OPERA SINGERS OF THE PAST – MARGARET MATZENAUER Margaret Matzenauer (1881 – 1963) was a mezzo-soprano singer with an opulent timbre and a wide range to her voice. She performed key works from both the Italian and German operatic repertoires in Europe and the United States. Matzenauer was born in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary (now Timișoara, Romania). She studied opera in Graz and Berlin, making her operatic debut in 1901 as Puck in Webers Oberon. She began singing major roles such as Azucena in Il trovatore, Carmen, Mignon, Waltraute and Erda in the Ring operas and Ortrud in Lohengrin. She first achieved fame in Europe as a contralto and mezzo-soprano, and she was engaged to appear at the 1911 Bayreuth Festival. She was tempted to tackle soprano parts as well but this expansion upwards of her repertoire did not prove to be an unqualified success due to limitations with her highest notes. Matzenauer made her debut (as a mezzo) at the New York Metropolitan Opera in Aida on 13 November 1911, singing Amneris on opening night with a cast that also featured Emmy Destinn as Aida and Enrico Caruso as Radamès, with Arturo Toscanini on the podium. A few days later she displayed her versatility by appearing in Wagners Tristan und Isolde. In 1911, she married one of her Met colleagues, the fine Italian-born dramatic tenor Edoardo Ferrari-Fontana (1878-1936). Consequently, she acquired automatic Italian citizenship. The marriage ended in divorce in 1917. She reputedly had a so-called photographic memory, too, and she saved the day for the Mets management on 1 January 1912 when, with only a few days notice, she appeared as Kundry in the opera Parsifal, a highly demanding role that she had not sung before. Matzenauer remained at the Met for a total of 19 seasons, delivering a wide variety of roles including Eboli in the first Met production of Don Carlos (1920), Santuzza, Marina in Boris Godunov, Leonore in Fidelio and Brünnhilde in Die Walküre. She gave her farewell Met performance on 17 February 1930 as Amneris, but she continued singing opera elsewhere and giving concerts. In 1936, she played the part of Madame Pomponi in the Columbia Pictures production of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Matzenauer also took up teaching; two of her pupils were mezzo-sopranos Blanche Thebom and Nell Tangeman. Her last stage appearance was in a Broadway comedy, Vicki, in 1942.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 06:51:40 +0000
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