Everything about Ernestine Schumann-heink totally explained
Ernestine Schumann-Heink (
15 June,
1861 -
17 November,
1936) was a well-known
operatic
contralto, noted for the great control, tone, beauty, and wide range of her
singing.
Biography
She was born as
Tini Rössler to a
German-speaking family in the town of
Lieben, near
Prague, now in the
Czech Republic but then part of the
Austrian Empire. Her father Hans Rössler was a
shoe maker; while previously serving as an
Austrian cavalry officer, he'd been stationed in northern Italy (then an Austrian protectorate), where he met and married Charlotte Goldman, with whom he returned to Lieben. When Ernestine was three years old, the family moved to
Verona. In 1866, at the outbreak of the
Austro-Prussian War, the family moved to
Prague, where she was schooled at the Ursuline Convent. At war's end, the Roesslers moved to Podgrozj, near
Kraków. The family moved again to
Graz when Tini was thirteen. Here she met Marietta von LeClair, a retired opera singer who agreed to give her voice lessons. In 1877 she made her first professional performance, in
Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony in Graz, appearing with soprano Maria Wilt.
Tini made her operatic debut at
Dresden's Royal Opera House on
October 15,
1878 as Azucena in
Il trovatore.
In 1882 she married Ernest Heink, secretary of the
Dresden Opera, with whom she'd four children; this violated the terms of their contracts, and both were abruptly terminated from their positions. Heink took a job at the local customs house and was soon transferred to
Hamburg. Ernestine remained in Dresden to pursue her career, and eventually rejoined her husband when she secured a position at the Hamburg Opera.
Ernest Heink was again thrown out of work when Saxons were banned from government positions, and departed to
Saxony to find work. Ernestine, pregnant, didn't follow him; they were divorced in 1893. That year she married actor
Paul Schumann, with whom she'd three more children. The second marriage lasted until Paul Schumann's death in 1904.
Her breakthrough into leading roles was provided when prima donna Marie Goetze argued with the director of the Hamburg opera. He asked Ernestine to sing the title role of
Carmen, without rehearsal, which she did to great acclaim. Goetze, in a fit of pique, cancelled out of the role of Fides in
La prophete, to be performed the following night, and was again replaced by Ernestine. Schumann-Heink replaced Goetze as Ortrud in
Lohengrin the following evening, again without rehearsal, and was offered a ten-year contract.
International and American career
She performed with
Gustav Mahler at the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden,
London, and became well known for her performances of the works of
Richard Wagner at
Bayreuth, singing at the
Bayreuth Festivals from
1896 to 1914.
She first sang at the
Metropolitan Opera in
New York City in
1898, and performed with the Met regularly thereafter for decades.
Schumann-Heink made the first of her many
phonograph recordings in
1900.
In 1905 she married William Rapp, Jr., her manager. They divorced in 1915.
In the midst of a legal battle in Germany over her late husband's estate, she filed U.S. naturalization papers on
February 10,
1905, which became final on
March 3,
1908. She and her new husband lived on Caldwell Mountain, near
Montclair, New Jersey in her “Villa Fides” from April 1906 to December 1911; she then moved to 500 acres (2 km²) of farm land (located just outside of
San Diego, California, and purchased by her in January 1910), where she'd live for most of her life.
In
1909 she created the role of Clytemnestra in debut of
Richard Strauss'
Elektra, of which she said she'd no high opinion. Strauss, for his part, wasn't entirely taken by Schumann-Heink; according to one story, during rehearsals he told the orchestra "Louder! I can still hear Mme. Schumann-Heink!"
During
World War I she toured the United States raising money for the war effort, although she'd relatives fighting on both sides of the war - including her son August Heink, a merchant mariner who joined the
German submarine service, and stepson Walter Schumann and sons Henry Heink and George Washington Schumann, all in the
United States Navy.
In
1915 she appeared as herself in the early
documentary film Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco, which was directed by and starred
Fatty Arbuckle.
In
1926 she first sang
Silent Night (in both German and
English) over the
radio for
Christmas. This became a Christmas tradition with US radio listeners through Christmas of 1935.
Her last performance at the Met was in 1932.
In her later years she'd a weekly radio program.
Ernestine Schumann-Heink died of
leukaemia.
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