Ema Destinová

Ema Destinová

Emilie Věnceslava Pavlína Kittlová (born February 26, 1878 in Prague ; † January 28, 1930 in Budweis ), married Halsbach, better known by her pseudonym Ema Destinnová (more rarely Ema Destinová ) or Emmy Destinn , was an important Czech opera singer who Pseudonym Destin (n) after her teacher for singing Marie Loewe, née Dreger with the stage name Destin (n), which she took over. Alongside Geraldine Farrar , she was considered one of the best dramatic soprano voices of her time.

Life

Emmy Destinn as Salome

youth

Emmy Kittl (Ema Destinova) was a daughter of the wealthy Prague cultural patron Emanuel Kittl . Artistically gifted, she painted, learned to play the violin at the Prague Conservatory with Professor Ferdinand Lachner and gave her first concert at the age of eight. She tried her hand at writing for a short time and took singing lessons from the Austrian singer Marie Loewe (nee Dreger; artist name Destin (n); * Vienna-Währing 1838; died 1921 in Tamsweg (Salzburg); in Czech sources: Destinová-Löwelová). The pseudonym their teacher, formerly acclaimed Prima-Donna at La Scala, then chose gratitude as its artist name Destin (s). In addition, Emmy studied acting at the Dramatic School of the National Theater in Prague . She made her stage debut in 1897 at the Semperoper in Dresden as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana . The success of her debut was so great that she was committed to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin for five years .

Career

Emmy Destinn made her first big appearance in Berlin in 1898. She was also celebrated by the audience at the Berlin Kroll Opera as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana . In 1901 Destinn sang Senta in the Flying Dutchman at the Bayreuth Festival and was enthusiastically celebrated. In 1904 she sang in the world premiere of Ruggiero Leoncavallos Roland von Berlin , in the same year in the German premiere of Bedřich Smetana's Dalibor . In 1906 she created the Berlin Salome by Richard Strauss . There followed appearances in other roles such as Carmen , Valentina , Mignon , Elisabeth, Selika . Destinn became Prima-Donna at the Berlin State Opera , where she appeared in fifty roles for ten years.

In 1905 she made her debut at London's Royal Opera House in the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly . She sang other roles a. a. 1909 in the world premiere of the opera Tess by Frédéric A. Baron d'Erlanger and performed there until 1914 and again in 1919. After very successful guest appearances in Vienna, London, Prague and Paris, she was signed to the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1908 . In 1909 she performed Marie in Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride , in 1910 Lisa in the premiere of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Queen of Spades , Martha in Tiefland in 1908 , and the title character in La Wally by Alfredo Catalani in 1909 . On December 10, 1910, in the world premiere of Puccini's La fanciulla del West , she sang Minnie as partner of the then most famous tenor Enrico Caruso .

Only in Prague did she find, after she had three appearances there in 1900, no approval and no permanent employment at the National Theater. She later took roles in other theaters in the city. After Emmy Destinn had performed a total of 86 times in the capital of Bohemia , she was enthusiastically celebrated here in 1908 as well. Now she finally signed the Czech National Theater; she was appointed honorary member in the same year. Shortly afterwards, she was appointed Prussian Chamber Singer in Berlin .

In 1916, during the First World War, she returned to Bohemia and was placed under house arrest for alleged espionage at the castle in Stráž nad Nežárkou . In the last year of the war, 1918, she returned to the stage and was celebrated everywhere. At the end of the concerts she sang the Czech national anthem "Kde domov můj, kde vlast je mà ...." and thus designed her performances as a national manifesto at the time of the founding of the First Czechoslovakia .

End of life

After the war in 1918 she withdrew more and more. Nothing has been reported about the fate of her husband, Lieutenant Josef Halsbach, and the rest of the family. She performed in London at the Festival of Czechoslovak Music and eleven times in Covent Garden. In 1919 she returned to the Metropolitan Opera in New York for two seasons under the name "Ema Destinnová". She became seriously ill and a quick operation saved her life. In 1925 she undertook a small tour of Yugoslavia and performed in Bratislava (Pressburg). The farewell to the stage began in 1926: one last concert at Lucerna in Prague and a tour of twenty cities in Czechoslovakia. In 1928 she gave one last concert in London for the tenth anniversary of the First Czechoslovakia . She finally retired to her place of residence, Stráz Castle near Budweis, and only gave concerts occasionally. “The worst thing is to see an old woman on stage” was her credo, which led her to voluntary retirement at the age of about 50. Emmy Destinn now devoted himself to singing lessons.

In what was then Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic , but also in Slovakia , she was celebrated and revered as a national heroine. Her soprano voice was considered to be of the purest beauty and pure as a bell, she was of an unusual expressiveness and range of expression, which mastered a repertoire of over 80 major roles. Emmy Destinn died during an eye operation (stroke) on January 28, 1930 in České Budějovice (Budweis) and was buried among a large proportion of the population in the Vyšehrad Heroes' Cemetery in Prague.

Posthumous honor

Memorial stone in Prague

Her life and fate was portrayed in the film Divine Ema ( Božská Ema ). It is shown on the 2,000 kroner banknote and on two Czech postage stamps. The city ​​administration had a memorial stone affixed to her house on Prague's Lesser Town with the note “Ema Destinnová lived here 1908–1914” and a bronze bust attached to it.

The asteroid (6583) Destinn was named after her.

Works

Signed portrait

She composed some songs and wrote poems and novels. Emmy Destinn was a recognized interpreter of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Richard Wagner and the Italian opera, but also of Czech works such as Smetana and Zdeněk Fibich .

Volumes of poetry

• Květy sněhu .
• The gallant Abbé . Set to music by Leo Blech . Bote & Bock, Berlin 1907.
• Storm and calm . Carl Duncker, Berlin 1902.

Novels

• Pan doctor Casanova . Translated from German into Czech by Václav Šmejkal. Vyšehrad, Prague 1988.
• Kněžna Libuše . Prague 1910.
• Ve stínu modré růže . Prague 1921.

Translations

• Raduz a Mahulena . (Czech fairy tale into German).
• Libretto for Psohlavci by Karel Kovařovic .

drama

• Nadarmo . (Drama performed in Švandovo divadlo ).
• Rachel .

Music carrier

• CD 4925 E. Destinnová - Arias and songs 1901–1909
• CD 5806 E. Destinnová - Arias and songs 1910–1921
• CD 5807 E. Destinnová - Arias and songs 1901
• LP 1701 E. Destinnová - Český repertoár
• Double LP Supraphon 110319 - Ema Destinnová (souborná edice) - Německý repertoár

literature

• Heribert Sturm : Biographical lexicon on the history of the Bohemian countries. Published on behalf of the Collegium Carolinum (Institute) . Volume I, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich / Vienna 1979, ISBN 3-486-49491-0 , p. 242.
• Wilhelm Kosch : Deutsches Theater-Lexikon (1953–1966).
• Who is it Our contemporaries. 1950 ff .; later who is who?
• Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942 . (1968)
• A. Rectories: Ema Destinová . Prague 1936.
• M. Martinková: Život Emy Destinové . Pilsen 1946.
• Václav Holzknecht, Bohumil Trita: Ema Destinnová ve slovech i obrazech . Panton, Praga 1974.
• V. Haškovec: Galerie géniů, aneb, Kdo byl kdo .
• Češi a Moravané . In: gallery nesmrtelných .
• L. Souček: Kdo byl kdo .
• Kdo byl kdo v našich dějinách do roku 1918 .
• M. Bajerová: O Emě Destinnové .
• B. Plevka: Severočeské hudební kapitoly . 1922.
• K. Honolka: Slavne primadony . 1988 (first edition: 1913).
• B. Adamičová: Světoví pěvci 20. století .
• M. Pospíšil: Veliké srdce . 1947.
• Velké ženy české .
• Bohumil Plevka: Život a umění Emy Destinnové . Biography. AZ servis, Praha 1994, ISBN 80-901554-3-X (Czech, translated: Life and Art Ema Destinn ).

See also

• List of Czech writers

Web links

Commons : Emmy Destinn  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Emmy Destinn sings: Carmen "Yes, love has colorful wings"
• (57) Entries on Ema Destinová in the database of the Czech National Library (Databáze Národní knihovny ČR)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Václav Holzknecht, Bohumil Trita: Ema Destinnová ve slovech i obrazech. Panton, Prague 1974, pp. 265-269.
2. ↑ Heribert Sturm : Biographical Lexicon for the History of the Bohemian Countries. Published on behalf of the Collegium Carolinum (Institute) , Volume II, R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-486-52551-4 , p. 486.