Maria Muller

Czech soprano Maria Müller was being among the most prominent and beloved lyric/dramatic sopranos singing the German repertory in the interwar years. With a stunning device and a warm and immediately appealing stage way, she demonstrated herself a significant person in the Metropolitan Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, and Bayreuth Event through the 1930s. She was also sufficiently flexible to control the Italian repertory with some variation, producing herself a practical option to Elisabeth Rethberg, if without Rethberg’s particular way of measuring vocal platinum. Müller’s had not been an especially lengthy prime; by enough time WWII was over, her tone of voice was displaying advanced indications of the unsteadiness that was incipient, but well hidden in her greatest years. After learning using the Wagnerian tenor Erik Schmedes in Vienna, Müller produced her debut in Linz as Elsa, a job which would turn into a central one in her potential. She was involved in Prague from 1921 to 1923 and sang in Munich in 1923 and 1924. Müller’s Metropolitan Opera debut occurred on January 21, 1925, as Sieglinde, another of her personal assignments. She was greeted with great reviews, such as for example one from veteran W.J. Henderson deeming her Sieglinde “perhaps one of the most fulfilling the Metropolitan provides known.” A pleasant encounter and a slim figure had been no liabilities in her display, nor was there hesitation about her clean, lyrically oriented tone of voice. Müller was provided in a number of assignments, many of them nearly therefore well-suited as her Wagner contacting card. Later January brought a job ideally suitable for Müller’s talents; as Marie in Smetana’s Bartered Bride-to-be, she became a member of bass-baritone Michael Bohnen and an exemplary ensemble to offer viewers a revelatory creation of a new, but wonderful function. In Feb, Müller was the business’s choice for the function of Maria in Montemezzi’s 1905 Giovanni Gallurese. This failed try to achieve successful in the composer’s pre-L’Amore dei Tre Re times was not noticed once again after three even more shows. Also in Feb, Müller performed the eponymous heroine in Aida and gained respect, but small conviction that she was the most likely choice for the function. Müller’s subsequent profession on the Metropolitan transferred between German assignments, most of them performed amazingly, and Italian parts such as for example Puccini’s Butterfly that was discovered “still in the chrysalis condition.” In NY, Müller continuing her vocal research with Paul Altglass and in 11 months was shown in a complete of 167 shows covering 19 tasks. As well as the aforementioned tasks, she sang a pleasant, knowing Eva, an excellent Gutrune, a robust Donna Elvira, and an Amelia in the 1st American creation of Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra. Her Elisabeth in Tannhäconsumer was another interpretation considered by Henderson “one of the better the Metropolitan stage offers known.” At Berlin and Bayreuth, Müller’s years extended from 1926 to 1943 and from 1930 to 1944, respectively. In Bayreuth, she was Toscanini’s choice for Elisabeth in his 1930 creation of Tannhäconsumer preserved on disk, but with Karl Elmendorff as opposed to the Italian maestro performing. Documented on stage, but sans viewers, Müller’s performance, especially her last work “Allmächt’ge Jungfrau,” testifies to her disarming artwork. During the many years of Heinz Tietjen’s management (he played a significant part in Berlin aswell), Müller was Bayreuth’s reigning Sieglinde and Elisabeth and was noticed prominently as Senta and Eva aswell. In London, her unforgettable Eva was praised because of its vibrant freshness, her Sieglinde because of its impassioned lyricism.