Maria Müller (29 January 1898 – 15 March 1958) was a Czech-Austrian operatic soprano.

Life and career

Müller was born in

Terezín Terezín (; german: Theresienstadt) is a town in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,800 inhabitants. It is a former military fortress composed of the citadel and adjacent walled garrison town ...

, Bohemia on 29 January 1898. She studied in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

with Erik Schmedes, and debuted in Linz in 1919 as Elsa 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 ...

''. She also sang at the Deutsches Theater in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

in 1921-1923 (where she sang the role of Nettchen in the premiere of the revised version of

Alexander Zemlinsky Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky (14 October 1871 – 15 March 1942) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher. Biography Early life Zemlinsky was born in Vienna to a highly diverse family. Zemlinsky's grandfather, Anton S ...

's opera '' Kleider machen Leute)'' and at the Staatsoper,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

in 1923-1924. She studied with voice teacher Estelle Liebling, the teacher of

Beverly Sills Beverly Sills (May 25, 1929July 2, 2007) was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. Although she sang a repertoire from Handel and Mozart to Puccini, Massenet and Verdi, she was especially renowned f ...

, in New York City after becoming a principal artist at 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 oper ...

(the "Met"). On 21 January 1925, Müller made her debut at the Met as Sieglinde 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 ...

''. The next day,

Olin Downes Edwin Olin Downes, better known as Olin Downes (January 27, 1886 – August 22, 1955), was an American music critic, known as "Sibelius's Apostle" for his championship of the music of Jean Sibelius. As critic of ''The New York Times'', he ex ...

wrote in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'': “young Czech soprano...was warmly welcomed. She has a fresh and youthful voice, a little small for the demands of her role, much grace and sincerity as an actress. Not often is the figure of Sieglinde so human, so tender and so appealing to the beholder." The same year she sang Donna Elvira in '' Don Giovanni''. She sang a total of 196 performances at the Metropolitan Opera between 1925 and 1935. She sang there in a number of American premieres including

Franco Alfano Franco Alfano (8 March 1875 – 27 October 1954) was an Italian composer and pianist, best known today for his opera '' Risurrezione'' (1904) and for having completed Puccini's opera ''Turandot'' in 1926. He had considerable success with several ...

's ''Madonna Imperia'' (8 February 1928), Pizzetti's ''Fra Gherardo'' (29 March 1929), also in the opera '' Švanda the Bagpiper'' by the Czech-American composer

Jaromír Weinberger Jaromír Weinberger (8 January 1896 – August 8, 1967) was a Bohemian born Jewish subject of the Austrian Empire, who became a naturalized American composer. Biography Weinberger was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary, into a family of Jewish or ...

(11 July 1931), and ''

Simon Boccanegra ''Simon Boccanegra'' () is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play ''Simón Bocanegra'' (1843) by Antonio García Gutiérrez, whose play ''El trovador'' had b ...

'' (29 January 1932). Concerning Met opening nights, in 1930 she sang the lead in "Aida" and in 1932 she sang Amelia in "Simon Boccanegra". In 1930-1939, she was a regular

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

ian singer in Bayreuth. Some of her major roles were Eva in '' Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' in 1933, plus Sieglinde and Elsa in 1936. ''

The New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' wrote in 1936 from Bayreuth: "Müller's voice is fresher and more beautiful than when she was at the Metropolitan". At

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

, she appeared as Eurydice (1931), Reiza (1933) and Donna Elvira (1934). She made her Covent Garden debut as Eva in 1934, and sang Sieglinde in the 1937 Ring Cycles. Her large repertory included the title roles in '' Die agyptische Helena'', ''

Jenůfa ''Její pastorkyňa'' (''Her Stepdaughter''; commonly known as ''Jenůfa'' ) is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play ''Její pastorkyňa'' by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed ...

'' and Gluck’s '' Iphigénie en Tauride'', Djula in Gotovac's '' Ero the Joker'', '' Pamina'', ''

Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1887 French-language drama ...

'' and ''Marguerite''. Müller possessed a warm, vibrant voice and sang with a rare purity of tone. (

Harold Rosenthal Harold David Rosenthal OBE (30 September 1917 – 19 March 1987) was an English music critic, writer, lecturer, and broadcaster about opera. Originally a schoolmaster, he became drawn to music, particularly opera, and began working on musical ...

) After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

she retired to live at Bayreuth, where she died on 15 March 1958.

Recordings

*''Tannhauser'' (1930) *''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' *''Lohengrin'' *''Walküre'' *''Freischütz'' *''(Lieder)(e.g., Schubert, Brahms, Pfitzner, Wagner)''

References

External links

Signed picture as Elisabeth
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Maria 1898 births 1958 deaths People from Terezín Czech operatic sopranos Austrian operatic sopranos 20th-century Austrian women opera singers Lohengrin