Marianne Brandt was an Austrian opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic singer with an international reputation.

She was born as Marie Bischof in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and was educated at the music conservatory in that city. She first attracted attention on stage in 1867 as Recha in La Juive

La Juive

La Juive is a grand opera in five acts by Fromental Halévy to an original French libretto by Eugène Scribe; it was first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on February 23, 1835.-Composition history:...

and soon afterward accepted an engagement at the Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

 opera. From 1868 to 1886, she was associated with the Royal Opera

Berlin State Opera

The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. Brandt travelled to New York during the 1880s, where she sang for several seasons (1884–1888) the principal contralto

Contralto

Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...

 rôles at the Metropolitan Opera House

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 under Anton Seidl

Anton Seidl

Anton Seidl was a Hungarian conductor.-Biography:He was born at Pest, Hungary. He began the study of music at a very early age, and when only seven years old could pick out at the piano melodies which he had heard at the theatre...

's baton. Two other leading Germanic singers, the soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 Lilli Lehmann

Lilli Lehmann

Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch was a German operatic soprano of phenomenal versatility...

 and the bass-baritone

Bass-baritone

A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...

 Emil Fischer, were performing at the Met at the same time as Brandt. She returned to Vienna in 1890, working as a singing teacher and in concert performances. She died in 1921, aged 78, in Vienna and was buried in the Hadersdorf-Weidlingau cemetery in Penzing

Penzing (Vienna)

Penzing is the 14th District of Vienna and consists of the boroughs of Penzing, Breitensee, Baumgarten, Hütteldorf and Hadersdorf-Weidlingau. In the west, it shares a border with Purkersdorf and Mauerbach...

.

Gifted with a rich contralto/mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano

A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

 voice of extraordinary compass and possessing exceptional histrionic gifts, Brandt was regarded, in her prime, as being one of the greatest German operatic vocalists of the 19th century. As an admirable interpreter of Wagnerian

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

 rôles, she contributed largely to the success of the Bayreuth music festivals

Bayreuth Festival

The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...

 in 1876 and 1882. In 1890 she took up residence in Vienna as a vocal teacher. One of her pupils was Edyth Walker

Edyth Walker

Edyth Walker was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the 1890s through the 1910s. She began her career performing roles from the mezzo-soprano repertory, but later successfully added several soprano parts to her repertoire as well...

. Her voice can be heard on a few Pathé

Pathé Records

Pathé Records was a France-based international record label and producer of phonographs, active from the 1890s through the 1930s.- Early years :...

recordings which she made during the early 1900s while in semi-retirement; these are available on CD re-issues.