Pontecchio) was a Hungarian soprano. She debuted in Italy in 1876 and sang in London the following year. Studied on the recommendation of the composer Hellmesberger at the Vienna Conservatory at the famous Mathilde Marchesi de Castrone. The composer Verdi heard her in 1875 in the house of her teacher at the presentation of an aria from his opera 'La Traviata' and recommended it to the Teatro Fenice Venice. There she began her great career in 1876, by Gilda in 'Rigoletto' as recited debut role. 1876-77  had her first successes in Marseille and Genoa. 1877 she was staying with an Italian opera company in Berlin, her sister, the soprano Bertha Krause-Gerster (* 1852? April 1885 Paris), was a member at the Kroll Opera .. She married the impresario Carlo Gardini (1833-1910),In 1877 she came to London and was at Her Majesty's Theatre as Amina in Bellini's 'La Sonnambula and was' very successful, so  came in the following years to Her Majesty's near the end of her career in 1890 she was at the  Covent Garden Opera . In the years 1878-87 she was  mainly in North America, and indeed after 1878, she sang at the Mapleson Opera Company with which they undertook extensive concert tours through the United States. In 1878 she toured with this company at the Academy of Music in New York and had in her inaugural role of Amina in 'La Sonnambula', and then the Queen of the Night in the Magic Flute .  In 1889 she moved to Berlin and opened a singing school, which met with general approval, and where she taught until 1917 there. She was the teacher of Lula Mysz Gmeiner, Clara Butt and Julia Culp.. In 1918 she retired to her villa in Pontecchio near Bologna .

[todayclassical]

August 16 in Music History

1613 Claudio Monteverdi becomes the Republic of Venice's Master of Music.

1698 Johann Joseph Fux becomes the court composer by Leopold I in Vienna.

1761 Birth of  Russian opera composer Evstigney Ipatovitch Fomin.  1769 Birth of composer Jean Aime Vernier.

1776 Birth of German conductor and composer Jacob Philipp Riotte.

1782 Birth of tenor Giacomo Guglielmi in Massa di Carera. 

1794 FP of Dittersdorf: "Das Gespenst mit der Trommel" singspiel, Oels. 1795 Birth of German opera composer Heinrich August Marschner. 1799 Death of Italian composer Vincenzo Manfredini in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1814 Beethoven finishes composing his Piano Sonata in e, Op 90.

1816 Birth of composer Joseph Robinson.

1834 Birth of French bass Armand Castlemary. 1836 Birth of German composer Albert Biehl in Schwarzburg-Rudolfstadt.

1836 Birth of composer John Farmer.

1863 Birth of composer Cornelia van Osterzee in Batavia, Java. 1863 Birth of French organist, conductor and composer Henri-Constant Gabriel Pierne in Metz. 

1868 Birth of composer Charles Sanford Skilton in Northampton, MA. 

1870 Birth of American composer Harry Benjamin Jepson. 

1871 Birth of composer Zakhary Petrovich Paliashvili.

1872 Birth of Austrian opera composer Siegmund von Hausegger.

1876 Birth of Hungarian contralto Lula Mysz-Gmeiner.

1876 Birth of composer Karl Hoschna. 

1876 FP of Wagner's Siegfried, at Bayreuth, Hans Richter conducting.

1877 Birth of composer Karl L Hoschna.

1880 Birth of French soprano Marguerite Carré. 1885 Birth of soprano Carmen Melis in Longone al Segrino. 

1887 Birth of Hungarian soprano Florica Cristoforeanu. 

1890 Birth of Russian soprano Maria Kurenko, in Tomsk, Siberia. 

1892 Birth of American soprano Sophie Braslau in NYC. 

1895 Birth of composer Jacinto Guerrero.

1897 Birth of American baritone Robert Ringling. 

1897 Birth of composer Vicente Ascone.

1898 Birth of American bass Arthur Anderson.

1899 Birth of Italian contralto Camilla Rota.

1902 Birth of composer Stefan Boleslaw Poradowski.

1904 Birth of English organist Ralph Downes in Derby. 

1907 Birth of composer Alexander Uriah Boskovich.

1909 Birth of composer Paul Smith Callaway.

1913 Birth of American bass-baritone Osie Hawkins.

1917 Birth of Panamanian composer Roque Cordero in Panama City.

1925 Birth of American composer Kirke Mechem.

1929 Death of American composer Frank van der Stucken in Hamburg.

1932 FP of George Gershwin's Cuban Overture called a rumba, by the NY Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Albert Coates, at Lewisohn Stadium.

1937 Birth of American composer David Behrman in Salzburg.

1939 Birth of American mezzo-soprano Janis Martin, in Sacramento. 

1941 Death of tenor John Coates. 

1942 Birth of opera compooser Jacques Delacote.

1945 Birth of soprano Evelyn Mandac, in Manila. 

1947 Birth of American tenor William Pell, in Denver. 

1948 Birth of Canadian composer Stephen Brown in Nottingham, England.

1952 Birth of American soprano Gianna Rolandi in NYC. 

1955 Birth of Roumanian bass Alexandru Agache.

1956 Birth of American soprano Angela Maria Blasi, in New York.

1958 Birth of Dutch composer Hans van Eck in Zwolle.

1959 Death of Polish born, French harpsicordist and pianist Wanda Landowska.

1960 Birth of Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Most in Linz.

1961 FP of Zoltan Kodály's Symphony, dedicated to Arturo Toscanini, at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.

1968 Death of Franch soprano Jane Rolland. 

1973 Death of mezzo-soprano Astra Desmond. 

1972 Birth of Scottish composer Alan Fleming-Baird in Paisley.

1974 Death of English lutenist, guitarist and viol player Desmond Dupre.

1981 Birth of American composer Alexandra du Bois.

1995 FP of Michael Torke's July for saxophone quartet. Apollo Saxophone Quartet at Cardiff Bay.

2001 FP of Lowell Liebermann's Violin Concerto. Chantal Juillet and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Charles Dutoit conducting at Saratoga Arts Center, NY.

2001 FP of Kaija Saariaho's Nymphea Reflection. Sinfonietta Cracova, Axelrod conducting at the Schlewswig-Holstein Festival in Germany