Historic Opera

Click on image to enlarge and read description. Click on image again to close.

Row 1:
Adolf Löltgen.
Adolf Löltgen.
Peter Lordmann.
Vladimir Lossky.
Edmond Louis.

Row 2:
Vera Lutse.
Louise Kirkby-Lunn.
Léon Laffitte.
Theodor Lattermann.

OBITUARY - Louise Kirkby-Lunn

London, Feb . 17. -- Mme. Louise Kirkby-Lunn, famous English contralto, who made several operatic tours in the United States, died here tonight at the age of 57 after five months' illness.... Mme. Kirkby-Lunn had sung in Covent Garden Opera House in London, at the Metropolitan in New York and in Budapest and Germany. She toured America, Australia and New Zealand in concert, and in 1909 created the role of Dalilah in French at Covent Garden. [She] was born in Manchester, England, and received her musical training at the Royal College of Music, where she held an open scholarship for singing. After study in violin with Visetti, she made her operatic debut in Schumann's Genoveva and in Delibes's Le Roi l'a dit at the Royal Academy of Music. Her professional debut was made later as Nora in Shamus O'Brien with the Opéra-Comique in London.

In 1896 Mme. Kirkby-Lunn was on tour in grand opera with Augustus Harris. From 1896 to 1899 she was with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, and in 1902 sang the part of Kundry in the English performance of Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera.... She had sung at many festivals in Great Britain and Ireland, and had been a regular performer at the Royal opera, Covent Garden, in London. New York Times - 18 Feb 1930.

"Theodor Lattermann, who has done some good things in the last two weeks’ performances, did by no means a good thing with his impersonation of the Wandered; chiefly because he sang persistently flat almost from the beginning to the end. Hopes that he might wander back to the pitch as a part of his adventures were continually dashed. He looked as the Wanderer should look, not in itself difficult, and impressively filled the eye in his several appearances." New York Times: 27 Feb 1923. Review of Siegfried by Richard Aldrich.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________