Josie Petru

Josie Petru (1899)

Josie von Petru , also Josipa Petru or Josefine Petru (born March 19, 1876 in Osijek , † November 22, 1907 in Davos ) was a Slavonian opera singer (alto).

Life

Josefine Petru was born in 1876 in Osijek , Slavonia, as the daughter of the wholesaler Karl Petru and his wife Eleonore . Her uncle was the publisher Karl Laubner, editor of the Osijek newspaper Slavonische Presse . At the end of the 1890s, Petru moved with her mother to Graz, where she began vocal training. After graduating from the Conservatory in Vienna (singing teacher Philipp Forsten , drama teacher August Stoll ) Petru got an engagement at the Prague Opera and two years later in 1902 Gustav Mahler engaged at the Vienna Court Opera , at that time the most renowned opera house in Europe. Petru made her debut on August 30, 1902 as Azuzena in Verdi's Troubadour and enjoyed success as a Verdi and Wagner interpreter in the following years . However, she soon fell seriously ill and had to break off her musical career.

To cure her illness, she went to Davos , Switzerland , where she died on November 22, 1907 at the age of only 31. Josie Petru was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery.

literature

• Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 762, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
• Gradsko poglavarstvo Osijek, Od turskog do suvremenog Osijeka, Zavod za znanstveni rad Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti u Osijeku, 1996 (Department for Scientific Work of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Osijek, 1996)
• Slavonian Press of November 23, 1907 (No. 269)
• Mahler in Vienna - short biography of Josie Petru (marstonrecords)

Web links

• Vienna Singers of the Court Opera 1897-1907 (marstonrecords)
• Josie Petru Sound recording from the archive of the Austrian Media Library : ("Habanera" from Carmen )