#operatic singer

Adieu, Virginia Zeani! And thank you!

Wilhelm Grüning (1858-1942) German tenor.

He made his debut (1881) in Danzig. He spent most of his career at the Hannover Opera and the Berlin Imperial Opera.

He was the son of a Berlin jeweller. He studied singing in Berlin under Julius Stern and Jenny Meyer and made his debut in 1881 at the Stadttheater in Gdansk as a lyric tenor, however, his voice changed about 1885 to the heroic tenor. From Gdansk he joined in the 1883-1885 seasons to the Opernhaus in Dusseldorf, then sang in the 1885-1887 seasons at the Deutschen Theater in Rotterdam. From 1888 to 1895 he appeared at the Hoftheater in Hannover, in the 1895-1898 seasons at the Stadttheater in Hamburg. In 1898 he joined to to the Hofoper in Berlin, where he  remained till 1911. From 1891 to 1897 he appeared at the Bayreuth festival as Parsifal, Tannhäuser, Siegfried and Walther von Stolzing in ‘’Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg’’. His creation of the title role in R. Wagner’s ‘’Rienzi’’ counted at his time as an incomparable achievement. In 1899 he appeared at the Berlin Hofoper in the premiere of the (posthumous) operas ‘’Briseïs’’ of E. Chabrier, ‘’Cain’’ (1900) by E. d’Albert, ‘’Samson et Dalila’’ (1901) of C. Saint-Saëns, ‘’Der Pfeifertag’’ (1902) by M. von Schillings (after premiere in 1899 at the Hoftheater in Schwerin). He appeared as Faust in C. Gounod’s ‘’Faust’’ in a performance in which Geraldine Farrar made her debut at Berlin as Marguerite (15. 10. 1901). On 13. 12. 1904 he performed at the Berlin  Hofoper in the unsuccessful premiere of the opera ‘’Der Roland von Berlin’’ by R. Leoncavallo. On 21. 3. 1899 he sang there also in the premiere of A. Lortzing’s opera ‘’Regina’’ (48 years after the death of the composer!). He made guest appearances in London and Amsterdam and in the 1895-1896 season sang with the Damrosch Opera Company in the USA. Probably he retired from the stage in 1911 and was active in Berlin as vocal pedagogue. Married to the known dramatic soprano Antonie Mielke (1856-1907).

Ester Mazzoleni (1883 - 1982) dramatic soprano.

Ernst Kraus (1863-1941) was one of the leading hero tenors of his time. Celebrated in Bayreuth and first hero tenor at the Berlin Court Opera from 1896 for 25 years. He was friend with Enrico Caruso and ended his career in 1923.

Il Trovatore: "Stride La Vampa" · Louise Homer · Metropolitan Opera Orchestra · Giulio Setti

Louise Homer was one of the most talented and popular opera singers of the early twentieth century. She had a two-decade career as a leading contra-alto with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She performed with Enrico Caruso and Marcella Sembrich under director Arturo Toscanini. Along with her beautiful voice, she was greatly admired for her powerful acting and stage presence. She sang many of the grandest roles in the Italian, French and, German operas. Her notable roles were Amneris in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, Orpheus in Toscanini's 1909 revival of Christoph Gluck's opera, the Witch in Engelbert Humperdinck's Königskinder, and the title role in Horatio Parker's Mona. She also toured the country as a solo recitalist.

Louise, a top selling artist on the Victor Talking Machine Company (RCA), was regarded as one of the first great classical recording artists. She recorded from 1903 through 1929, singing arias, gospel hymns, and songs composed by her husband Sidney Homer. She recorded duets with Caruso, Alma Gluck, and other opera stars. Her recording of “Whispering Hope” with Alma Gluck was a national best seller.

Born Louise Dilworth Beatty in Pittsburgh in 1871, she was the daughter of Dr. William Trimble Beatty, founder of the Shadyside Presbyterian church. Beatty Hall at Chatham College in named in hour of Dr. Beatty, who was one of the founders of the college. She sang in the church choir with her eight brothers and sisters. When her father died in 1882, her mother moved the family to West Chester, Pa to be near her relatives. She studied voice and made her public debut in Philadelphia with an performance of the cantana “Ruth the Moahitess”. Louise graduated as valedictorian from West Chester High School. To help support her family she worked as a stenographer and court reporter. She continued to study singing with Abbie Whinnery and Alice Goff. She also sang contralto in a church quartet. In 1893 she quit her job and enrolled at New England Conservatory of Music. Her composition instructor Sidney Homer (6 years her senior) accompanied Louise to a performance of Faust by the visiting Metropolitan Opera. Disobeying her family’s religious beliefs it was the first theatrical performance she ever attended. After that performance, Louise vowed that she would become an operatic artist.

Louise wed Sidney Homer in 1895, had a child, and went off on borrowed money in 1896 with her husband to Paris for more vocal studies. In Paris studied with drama with Paul Lhérie and voice with Fidélé König. She made her professional debut as Louise Homer in 1898 in Vichy, France as Leonora in Gaetano Donizetti’s La favorita. She continued her early career appearing at for a season at Covent Garden in London in 1899. Her performances at Covent Garden resulted in a Royal Command Performance. Appearing for a season in Brussel she had over 100 performances at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. Maurice Grau of the Metropolitan Opera heard her sing in Paris and offered her a three year contract. In 1900 she became an principal singer at the Metropolitan Opera in 1900, performing there until 1919.

Louise Homer found critical acclaim in 1908 for her performance as Orfeo in Toscanini's revival of Gluck's opera. Operate Critic Richard Aldrich wrote of her "nobility, dignity and plastic grace for the eye, and of full-throated and beautiful song for the ear."

Louise retired from the Met after the 1918 - 1919 season. She sang for several seasons with the Chicago Civic Opera. In 1927 and 1928 she returned to the Met for two celebrated guest appearances. She toured the country appearing at recitals that included songs by her nephew, Samuel Barber. Her older sister, Marguerite, was Barber's mother.

Louise and Sydney retired to Florida, where Louise became a vocal instructor at Rollins College. She taught vocal students until her death at age 76 in 1947. While she was at the height of her singing career she raised six children with her noted composer husband Sidney Homer. She was elected as one of the greatest American women by the National Association of

 Here a portrait of Florence Austral, from 1929.

One of the world’s great Wagnerian sopranos was born Florence Mary Wilson in the humble Melbourne suburb of Richmond on 16 April 1892. From 1903, when her mother remarried, she took the name Florence Fawaz. After some basic voice training she won several prizes in the 1913 Ballarat South Street competitions and was accepted as a pupil of the respected Elise Wiedermann, first at Fritz Hart’s Albert Street Conservatorium, and later at the University of Melbourne Conservatorium. By 1919 she was ready to undertake further studies in New York, but not before she had been engaged by J.C. Williamson Filmsto sing between silent movie presentations at the Paramount Theatre in Bourke Street. Her associate artist was New Zealand born flautist John Amadio.

New York proved professionally disappointing, so the young soprano tried her luck among the many Australian singers in London. There, in September 1920, she made her professional debut singing at a fashionable restaurant. Adopting the stage name ‘Florence Austral’ in tribute to her homeland, she made her operatic debut as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre with the British National Opera Company at Covent Garden on 16 May 1922. Later in the season she also sang Brünnhilde in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. She made the first of her many recordings in September, and then toured Britain with the BNOC, singing the Wagner repertoire and the title role in Aida. She sang in concerts and continued her studies at the London School of Opera.

Parts of her performance in Siegfried at Covent Garden on 11 January 1923, conducted by Eugene Goossens, were broadcast ‘live’ by the BBC. On 20 January she shared the stage with Melba in a gala finale to the BNOC’s season and in June she sang Tristan and Isolde for the first time.

In 1925 Austral sang in the United States, but her auditions for the Metropolitan Opera were unsuccessful, probably because of her increasing weight. She returned to London, where she and John Amadio married. During their honeymoon in the USA, Austral made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall on 2 January 1926.

She visited America again in 1927, 1928 and 1929, singing in concert and in Aida, Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung with the Philadelphia Civic Opera Company. She joined tenor Richard Crooks in an all-Wagner concert at the Metropolitan Opera House on 27 January 1929. Back in London she sang another Walküre at Covent Garden. In 1930 she and Amadio made a triumphant ‘homecoming’ concert tour of Australia under the management of E.J. Carroll. That year she also toured South Africa, sang Wagner with the Städtische Opera in Berlin – an engagement that was curtailed because of her imperfect German – and commenced another American tour. In 1932 she sang in the Netherlands and returned to Covent Garden in Tristan and Isolde. In New York in January 1933 she was one of 1,800 performers in a bizarre presentation of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony in the vastness of Madison Square Garden.

In 1934 Austral and Amadio returned to Australia for a concert tour under the direction of a budding local entrepreneur, A.D.M. ‘Archy’ Longden. His advance manager, Madeleine Clarke, was said to be ‘the only female concert manager operating in the Commonwealth’. The beautifully designed and printed souvenir programmes were available with a range of coloured covers to harmonise with lady patrons’ gowns, and were bound with transparent glassine wrappers ‘to prevent any damage to white evening gloves.’

Austral, Amadio and their pianist, Raymond Lambert, attracted publicity wherever they went. Unfortunately their visit to Albury coincided with the grisly discovery of the mutilated corpse of a young woman. This was the start of the notorious ‘Pyjama Girl’ mystery, and flights of fancy tried to link the Austral party to the crime, even suggesting that Longden or Lambert may have been the murderer.

Austral then took her place as the star of Sir Benjamin Fuller’s noblest venture, his Royal Grand Opera Company, which was designed to complement the excitement generated by Melbourne’s centenary. The company debuted at the refurbished Apollo Theatre in Bourke Street on 29 September 1934 with Austral in the title role of Aida – her first appearance in opera in her homeland. Over the next months, in Sydney and Melbourne, she sang in Walküre, Tristan and Isolde and, for the first time, Tosca, The Flying Dutchman and The Pearl Fishers (its Australian premiere). Austral later undertook a series of recitals and opera broadcasts for the ABC. In 1936-37 she made her final United States tour.

Austral returned to Britain, but the musical landscape had altered: broadcasting had eroded concert audiences, and other dramatic sopranos had usurped her place at Covent Garden. Her voice had also lost much of its lustre and her technique had started to deteriorate. In 1938 she sang in Walküre and Cavalleria Rusticana for Sadler’s Wells and Il Trovatore and Der Freischutz for the Dublin Operatic Society at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. She sang Lohengrin there in 1939; it was her last appearance in opera. British concert engagements dwindled alarmingly; in 1945 she and Amadio returned to Australia.

When Austral sang at the 1946 Carols by Candlelight concert in Melbourne, her performance revealed the sorry state of her voice. She did not sing in public again. She taught at the University of Melbourne and helped with Gertrude Johnson’s 1948 National Theatre Opera seasons. In 1952 she accepted Eugene Goossens’ offer of a position at the new Newcastle Conservatorium. She resigned in 1959 and taught privately for a while, but by then she was in straightened circumstances and suffering from multiple sclerosis. Friends such as actor Max Oldaker rallied round and EMI reissued some of her greatest recordings. She died in virtual obscurity on 15 May 1968. Her husband, from whom she was estranged, had died in 1964 during rehearsals for a Melbourne concert.