Mary Losseff

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Mary Losseff , real first name Mara , (born March 13, 1907 , according to other sources 1910 in Vladivostok , Russian Empire ; † July 3, 1972 in London , United Kingdom ) was a Russian , in later years British , operetta singer ( soprano ) and actress .

Life

Origin and beginnings

Mary Losseff, actually Mara, grew up in sheltered and wealthy circumstances. Her father was a manufacturer . Already as a child she let herself be called "Mary", as it sounded more international and like a promising future to her. After the October Revolution , her family fled Russia, first to Japan , and two years later to Europe . At the beginning of the twenties, probably in 1921, she came to Berlin with her parents .

Losseff, who had already received dance training and spoke German without an accent , took singing lessons from Bertha Niklas-Kempner in Berlin. She had her first successes in 1929 with appearances in the Nelson -Revue From A to Z , where she was the first interpreter of the chanson Peter, Peter (music: Rudolf Nelson, text: Friedrich Hollaender ), in which she was performed by Marlene Dietrich the composer and pianist Peter Kreuder , her lover at the time , was accompanied on the piano .

In October 1929, after a performance by the Nelson Revue, she met the celebrated opera and operetta singer Richard Tauber , who was fascinated by her and immediately fell in love with her passionately. Already engaged for Nelson's next revue, The Red Thread , she canceled her contract in order to be able to accompany Tauber on his two spa stays in Bad Pistyan in April / May 1930 . In the following years, Losseff became his constant companion, life partner and muse . She spent her summer vacation in 1930 with Tauber on the beach at Scheveningen on the Dutch North Sea coast . The couple traveled together u. a. to St. Moritz , Bad Ischl , Bad Reichenhall and again to Bad Pistyan in August of the following year. Both lived together for about five years from 1929 to 1934.

Career

From September 1930 Losseff made her first film, Das Land des Smiles , at the side of Richard Tauber, on whose mediation she had received the second leading role in the film alongside him. This was followed by the film Liebeskommando (1931) and later, Boards That Mean the World (1935), directed by Kurt Gerron .

In the following years Mary Losseff appeared as an operetta singer in several large stage productions. In October 1932 she sang the title role in Die Dubarry at the Centraltheater Dresden (with Tauber as conductor). At the end of 1932 she then performed together with Tauber on a Dreimäderlhaus tour in Holland (including in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam).

From February 7, 1933, as the successor to Jarmila Novotná , she was Tauber's partner in the operetta Spring Storms in Berlin's Admiralspalast until March 1933 . In March 1933 Losseff left Berlin with Tauber and went with him first to Switzerland and then to Austria . In May / June 1933 she appeared with Tauber with the operetta Paganini in Holland (Amsterdam, The Hague), in July 1933 at the New German Theater in Prague in Das Dreimäderlhaus and in August 1933 in The Hague (Princess Schouwburg) in Die Dubarry . In the 1933/34 season she appeared at the Scala Theater in Vienna as Madeleine in the operetta Ball im Savoy with partners such as Egon von Jordan , Paul Morgan and Curt Bois . From the end of August to November 1934 she sang in the Theater an der Wien , where she was celebrated as the new “prima donna of the operetta”, alongside Richard Tauber in the role of the night club singer Sonja in the operetta The singing dream composed for her by Tauber . In December 1934 and January 1935 she went on tour with Der singende Traum as Tauber's partner, with performances a. a. in Prague and Budapest , then also Linz and Salzburg .

In January 1935, along with Jarmila Novotná, Richard Tauber and Joseph Schmidt, she was one of the soloists in the Vienna Philharmonic's Carnival Concert in the Great Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna . In February 1935 she sang with Tauber at the Salzburg City Theater in The Singing Dream , then in March 1935 at the Brno City Theater. In June 1935 performances of the operetta The Singing Dream followed at the Stadttheater Zurich and the Theater Basel . In the 1935/36 season she sang the title role in the operetta production Die Dubarry at the Theater an der Wien . She also appeared in the 1935/36 season at the Theater an der Wien in the German-language premiere of the Hungarian operetta Maya (music: Szabolcs Fényes) in the title role.

emigration

In 1938, after the “ Anschluss ” of Austria, she moved permanently to London together with Tauber, where she took over the title role in the operetta Countess Mariza at the Palace Theater from July 1938, after Tauber had spoken to Emmerich Kálmán . In England she shot her last film The Sky's the Limit (1938), with her in the role of Mme. Isobella.

In September 1939 she appeared with Tauber at the Empire Theater in Johannesburg ( South Africa ) as Lisa in the operetta The Land of Smiles ; in October 1939 performances followed in Cape Town . In both productions (London and South Africa) Losseff was only able to appear in a few performances due to her alcohol dependence and had to be replaced by her second cast .

Losseff's alcohol problems had worsened especially since the time when Tauber fell in love with British actress Diana Napier , whom he also married in 1936. Tauber paid for Losseff's expensive rehab treatment on several occasions and supported her financially by paying her rent and supporting her until his death in January 1948. Their mutual correspondence dates back to shortly before Tauber's death. In January 1948, Losseff was also one of the mourners at Tauber's funeral in Old Brompton Cemetery .

Losseff's last public appearance, under the name Marie Losseff , is documented for April 1950 in the “ Bournemouth Winter Gardens ”, where she sang excerpts from the operettas Countess Mariza and Ball in the Savoy .

Private

Little biographical evidence can be found about Mary Losseff's early years. In 1927, her illegitimate son Dimitri Alexander († 1992) was born in Berlin, whom she sent to boarding school in order to pursue her artistic career.

In October 1938 she married the actor William Brian Buchel in London. The coexistence was short-lived, however, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1947. After a brief stay in Exmouth , where she had moved in 1943, she lived again in London between 1944 and 1948, in an apartment in Queensway , Bayswater . After Tauber's death she ran into dire financial difficulties, entered into two other, rather short-lived relationships, and returned to London in 1955, where she lived in Acton and later in Ealing .

Information from her former singing teacher that she lived in a cheap dump in Soho in the 1950s and shared a bed with a night shift worker could not be verified. However, it has been proven that an advertisement for Mary Losseff placed in the Times by Diana Napier in the 1950s was unsuccessful.

In 1959 Losseff met a Russian in exile and moved into his house in Hammersmith, London . She died of lung cancer in July 1972 in London . She was cremated in Sutton , Surrey . Her ashes were interred in one of the parish urn burial grounds in Morden Cemetery in Morden , London Borough of Merton .

Audio documents

In 1929 Mary Losseff recorded the chanson Peter, Peter von Rudolf Nelsen and Friedrich Holländer as a solo number .

At the end of January 1933, Tauber and Losseff made two duet recordings from the operetta Spring Storms with the orchestra of the Admiralspalast Berlin , conductor: Manfred Gurlitt . Recorded were u. a. the two duets Dream Sunken, Love Drinking and Spring in Manchuria .

In September 1934, under the musical direction of Anton Paulik, the two duets Sagen dich nicht mein Augen and Singt mir ein Liebeslied from the operetta The Singing Dream were recorded with Tauber and Losseff. She also made two solo recordings from the operetta The Singing Dream .

literature

  • Michael Jürgs : I was happy to kiss the women. The Richard Tauber biography . Appendix with life data of Richard Tauber. List Verlag Munich 2000. ISBN 3-471-79429-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Piet Hein Honig, Hanns-Georg Rodek : 100001. The show business encyclopedia of the 20th century. Showbiz-Data-Verlag, Villingen-Schwenningen 1992, ISBN 3-929009-01-5 , p. 584.
  2. ^ Paul S. Ulrich: Biographical Index for Theater, Dance and Music / Biographical Index for Theater, Dance and Music . Berlin publishing house. Arno Spitz GmbH. 1997. p. 1133. ISBN 978-3-87061-479-9
  3. ↑ Michael Jürgs gives the year 1927 in his Tauber biography (p. 27).
  4. ↑ Karin Ploog: ... When the notes learned to run ... Part 2. History and stories of popular music until 1945-composer-librettist-lyricist . Books On Demand, 2015, page 125. ISBN 978-3-7347-4718-2 .
  5. ↑ Karin Ploog: ... When the notes learned to run ... History and stories of popular music up to 1945 - first part. Composers A to R from cabaret - operetta - revue - film . Publisher: Books On Demand, 2015, page 602. ISBN 978-3-7347-4508-9 .
  6. ↑ Mary Losseff sings: "I want to experience something big today" by Paul Abraham. Film clip. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  7. ↑ Mary Losseff sings: "I hate you, I love you" by Paul Abraham. Film clip. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  8. ↑ Mary Losseff is said to have sung together with Tauber in “Das Dreimäderlhaus” in Dresden in June / July 1932, cf. Jürgs, p. 263 and Daniel O'Haras RICHARD TAUBER CHRONOLOGY (2012), page 15. Jürgs dates these performances to the time before their vacation together in Bad Reichenhall at the beginning of July 1932. O'Hara's Revised TAUBER CHRONOLOGY (2019) includes this data no longer. Since the Dreimäderlhaus premiere with Tauber did not take place in Berlin until August 1932, it can be assumed that this was confused with the later Dresden Dubarry performances in October 1932.
  9. ↑ Karin Ploog: ... When the notes learned to run ... Part 2. History and stories of popular music until 1945-composer-librettist-lyricist . Books On Demand, 2015, page 132. ISBN 978-3-7347-4718-2 .
  10. ↑ Karin Ploog: … When the notes learned to run… 1.3. Composer RZ. History and stories of popular music up to 1945 . Books On Demand, 2019. ISBN 978-3-7494-4686-5 .
  11. ↑ Master of the Operetta / Benefit . Concert program on January 22, 1935. Accessed on May 12, 2020.
  12. ↑ role Portrait: Mary Losseff - Theater Museum . Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  13. ↑ According to Daniel O 'Haras RICHARD TAUBER CHRONOLOGY (2012), page 20, Losseff is said to have been on stage again in the 1935/36 season in the Theater an der Wien in The Singing Dream , in some performances also together with Tauber. In O'Hara's Revised TAUBER CHRONOLOGY (2019), however, these dates can no longer be found. The fact that the production, which had been played since November 1934, was actually resumed at the Theater an der Wien in the 1935/36 season could not be verified either.
  14. ^ Siegfried Geyer: "Maya", "Hofjagd" and "Jimmys Bar" . Performance review. In: Wiener Sonn- und Mondags-Zeitung of November 18, 1935. Page 8.
  15. ↑ Michael Jürgs quotes in his Tauber biography (page 29) the memoirs of Vera Kálmán , according to which Losseff is said to have regularly drunk one bottle of cognac per day at that time .
  16. ↑ Nicky Losseff: Mary Losseff and Richard Tauber . In The Record Collector: A Magazine for Collectors of Recorded Vocal Art . Volume 51 (2006). Pages 305-314.
  17. ↑ Mary Losseff . Entry on Find A Grave. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  18. ↑ Mary Losseff: Peter, Peter . Image from 1929. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  19. ^ The Richard Tauber Collection, Vol. 15 - Operetta Scenes (1924-1933) . Recording dates. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  20. ↑ Spring Storms : Spring in Manchuria . Sound document with Richard Tauber and Mary Losseff (1933).
  21. ↑ Spring storms: sunken dream, drunk with love . Sound document with Richard Tauber and Mary Losseff (1933).
  22. ↑ Wolfgang Schneidereit: Discography of the vocal interpreters of the light muse from 1925 to 1945 in German-speaking countries. A discography with biographical information in three volumes. Third volume: Franzi Ressel to Slobodan Zivojnovic . Publisher: Books On Demand, 2015, page 1441/1442. ISBN 978-3-7528-2843-6 .
personal data
SURNAME Losseff, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Losseff, Mary Buchel; Losseff Mara; Losseff, Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian operetta singer (soprano) and actress
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Vladivostok , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH 3rd July 1972
Place of death London , UK