Selma Kurz
Encyclopedia
Selma Kurz was an Austrian operatic soprano known for her brilliant coloratura
technique.
, in the Polish province of Silesia). While still a girl she was taken to a convent of nuns, with the hope that she might learn to be a seamstress; the nuns quickly discovered the beauty of her voice, however, and she also often sang in the local synagogue. These circumstances led local people to raise some money so that she could go to Vienna and audition for professor Gänsbacher, a prominent vocal teacher. Gänsbacher did not teach women, but wrote some important letters of recommendation. Little Selma was thus enabled to visit the imposing Schloss Totis, the Viennese residence, en villéggiature, of the famous patron of the arts, count Nicholas [Miklós] Esterházy
de Galántha, who agreed to pay for her lessons with another prominent vocal pedagogue, Johannes Ress.
Once her career was established, Selma Kurz consulted such world-renowned voice teachers as Jean de Reszke
in Nice
and Mathilde Marchesi
in Paris, as well as the soprano Felicie Kaschowska, well-known in Vienna; but she always called herself, above all, a pupil of Ress.
's opera Mignon
, at the Stadttheater, Hamburg
, on May 12, 1895. She appeared there and at Frankfurt am Main for the next four seasons, singing all manner of roles, including Eudoxie in Halévy
's La Juive
, Elisabeth in Wagner
's Tannhäuser
and Bizet
's Carmen
.
, music director of the Vienna Imperial and Royal Court Opera, heard Kurz in Frankfurt towards the end of 1898 and asked her to audition for him. He immediately offered her a contract and she made her début at the theatre that would become her artistic and spiritual home, also as Mignon, on September 3, 1899.
Her success in Vienna was swift and total, and lasted to the end of her musical career, thirty years later. Mahler himself, hearing her perfect trill and wonderfully placed high-notes in Leonora's Act IV aria in Il trovatore
, suggested that she ought to study the Hochkoloratur
repertory, in which she would become the Hofoper's prima donna assoluta.
The Court Opera director carefully introduced her to this repertoire by letting her sing Rosina (in The Barber of Seville
), the pages Urbain in Les Huguenots
and Oscar in Un ballo in maschera
, Juliette and Martha; but she soon moved on to Elvira in Ernani
, Lakmé
, Konstanze, Gilda, Violetta (in La traviata
) and, last but not least, Lucia di Lammermoor
.
Mahler fell in love with Selma, and they had a short affair during the spring of 1900. However, the Court Opera did not allow their members to marry among themselves, and Selma decided to choose for her career.
It was Kurz's legendary singing in Mahler's 1903 revival of Un ballo in maschera as well as in Goldmark
's The Queen of Sheba
, that cemented her immense popularity with the Viennese public. (As Astaroth in The Queen of Sheba, perhaps her most famous role, she held audiences spellbound with her vocalization of the so-called Lockruf or 'Siren Call.') It also led to her being elevated to the position of Kaiserliche und Königliche Kammersängerin ('Imperial and Royal Court Singer') at the age of 29. She was often thereafter in attendance of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria
, always a devoted admirer of her art.
In the year-long Mozart
festival performances organized to celebrate the composer's 150th birthday, Kurz sang Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte
in 1905 and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail
a year later. Also in 1906, on the occasion of a much-acclaimed Caruso gala, she sang Gilda in Rigoletto
, with Titta Ruffo
in the title role. This was Ruffo's only appearance in Vienna.
Although she had great triumphs in coloratura roles, Kurz did not neglect her lyric repertory. Indeed, of the 992 performances she would give at the Vienna Hofoper (later Staatsoper), more than 100 would be devoted to Mimì in Puccini
's La bohème
. She also created that composer's Madama Butterfly
for Vienna (1907) as well as Saffi in Johann Strauss
's Der Zigeunerbaron
(1910).
She sang Tatiana (Eugene Onegin
) and Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier
) in 1911 and, in one of the many high points of her Viennese career, created Zerbinetta in the world première of the second version of Richard Strauss
's Ariadne auf Naxos
, on October 4, 1916. She sang Zerbinetta 36 times in Vienna.
In Vienna she sang every imaginable role, from Tchaikovsky
's Iolanta
and Wagner's Elsa (in Lohengrin
) and Sieglinde (in Die Walküre
) to Marguerite in Gounod
's Faust
, Massenet
's Manon
, Frau Fluth in Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor
and Rosalinde in Johann Strauss II
's Die Fledermaus
. Next to Mimì in La bohème, her most frequently heard roles were Gilda, Violetta and the Trovatore Leonora.
Her last performance at the great theatre in the Ringstraße
, where so many of her triumphs had been acclaimed by two generations of opera lovers from all over Europe and the world, took place on February 12, 1927. This appearance, as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, closed one of the most glorious operatic careers in the twentieth century.
Her very last public appearance occurred in September 1932 at the baptism of Archduke Stefan (1932–1998), son of Archduke Anton and Princess Ileana of Romania. Although already mortally ill, the Imperial and Royal Kammersängerin sang Mozart's Ridente la calma and the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria
as a gesture to the baby's grandmother, Queen Marie of Rumania
, who had long been a close personal friend. Selma Kurz died nine months later.
, Rome, Salzburg, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam, Ostend, Bucharest and Cairo.
In London she was first heard in May 1904 in Rigoletto, with Enrico Caruso and Maurice Renaud
. She then sang her famous page, Oscar, in Un ballo in maschera
, with Giannina Russ
, Caruso, Antonio Scotti
and Marcel Journet
.
The following year she again sang A Masked Ball with Caruso and Mario Sammarco
as well as her other favourite page role, Urbain in Les Huguenots
, opposite Emmy Destinn
, Caruso, Scotti, Journet and Clarence Whitehill
. She also appeared in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette
opposite Charles Dalmorès
' Romeo. She also repeated, in these two seasons of coloratura successes, her Elisabeth in Tannhäuser
, with Karel Burian
in the title role.
In 1907 she was heard again at Covent Garden
, this time in Lucia di Lammermoor
, with Alessandro Bonci
as Edgardo. She repeated Rigoletto
(with Bonci and Sammarco) and Un ballo in maschera (with Amedeo Bassi) and added Catalani
's Loreley
, obviously a Bassi vehicle. She was then not heard at the Royal Opera until 1924, when she sang La bohème
and La traviata
. Her London appearances were extremely successful, notwithstanding the enmity of the all-powerful Nellie Melba
, as entrenched at Covent Garden as Kurz was in Vienna.
Selma Kurz was many times invited to appear in the United States and received several tempting offers from the Metropolitan Opera
in New York. None of these managed to induce her so far from Vienna and her family. It was only in 1921 that she finally sailed for the New World, appearing one single time in concert at the New York Hippodrome
. This was supposed to be the first concert of a long tour, but she immediately took ill (she had possibly had a heart attack) and the tour was cancelled. She immediately returned to Vienna where she had a long convalescence before she could return to performing with a voice that, all agreed, was never quite the same.
's Fourth Symphony
with Bruno Walter
. Notwithstanding her always delicate heath, Selma von Halban-Kurz had a notably happy family life in her palatial Vienna home until, in 1929, she became ill with cancer. After a battle with this disease, she died on May 10, 1933, in Vienna.
It was the municipal authorities that insisted that the great Imperial and Royal Kammersängerin be buried in a lovely spot at the Zentralfriedhof, the Central Cemetery where Vienna's great sons and daughters are interred. There she lies, not far from Mozart
, Beethoven
, Schubert
and Brahms
.
"Selma Kurz is one of the greatest coloratura sopranos of all times. Her effortless mastering of difficult parts, the freedom of her taste of stile, but above all her endless uncomparable trills can't be overestimated and she can still be admired on CD".
in 1900. These were followed by Zonophone
and Gramophone & Typewriter Company discs, dating from 1901-1906. She then made a long series for HMV
(now EMI
) in 1907-1914. These are by far the best of her recordings, capturing the attractiveness of her tone and the exceptional agility of her vocal technique. Around 1910, she recorded three cylinders for the Edison company. After the First World War, she recorded for Deutsche Grammophon
/Polydor in 1923-24. This is a successful series of records, even though it documents a decline in the voice. In 1924-25 she again recorded for HMV, which even made a number of electrical recordings of her singing, including a remarkable version of the "Siren Call" from The Queen of Sheba, complete with her trademark trill.
She recorded a number of pieces accompanied by the Czech violinist Váša Příhoda
.
Coloratura
Coloratura has several meanings. The word is originally from Italian, literally meaning "coloring", and derives from the Latin word colorare . When used in English, the term specifically refers to elaborate melody, particularly in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and...
technique.
Background
Selma Kurz was born in Biala, the poorer of two adjoining Austrian towns (the other was Bielitz), to a very humble Jewish family of eleven children. She grew up in Bielitz. (Today they are a single city known as Bielsko-BiałaBielsko-Biała
-Economy and Industry:Nowadays Bielsko-Biała is one of the best-developed parts of Poland. It was ranked 2nd best city for business in that country by Forbes. About 5% of people are unemployed . Bielsko-Biała is famous for its textile, machine-building, and especially automotive industry...
, in the Polish province of Silesia). While still a girl she was taken to a convent of nuns, with the hope that she might learn to be a seamstress; the nuns quickly discovered the beauty of her voice, however, and she also often sang in the local synagogue. These circumstances led local people to raise some money so that she could go to Vienna and audition for professor Gänsbacher, a prominent vocal teacher. Gänsbacher did not teach women, but wrote some important letters of recommendation. Little Selma was thus enabled to visit the imposing Schloss Totis, the Viennese residence, en villéggiature, of the famous patron of the arts, count Nicholas [Miklós] Esterházy
Esterházy
The House of Esterházy was a Hungarian noble family in Hungary beginning in the Middle Ages. From the 17th century they were among the great landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the time it was part of the Habsburg Empire and later Austria-Hungary.-History:The Esterházys arose...
de Galántha, who agreed to pay for her lessons with another prominent vocal pedagogue, Johannes Ress.
Once her career was established, Selma Kurz consulted such world-renowned voice teachers as Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke, born Jan Mieczyslaw, , was a Polish tenor. Renowned internationally for the high quality of his singing and the elegance of his bearing, he became the biggest male opera star of the late 19th century....
in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
and Mathilde Marchesi
Mathilde Marchesi
Mathilde Marchesi was a German mezzo-soprano, a renowned teacher of singing, and a proponent of the bel canto vocal method.-Biography:...
in Paris, as well as the soprano Felicie Kaschowska, well-known in Vienna; but she always called herself, above all, a pupil of Ress.
Début
She was first heard in Vienna at a student concert of Ress pupils on March 22, 1895. She got good notices and offers poured from many opera houses, especially the ones in provincial Germany, which were always looking for new talent. She made her début in the title-role of Ambroise ThomasAmbroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...
's opera Mignon
Mignon
Mignon is an opéra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. The Italian version was translated by Giuseppe Zaffira. The opera is mentioned in James Joyce's The Dead,...
, at the Stadttheater, Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, on May 12, 1895. She appeared there and at Frankfurt am Main for the next four seasons, singing all manner of roles, including Eudoxie in Halévy
Fromental Halévy
Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy, usually known as Fromental Halévy , was a French composer. He is known today largely for his opera La Juive.-Early career:...
's 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:...
, Elisabeth in Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
and Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
.
Vienna
Gustav MahlerGustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, music director of the Vienna Imperial and Royal Court Opera, heard Kurz in Frankfurt towards the end of 1898 and asked her to audition for him. He immediately offered her a contract and she made her début at the theatre that would become her artistic and spiritual home, also as Mignon, on September 3, 1899.
Her success in Vienna was swift and total, and lasted to the end of her musical career, thirty years later. Mahler himself, hearing her perfect trill and wonderfully placed high-notes in Leonora's Act IV aria in Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, suggested that she ought to study the Hochkoloratur
Coloratura
Coloratura has several meanings. The word is originally from Italian, literally meaning "coloring", and derives from the Latin word colorare . When used in English, the term specifically refers to elaborate melody, particularly in vocal music and especially in operatic singing of the 18th and...
repertory, in which she would become the Hofoper's prima donna assoluta.
The Court Opera director carefully introduced her to this repertoire by letting her sing Rosina (in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
), the pages Urbain in Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
and Oscar in Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, Juliette and Martha; but she soon moved on to Elvira in Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
, Lakmé
Lakmé
Lakmé is an opera in three acts by Léo Delibes to a French libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. Delibes wrote the score during 1881–82 with its first performance on 14 April 1883 at the Opéra Comique in Paris. Set in British India in the mid 19th century, Lakmé is based on the 1880 novel...
, Konstanze, Gilda, Violetta (in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
) and, last but not least, Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
.
Mahler fell in love with Selma, and they had a short affair during the spring of 1900. However, the Court Opera did not allow their members to marry among themselves, and Selma decided to choose for her career.
It was Kurz's legendary singing in Mahler's 1903 revival of Un ballo in maschera as well as in Goldmark
Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna) was a Hungarian composer.- Life and career :...
's The Queen of Sheba
Die Königin von Saba
Die Königin von Saba is an opera in four acts by Karl Goldmark. The German libretto by Hermann Salomon Mosenthal, sets a love triangle into the context of the Queen of Sheba's visit to the court of King Solomon, recorded in First Kings...
, that cemented her immense popularity with the Viennese public. (As Astaroth in The Queen of Sheba, perhaps her most famous role, she held audiences spellbound with her vocalization of the so-called Lockruf or 'Siren Call.') It also led to her being elevated to the position of Kaiserliche und Königliche Kammersängerin ('Imperial and Royal Court Singer') at the age of 29. She was often thereafter in attendance of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
, always a devoted admirer of her art.
In the year-long Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
festival performances organized to celebrate the composer's 150th birthday, Kurz sang Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
in 1905 and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
a year later. Also in 1906, on the occasion of a much-acclaimed Caruso gala, she sang Gilda in Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, with Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo
Titta Ruffo , born as Ruffo Titta Cafiero, was an Italian opera star who had a major international singing career. Known as the "Voce del leone" , he was greatly admired, even by rival baritones, such as Giuseppe De Luca, who said of Ruffo: "His was not a voice, it was a miracle" Titta Ruffo (9...
in the title role. This was Ruffo's only appearance in Vienna.
Although she had great triumphs in coloratura roles, Kurz did not neglect her lyric repertory. Indeed, of the 992 performances she would give at the Vienna Hofoper (later Staatsoper), more than 100 would be devoted to Mimì in Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. She also created that composer's Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
for Vienna (1907) as well as Saffi in Johann Strauss
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Der Zigeunerbaron
The Gypsy Baron
The Gypsy Baron is an operetta in three acts by Johann Strauss II which premiered at the Theater an der Wien on 24 October 1885. Its libretto was by the author Ignaz Schnitzer and in turn was based on Sáffi by Mór Jókai. During the composer's lifetime, the operetta enjoyed great success, second...
(1910).
She sang Tatiana (Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
) and Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
) in 1911 and, in one of the many high points of her Viennese career, created Zerbinetta in the world première of the second version of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
, on October 4, 1916. She sang Zerbinetta 36 times in Vienna.
In Vienna she sang every imaginable role, from Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's Iolanta
Iolanta
Iolanta, Op. 69, is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter by Henrik Hertz. The play was translated by Fyodor Miller and adapted by Vladimir Zotov...
and Wagner's Elsa (in Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
) and Sieglinde (in Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
) to Marguerite in Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
, Frau Fluth in Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
and Rosalinde in Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
. Next to Mimì in La bohème, her most frequently heard roles were Gilda, Violetta and the Trovatore Leonora.
Her last performance at the great theatre in the Ringstraße
Ringstraße
The Ringstraße is a circular road surrounding the Innere Stadt district of Vienna, Austria and is one of its main sights...
, where so many of her triumphs had been acclaimed by two generations of opera lovers from all over Europe and the world, took place on February 12, 1927. This appearance, as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, closed one of the most glorious operatic careers in the twentieth century.
Her very last public appearance occurred in September 1932 at the baptism of Archduke Stefan (1932–1998), son of Archduke Anton and Princess Ileana of Romania. Although already mortally ill, the Imperial and Royal Kammersängerin sang Mozart's Ridente la calma and the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria
Ave Maria (Bach/Gounod)
The Bach/Gounod Ave Maria is a popular and much-recorded setting of the Latin text Ave Maria.Written by French Romantic composer Charles Gounod in 1859, his Ave Maria consists of a melody superimposed over the Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier, written by...
as a gesture to the baby's grandmother, Queen Marie of Rumania
Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
, who had long been a close personal friend. Selma Kurz died nine months later.
Her career outside Vienna
Form the outset Selma Kurz was widely required all over Europe and she appeared successfully in both opera and concert at the Grand Opéra in Paris, the Princely Opéra in Monte CarloMonte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
, Rome, Salzburg, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam, Ostend, Bucharest and Cairo.
In London she was first heard in May 1904 in Rigoletto, with Enrico Caruso and Maurice Renaud
Maurice Renaud
Maurice Renaud , was a cultured French operatic baritone. He enjoyed an international reputation for the superlative quality of his singing and the brilliance of his acting.-Early years:...
. She then sang her famous page, Oscar, in Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, with Giannina Russ
Giannina Russ
Giannina Russ was an Italian operatic soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.-Life and career:Russ studied piano and voice at the Milan Music Conservatory with Leoni....
, Caruso, Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti was an Italian baritone. He was a principal artist of the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 33 seasons, but also sang with great success at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Milan's La Scala.-Life:Antonio Scotti was born in Naples, Italy...
and Marcel Journet
Marcel Journet
Marcel Journet , was a French, bass, operatic singer. He enjoyed a prominent career in England, France and Italy, and appeared at the foremost American opera houses in New York City and Chicago....
.
The following year she again sang A Masked Ball with Caruso and Mario Sammarco
Mario Sammarco
Mario Sammarco was an Italian operatic baritone noted for his histrionic ability.-Biography:...
as well as her other favourite page role, Urbain in Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
, opposite Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn
Emmy Destinn was a Czech operatic soprano with a strong and soaring lyric-dramatic voice. She had a career both in Europe and at the New York Metropolitan Opera.- Biography :...
, Caruso, Scotti, Journet and Clarence Whitehill
Clarence Whitehill
Clarence Whitehill was a leading American bass-baritone. He sang on both sides of the Atlantic and is best remembered for his association with the music dramas of Richard Wagner....
. She also appeared in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
opposite Charles Dalmorès
Charles Dalmorès
Charles Dalmorès was a French tenor. He enjoyed an international operatic career, singing to public and critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic during the first two decades of the 20th century.-Biography:...
' Romeo. She also repeated, in these two seasons of coloratura successes, her Elisabeth in Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (opera)
Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...
, with Karel Burian
Karel Burian
Karel Burian was a renowned Czech operatic tenor who had an active international career spanning the 1890s to the 1920s. A Heldentenor, Burian earned acclaim in Europe and America for his powerful performances of the heaviest Wagnerian roles...
in the title role.
In 1907 she was heard again at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, this time in Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
, with Alessandro Bonci
Alessandro Bonci
Alessandro Bonci was an Italian lyric tenor known internationally for his association with the bel canto repertoire. He sang at many famous theatres, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La Scala and London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.-Career:A native of Cesena, Romagna, Bonci...
as Edgardo. She repeated Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
(with Bonci and Sammarco) and Un ballo in maschera (with Amedeo Bassi) and added Catalani
Alfredo Catalani
Alfredo Catalani was an Italian operatic composer. He is best remembered for his operas Loreley and La Wally...
's Loreley
Loreley (opera)
Loreley is a three-act azione romantica opera by Alfredo Catalani, composed to a libretto by Angelo Zanardini, Giuseppe Depanis, Carlo D'Ormeville and others....
, obviously a Bassi vehicle. She was then not heard at the Royal Opera until 1924, when she sang La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
and La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
. Her London appearances were extremely successful, notwithstanding the enmity of the all-powerful Nellie Melba
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century...
, as entrenched at Covent Garden as Kurz was in Vienna.
Selma Kurz was many times invited to appear in the United States and received several tempting offers from the Metropolitan Opera
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...
in New York. None of these managed to induce her so far from Vienna and her family. It was only in 1921 that she finally sailed for the New World, appearing one single time in concert at the New York Hippodrome
New York Hippodrome
The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theatre in New York City from 1905 to 1939, located on Sixth Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. It was called the world's largest theatre by its builders and had a seating capacity of...
. This was supposed to be the first concert of a long tour, but she immediately took ill (she had possibly had a heart attack) and the tour was cancelled. She immediately returned to Vienna where she had a long convalescence before she could return to performing with a voice that, all agreed, was never quite the same.
Last years
In 1910, Selma Kurz married the noted gynecologist, Professor Dr Joseph Halban (1876-1937), a professor at Vienna University, who later was knighted by the Austrian Emperor, becoming Ritter Joseph von Halban. With him she had two children, Désirée and Georg. "Dési" Halban became a concert soprano who, among other things, recorded MahlerGustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's Fourth Symphony
Symphony No. 4 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1899 and 1901, though it incorporates a song originally written in 1892. The song, "Das himmlische Leben", presents a child's vision of Heaven. It is sung by a soprano in the work's fourth and last movement...
with Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...
. Notwithstanding her always delicate heath, Selma von Halban-Kurz had a notably happy family life in her palatial Vienna home until, in 1929, she became ill with cancer. After a battle with this disease, she died on May 10, 1933, in Vienna.
It was the municipal authorities that insisted that the great Imperial and Royal Kammersängerin be buried in a lovely spot at the Zentralfriedhof, the Central Cemetery where Vienna's great sons and daughters are interred. There she lies, not far from Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
and Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
.
Appreciation
Selma Kurz was a very beautiful woman, 1.6 m, fragile and delicate. Her appearance on stage and acting was attractive and very well received. She could make the public go mad with her long trills. People even came with stopwatches to determine that it was 'even one second longer than yesterday'. In a 1907 recording of Taubert's Der Vogel im Walde, the trill lasts 24 seconds."Selma Kurz is one of the greatest coloratura sopranos of all times. Her effortless mastering of difficult parts, the freedom of her taste of stile, but above all her endless uncomparable trills can't be overestimated and she can still be admired on CD".
Recordings
Selma Kurz left over 150 78-rpm recordings. The first were made for Emile BerlinerEmile Berliner
Emile Berliner or Emil Berliner was a German-born American inventor. He is best known for developing the disc record gramophone...
in 1900. These were followed by Zonophone
Zonophone
Zonophone, early on also rendered as Zon-O-Phone was a record label founded in 1899 in Camden, New Jersey by Frank Seaman. The Zonophone name was not that of the company, but was applied to the records and machines sold by Seaman from 1899-1900 to 1903...
and Gramophone & Typewriter Company discs, dating from 1901-1906. She then made a long series for HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
(now EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
) in 1907-1914. These are by far the best of her recordings, capturing the attractiveness of her tone and the exceptional agility of her vocal technique. Around 1910, she recorded three cylinders for the Edison company. After the First World War, she recorded for Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...
/Polydor in 1923-24. This is a successful series of records, even though it documents a decline in the voice. In 1924-25 she again recorded for HMV, which even made a number of electrical recordings of her singing, including a remarkable version of the "Siren Call" from The Queen of Sheba, complete with her trademark trill.
She recorded a number of pieces accompanied by the Czech violinist Váša Příhoda
Váša Příhoda
Váša Příhoda was a famous Czech violinist known for the perfection of his technique and the beauty of his tone. He was considered a Paganini specialist, and his recording of the Violin Concerto in A minor by Dvořák is still very highly praised. His artistry was controversial, and tended to...
.
External links
- BBC-interview with Desi Halban about her Mother, with songs and arias: http://selmakurz.driebond.eu/