Matja von Niessen-Stone (December 28, 1870 — June 8, 1948) was a Russian-born German concert singer. She sang with the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

from 1908 to 1910.

Early life

Matja von Niessen was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, the daughter of Hermann von Niessen, an architect, and Mathilde Bergmann von Niessen. She was raised in Germany by her mother after 1876, and educated there. She studied music under Adelina Paschalis,

Etelka Gerster Etelka Gerster (25 June 1855, Košice20 August 1920, Pontecchio) was a Hungarian soprano. She debuted in Italy in 1876 and sang in London the following year. In 1878, she was performing in the Academy of Music where she was considered one of ...

, and George Fergusson.George Derby, James Terry White
''The National Cyclopædia of American Biography''
(J. T. White 1910): 434.

Career

Matja von Niessen was variously classified as a mezzo-soprano, contralto, and mezzo-contralto during her career. She gave her debut concert in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

in 1890, and toured extensively in Europe after that. She was appointed as an instructor at the Imperial School of Music in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

in 1896, and in 1901 at music school in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. She moved to the United States in 1906. "Matja von Niessen-Stone is the mistress of a faultless vocal method and unusual interpretive gifts," noted an American publication in 1907, "an unalloyed treat for discerning music lovers." Matja von Niessen-Stone made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1908, 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 ...

''; she also appeared in productions of ''

La Traviata ''La traviata'' (; ''The Fallen Woman'') is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on ''La Dame aux camélias'' (1852), a play by Alexandre Dumas ''fils'' adapted from his own 18 ...

'', ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the Carmen (novella), novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first perfo ...

'', ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...

'', ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had cont ...

'', and ''

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 b ...

''. She was a last-minute substitute for

Louise Homer Louise Beatty Homer (April 30, 1871May 6, 1947) was an American operatic contralto who had an active international career in concert halls and opera houses from 1895 until her retirement in 1932. After a brief stint as a vaudeville entertainer ...

in 1910, when she was too ill to perform 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 compose ...

'' in Boston. Also in 1910, she sang at a meeting for women's suffrage in New York. She was known for her impressive language skills, and for singing new works by American women composers such as

Carrie Jacobs-Bond Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond (August 11, 1862 – December 28, 1946) was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular music from the 1890s through the early 1940s. She is perhaps best remembered for writing t ...

Rhea Silberta Rhea Silberstein (Pocahontas, Virginia, April 19, 1900 - New York City, 1959) was a Yiddish song composer and teacher of singing. Her best known songs were written with her father and teacher Herman Silberstein. Her best known song "Yohrzeit" (Her ...

Emilie Frances Bauer Emilie Frances Bauer (pseudonym: Francisco di Nogero; March 5, 1865 – March 9, 1926) was an American music critic, editor, composer, and pianist. Early life Emilie Frances Bauer was born in Walla Walla, Washington, the daughter of Jacque ...

, and Fay Foster."Mme. Niessen-Stone Inaugurates Series of Three Native Programs"
''Musical America'' (March 15, 1919): 31. She also taught at

Frank Damrosch Frank Heino Damrosch (June 22, 1859 – October 22, 1937) was a German-born American music conductor and educator. In 1905, Damrosch founded the New York Institute of Musical Art, a predecessor of the Juilliard School. Life and career Damrosch w ...

's Institute of Musical Art in New York (precursor to the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

), where she was head of the vocal department. Later in life, she taught at the Delaware School of Music, and at the Zeckwer-Hahn Philadelphia Musical Academy.H. Warner Waid
"Former 'Met' Singer to Teach at Delaware School of Music"
''Morning News'' (April 2, 1941): 21. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

Personal life

Matja von Niessen married W. E. Stone in 1897, in Berlin. They had a son, Patrick William Stone. Matja von Niessen-Stone died in 1948, aged 77 years, in New York City.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niessen-Stone, Matja von 1870 births 1948 deaths German operatic mezzo-sopranos 19th-century German women opera singers 20th-century German women opera singers Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the German Empire Juilliard School faculty German music educators German women music educators Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States