![Marie Brema 1897](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Marie_Brema_1897.jpg)
Marie Brema (28 February 1856 – 22 March 1925) was a British
mezzo-soprano active in concert, operatic and
oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is ...
roles during the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th centuries. She was the first British singer to appear at the
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
The ''Bayreuth Festspielhaus'' or Bayreuth Festival Theatre (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspielhaus, ) is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, built by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner and dedicated solely to the performa ...
.
Origins and training
Marie Brema was born Marie Agnes Fehrmann
["England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JQS2-KG6 : 15 August 2022), Marie Agnes Fehrmann, 1860., title=Brema, Marie eal name Marie Agnes Fehrmann(1856–1925), singer , date=2004-09-23 , publisher=Oxford University Press , volume=1 , language=en , doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/55552] (also known as Minnie Fehrmann) in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
of a German father Diederich Fehrmann (from
Bremen) and an American mother, Cora Wooster Javis.
She was brought up among people who enjoyed music and drama, but took no professional interest in music until her marriage in 1874 to Arthur Frederick Braun.
She was encouraged to undergo vocal training, which she did, but it was several years more (after 3 months of study with
George Henschel
Sir Isidor George Henschel (18 February 185010 September 1934) was a German-born British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer. His first wife Lillian was also a singer. He was the first conductor of both the Boston Symphony Orchestra ...
) that she first appeared before the public, singing
Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
's ''
Ganymed'' in a popular concert. She was so admired that she continued training under other teachers and made further concert appearances. Her stage debut was in 1891 at Oxford as
Adriana Lecouvreur.
Early career
On 10 October 1891 (aged 35), taking her stage name from her father's birthplace, she made her opera debut in the first English production of
Mascagni's ''
Cavalleria rusticana
''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 short story of the same name and subsequent play ...
'', as Lola, at the
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. Opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, it was the last theatre to be built in Shaftesbury Avenue.
History
The theatre was ...
, London. (This was under
Arditi
Arditi (from the Italian verb ''ardire'', lit. "to dare", and translates as "The Daring nes) was the name adopted by a Royal Italian Army elite special force of World War I. They and the opposing German '' Stormtroopers'' were the first modern ...
, and opposite
Francesco Vignas
Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include:
People with the given name Francesco
* Francesco I (disambiguation), sever ...
as Turiddu: the new opera was a sensation.) A performance was given before
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
at Windsor Castle in November 1891.
She achieved a success, and followed it with a greater one in
Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...
's ''Orfeo ed Euridice'' later in the same year.
Shaw witnessed some early appearances in London, for instance in May 1892 an encored performance of Welsing's setting of ''
Love's Philosophy'', and in July in a Miscellaneous Concert (with
Ellen Terry
Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...
, Joseph Hollman, etc).
She had won Shaw's admiration in a performance of Schubert's ''
Erlkonig'', but now he found her he found her insufficiently versatile, over-specialized, with a fixed vocal colour owing to over-emphasis of the dramatic lower register: and recommended that she should permit instead the simple beauty of sound in the upper part of her voice to be heard, when she should take high rank as a singer.
In February 1893, at a
Royal Albert Hall performance of
Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
's ''
Redemption'' (with Miss Palliser and Watkin Mills), he thought she sang 'While my watch I am keeping' 'with a gentler vocal touch and a nearer approach to purely lyric style than I had heard from her before', saying she might now become the successor of Mme
Belle Cole. In April 1893, at a
Philharmonic
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola ...
concert (also featuring
Sapellnikoff in
Chopin's E major concerto), "happening to be tremendously in the dramatic vein, she positively rampaged through a
Schiller-
Joachim scena and through
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
's ''Creation Hymn'', scandalizing the Philharmonic, but carrying away the multitude."
Shaw, who did not admire
Brahms
Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...
, praised Marie Brema's introduction of the ''
Harzreise im Winter'' in February 1894, for though he thought
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
's words had been 'dehumanised' (by Brahms) and that she sang 'without twopenn'orth of feeling', she had 'a thousand pounds' worth of intelligence and dramatic resolution. She has of late made a remarkable conquest of the art of singing.' He had once thought her voice would not last five years, but admitted that now it might last for fifty. The signs of wear and tear had vanished, and 'the sustained note at the end was a model of vocal management. In any reasonably artistic country,' he added, 'Miss Brema would be pursuing a remarkable career on the lyric stage instead of wasting her qualities on the concert platform.'
His recommendation was not wasted, but the concert platform did not lose her. In 1894 Brema created the part of the Evil Spirit in Sir
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill in Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is be ...
's ''King Saul'' at the
Birmingham Festival. During the operatic career which followed, she continued to sing frequently at concerts and oratorios at the music festivals in Great Britain.
Bayreuth, America and Europe
She was then brought to the notice of
Cosima Wagner
Francesca Gaetana Cosima Wagner (née Liszt; 24 December 1837 – 1 April 1930) was the daughter of the Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt and Franco-German romantic author Marie d'Agoult. She became the second wife of the German comp ...
by
Hermann Levi
Hermann Levi (7 November 1839 – 13 May 1900) was a German Jewish orchestral conductor.
Levi was born in Giessen, Germany, the son of a rabbi. He was educated at Giessen and Mannheim, and came to Vinzenz Lachner's notice. From 1855 to 1858 ...
, and was invited to take part in the
Richard Wagner Festival at Bayreuth, where she sang the roles of Ortrud in ''
Lohengrin
Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...
'' and Kundry in ''
Parsifal
''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival ...
''. She was the first English singer to appear there. Established as a Wagnerian, in 1894 she made her first tour of the United States of America with the
Damrosch Company, and in addition to those two roles also appeared as Brangäne in ''
Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was comp ...
'' and Brünnhilde in ''
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
''.
Her Brünnhilde was considered especially fine, not only for her splendid vocalisation but also for her stature and handsome appearance. Returning to Europe she performed these roles at Bayreuth, and added to them the second Brünnhilde (''
Götterdämmerung
' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), WWV 86D, is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled (''The Ring of the Nibelung'', or ''The Ring Cycle'' or ''The Ring'' for short). It received its premiere at the on 17 August 1876, as ...
'') and Fricka in ''
Das Rheingold
''Das Rheingold'' (; ''The Rhinegold''), WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National ...
''.
In America Marie Brema sang Brangäne in a German ''Tristan'' in a cast with
Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica (December 12, 1857 – May 10, 1914) was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country.
Nordica established herself as one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of the late 19th and early 20t ...
as Isolde,
Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke (14 January 18503 April 1925) was a Polish tenor and opera star. Reszke came from a musically inclined family. His mother gave him his first singing lessons and provided a home that was a recognized music centre. His sister Josep ...
as Tristan and brother
Edouard as King Mark, and also in ''The Ring'', performances under the direction of
Anton Seidl
Anton Seidl (7 May 185028 March 1898) was a famous Hungarian Wagner conductor, best known for his association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and the New York Philharmonic.
Biography
He was born in Pest, Austria-Hungary, where ...
and
Felix Mottl. During the 1898–99 season at the
Met she sang Fides in
Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer (born Jakob Liebmann Beer; 5 September 1791 – 2 May 1864) was a German opera composer, "the most frequently performed opera composer during the nineteenth century, linking Mozart and Wagner". With his 1831 opera ''Robert le d ...
's ''
Le prophète
''Le prophète'' (''The Prophet'') is a grand opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer, which was premiered in Paris on 16 April 1849. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps, after passages from the ''Essay on the ...
'' opposite both de Reszkes and
Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch (24 November 1848 – 17 May 1929) was a German operatic soprano. She was also a voice teacher.
Biography
The future opera star's father, Karl-August Lehmann, wa ...
. In various parts of Europe, in Paris, Berlin and Brussels, for example, she appeared with great success as Dalila in
Saint-Saëns's ''
Samson et Dalila
''Samson and Delilah'' (french: Samson et Dalila, links=no), Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It was first performed in Weimar at the (Grand Ducal) Theater ( ...
'', a role which especially suited her, and as Amneris in
Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...
's ''
Aida
''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 Decemb ...
''. Orfeo remained a most important role throughout her career. In the London 1897 season
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham (January 5, 1857 – October 2, 1921) was an American operatic baritone.
Biography
Bispham was born on January 5, 1857 in Philadelphia, the only child of William Danforth Bispham and Jane Lippincott Scull.W. Bispham, 274 Bo ...
, (Wotan in ''Walküre)'', called her 'superb' alongside
Ernest van Dyck
Ernest Van Dyck (2 April 1861 – 31 August 1923) was a Belgian dramatic tenor who was closely identified with the Wagnerian repertoire. Forbes, Elizabeth. Ernest arie HubertVan Dyck. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London ...
, Susan Strong and
Ernestine Schumann-Heink
Ernestine Schumann-Heink (15 June 186117 November 1936) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American operatic dramatic contralto of German Bohemian descent. She was noted for the flexibility and wide range of her voice.
Early life
She was born Ernes ...
, and Klein ranked her with the greats in the casts of Felix Mottl's revival of ''The Ring'' at Covent Garden.
In 1897 Brema was among those invited to perform at the State Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, where she sang 'Plus grand dans son Obscurité' from
Gounod
Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...
's ''
La reine de Saba''. Other performers included
Bispham,
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
,
de Lucia and
Mme Albani. Brema and Bispham sang again by royal invitation at
Osborne House
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in ...
not long afterwards.
In 1897 Brema performed the ''
Wesendonck Lieder
, WWV 91, is the common name of a set of five songs for female voice and piano by Richard Wagner, (''Five Poems for a Female Voice''). He set five poems by Mathilde Wesendonck while he was working on his opera ''Tristan und Isolde''. The songs, ...
'' of Wagner (Felix Mottl arrangement) at the
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. Fro ...
for
Henry Wood
Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the The Proms, Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introd ...
on a Wagner birthday concert (22 May), and later in the same programme delivered Brünnhilde's ''Immolation scene''. Wood enjoyed working with her, and called her 'a really great Wagnerian singer.' He remarked that she could dramatise the parts she portrayed without making gestures, and was 'certainly German in style.' In 1898 she introduced Saint-Saëns's ''La fiancee du timbalier.'' In November and December 1900 she appeared for Wood in three special Wagnerian concerts at the
Royal Albert Hall, with orchestras of 200 members.
''Gerontius'' and Elgar
In October 1900, at the
Birmingham Triennial Music Festival
The Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, in Birmingham, England, founded in 1784, was the longest-running classical music festival of its kind. It last took place in 1912.
History
The first music festival, over three days in September 1768 ...
, Marie Brema recreated the role of the angel in the first performance of Sir
Edward Elgar's ''
The Dream of Gerontius
''The Dream of Gerontius'', Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment b ...
'', with
Edward Lloyd Edward Lloyd may refer to:
Politicians
*Edward Lloyd (MP for Montgomery), Welsh lawyer and politician
* Edward Lloyd (16th-century MP) (died 1547) for Buckingham
*Edward Lloyd, 1st Baron Mostyn (1768–1854), British politician
*Edward Lloyd (Colon ...
and
Harry Plunket Greene
Harry Plunket Greene (24 June 1865 – 19 August 1936) was an Irish baritone who was most famous in the formal concert and oratorio repertoire. He wrote and lectured on his art, and was active in the field of musical competitions and examination ...
, under the baton of
Hans Richter. The performance was not a great success, owing partly to the difficult and somewhat revolutionary nature of the composition, and the comparatively short time that had been available for the artists to prepare it. She performed it again, this time under Elgar's baton, at the 1902
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
Festival, with
John Coates and
David Ffrangcon-Davies: in the same concert
Ysaÿe played the
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
concerto. The same soloists gave the second London performance of the ''Dream'' at the
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. Fro ...
, with the newly formed
London Choral Society, in February 1904.
In the following years the role of the Angel was more often taken by the leading English contralto
Louise Kirkby Lunn, also a celebrated Wagnerian singer (Ortrud, Kundry, Brangane and Fricka), Amneris and Dalilah, and in many ways a successor to Marie Brema, though without her range for a compelling Brünnhilde. In 1903, writing to Brema of her original performance, Elgar wrote 'I have, of course, in memory your fine and intellectual creation of the part; and though I never thought the 'tessitura' suited you well, as the magnificent artist you are, you ''made'' it go very finely.'
Later career
Herman Klein
Herman Klein (born Hermann Klein; 23 July 1856 – 10 March 1934) was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles Klein, Charles and Manuel Klein. His second wife was the writer Kathleen Cla ...
, describing the London musical scene circa 1900, noted the absence of leading English-born contralto singers, apart from the three notable exceptions of
Clara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt, (1 February 1872 – 23 January 1936) was an English contralto and one of the most popular singers from the 1890s through to the 1920s. She had an exceptionally fine contralto voice and an agile singing technique, and imp ...
, Marie Brema and Kirkby Lunn. Of Marie Brema he wrote that she was more correctly a mezzo-soprano, distinguished by 'her admirable command of tone-colour, her faultless diction, and her infinitely varied shades of impassioned poetic expression.'
Brema appeared opposite David Bispham again in the premiere of
Stanford's opera ''Much Ado About Nothing'', as Beatrice to his Benedick, in a cast also including
John Coates,
Suzanne Adams and
Pol Plançon. This was for the Covent Garden 1901 season. In 1902 she sang Brünnhilde (in German) in Paris for Hans Richter. In January 1908 she organised three concerts given in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, in which
Gervase Elwes
Gervase Henry Cary-Elwes, DL (15 November 1866 – 12 January 1921), better known as Gervase Elwes, was an English tenor of great distinction, who exercised a powerful influence over the development of English music from the early 1900s up u ...
joined her in the solo quartets of the Brahms ''Liebeslieder''.
In 1910–11 she organised an opera season of her own at the
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy P ...
, singing Orfeo in English. According to Henry Wood, her training of the chorus to project the diction into the auditorium was wonderful and inscrutable. This season was conducted by
Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge (26 February 187910 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor.
Life
Bridge was born in Brighton, the ninth child of William Henry Bridge (1845-1928), a violin teacher and variety theatre conductor, formerly a m ...
. In 1912 she toured the provinces with the
Denhof Opera Company. After this she retired from the stage.
Teaching career
Following her retirement Brema became director of the opera class at the
Royal Manchester College of Music
The Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM) was a tertiary level conservatoire in Manchester, north-west England. It was founded in 1893 by the German-born conductor Sir Charles Hallé in 1893.
In 1972, the Royal Manchester College of Music ...
. Among those to benefit from her instruction were
Luella Paikin and
Heddle Nash
William Heddle Nash (14 June 189414 August 1961) was an English lyric tenor who appeared in opera and oratorio. He made numerous recordings that are still available on CD reissues.
Nash's voice was of the light tenor class known as "tenore di g ...
.
She was chair of the
Society of Women Musicians in 1917–1918.
She died in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, aged 69, from undisclosed causes.
Family
Tita Brand, Marie Brema and Arthur Frederick Braun's daughter, married the
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...
scholar, poet and writer
Emile Cammaerts
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
. After the outbreak of war in 1914, Sir
Edward Elgar composed a symphonic accompaniment ''"
Carillon"'' for a patriotic poem "Chantons, Belges, Chantons" by Cammaerts which was first performed with the recitation by Tita Brand. Tita Brand, who had a career as an actress, was a large woman with a deep speaking voice, capable of reciting
Grieg's ''Bergliot'' audibly over an unsubdued orchestra conducted by
Henry Wood
Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the The Proms, Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introd ...
.
[Wood, ''My Life of Music'', p. 143.]
References
Sources
*G. Davidson, ''Opera Biographies'' (Werner Laurie, London 1955)
*W. Elwes and R. Elwes, ''Gervase Elwes The Story of his Life'' (London 1935)
*H. Klein, ''Thirty Years of Musical Life in London'' (Century Co, New York 1903)
*H. Rosenthal and J Warrack, ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'' (London 1974 Edn)
*G.B. Shaw, ''Music in London 1890–1894'', 3 vols, (London, 1932)
*H. Wood, ''My Life of Music'' (London, 1938)
*P.M. Young, ''Letters of Edward Elgar'' (Geoffrey Bles, London 1956)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brema, Marie
1856 births
1925 deaths
Singers from Liverpool
Musicians from Liverpool
English people of German descent
English people of American descent
English mezzo-sopranos
19th-century British women opera singers
20th-century British women opera singers