Historic Opera

Aimé Dupont: First official photographer of the Metropolitan Opera.

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Row 1:
Lucienne Bréval, Jean De Reszke, Edouard De Reszke, Milka Ternina.

Ernst Van Dyck, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Andreas Dippel, Margaret Macintyre.






Row 2:
Lillian Nordica.

Johanna Gadski, Johanna Gadski, Nellie Melba, Andreas Dippel.

Lucienne Bréval [orig. Berthe Anges Lisette Schilling]: Swiss (later French) soprano (4 Nov 1869 - 15 Aug 1935): Debut Paris 1892 as Silika. Created roles of Grisélidis (Massenet), Ariane (Dukas), Pénélope (Fauré), and Lady Macbeth (Bloch). One of the greatest French sopranos of her day.

Jean De Reszke [orig. Jan Mieczyslaw]: Polish tenor (14 Jan 1850 - 3 Apr 1925): Debut as baritone (1874: Turin). Debut as tenor (1879: Madrid) as title role in Robert le Diable. Paris premiere John the Baptist (Hérodiade). World premiere Le Cid. Covent Garden, Met.

Edouard De Reszke [orig. Edward Mieczyslaw]: Polish bass (22 Dec 1853 - 25 May 1917): Debut Paris premiere of Aida (1876: Verdi conducting); Created Ruben (Il figliuol prodigo), Gilberto (Maria Tudor), the King (Elda). Returned to Poland and was there during war. Lived in poverty in a cellar and then a cave.

Milka Ternina: Austrian soprano (19 Dec 1863 - 18 May 1941). First English Tosca (Covent Garden: 1900), first NY Tosca (Met: 1900). Kundry in the first American performance of Parsifal (against the wishes of the Wagner family). She developed a "paralysis of the nerves of the eyes," which ended her career. Zinka Milanov was a pupil of hers.

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Ernst Van Dyck: Belgian tenor (2 Apr 1861 - 31 Aug 1923): Stage debut in Antwerp (1884). Lohengrin in the French premiere of that work. Very popular at Bayreuth as Lohengrin and Parsifal. Sang the title role on the world premiere of Werther (1892). He created for Paris Siegmund and Siegfried. Vienna Imperial Opera, London CG, Met, Brussels, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg, Bucharest.

Ernestine Schumann-Heink [orig. Ernestine Rossler]: German contralto (15 Jun 1861 - 17 Nov 1936): Stage debut (1878) as Azucena (Trovatore) with the Dresden Royal Opera. Kroll Opera, Hamburg Opera, London CG, Bayreuth, Met, Chicago, Created Klytemnestra (Elektra). Most famous contralto of her generation.

Andreas Dippel: German tenor/impresario (30 Nov 1866 - 12 May 1932): Debut Bremen (1887: Lionel in Martha). Had over 150 roles.

Margaret Macintyre: English soprano (1865 [India] - Apr 1943): Studied with Garcia. Debut London 1885 (St. George's Hall). London CG (1888-97). Created Rebecca in Sullivan's Ivanhoe (1891). First La Scala Sieglinde.

Lillian Nordica: American soprano (12 May 1857 - 10 May 1914): St. Petersburg, London CG, Met, Milan, Manhattan Opera, Boston. Married Frederick A. Gower who was killed in a balloon accident. Married and separated from Hungarian tenor Zoltan Dome. Married for a third time to London banker George H. Young. During her 1913 farewell tour around the word and was shipwrecked off New Guinea. She was rescued, brought to a hospital in Batavia, Java and died there.

Lillian Nordica, who is a woman of brains as well as of voice, recently filled a page of one of the San Francisco papers with a plea for musical schools on a larger scale than anything we have yet had in this country….Nordica would like to see American conservatories, under private endowment …. Certainly she, Clara Louise Kellogg, Annie Louise Cary and several other American artists know as much about singing as any foreign teacher and far more about the requirements of opera singing as a whole than half the teachers anywhere. If some musical enthusiast could persuade some of our artists to take conservatory positions in this country, and then could induce American girls to stay at home and study with them, he would break up one of the most pernicious nuisances which afflict our girls ambitious for musical careers. Brooklyn Eagle; Nov 14, 1900.

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Johanna Gadski [Emilia Agnes]: German soprano (15 Jun 1872 - 22 Feb 1932): Debut Berlin (Kroll Opera) 1889 as Undine. Damrosch Company, London CG, Met. Left America when her husband was deported for his German connections. Bayreuth, Munich.

[Dame] Nellie Melba [orig. Helen Mitchell]: Australian soprano (19 May 1861 - 23 Feb 1931). Studied with Marchesi. Debut (1887) at the Brussels Opera as Gilda (Rigoletto). Created title role in Hélène at Monte Carlo. Covent Garden, La Scala, The Met, Paris Opéra, Chicago.

Andreas Dippel: German tenor/impresario (30 Nov 1866 - 12 May 1932): Debut Bremen (1887: Lionel in Martha). Performed over 150 roles.

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