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Coloratura SELMA KURZ -- Mad Scene - Lucia - Edison Amberol

Uploaded by: gmmix
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Selma Kurz, once the reigning coloratura soprano of Vienna, sings "Scena Della Pazzia / Aria del Follia" from Donizetti's opera LUCIA on a rare 4-minute Edison Blue Amberol cylinder # 28162.
Polish Prima Donna SELMA KURZ (1874-1933), famous for her perfect and often protracted TRILLS, was born in Biala to a humble Jewish family of 11 children. When still a girl, she was taken to a convent to learn sewing, but the nuns quickly discovered her lovely voice. Soon she sang in the local syn
agogue. Money was raised to send her to Vienna. The well-known Count Nicholas Esterhazy agreed to pay for voice lessons with Johannes Ress. She later consulted with Jean de Reszke and Matilde Marchesi in Paris. Outstanding in a student concert of Ress pupils in 1895, she was given a contract made
her operatic debut as the lead in A. Thomas's "Mignon" in Hamburg—on 5/ 12/ 1895. During the next 4 years she sang Eudoxie in Halevy's "La Juive," Elizabeth in Wagner's "Tannhauser," and CARMEN! Gustav Mahler, music director of the Vienna Imperial and Royal Court Opera, asked her to audition for h
im. He immediately offered her a fate-sealing contract, and she made her début 9/ 3/ 1899 at the Vienna Opera. Her success in Vienna was swift and total and would last to the end of her musical career, thirty years later. Mahler himself, hearing her perfect TRILL and wonderfully placed high-notes
in the Trovatore Leonora's Act IV aria, suggested she study the Hochkoloratur (high coloratura) repertory. The Court Opera director carefully introduced her to this repertoire by letting her sing Rosina (in The Barber of Seville), the pages Urbain in Les Huguenots and Oscar in Un ballo in maschera,
Juliette and Martha; but she soon moved on to Elvira in Ernani, Lakmé, Konstanze, Gilda, and Violetta. In 1906, on the occasion of a much- acclaimed Enrico Caruso gala, she sang Gilda in Rigoletto, with Titta Ruffo as the Jester! This was Ruffo's only appearance in Vienna. Although she had great
triumphs in coloratura roles, Kurz did not neglect her lyric repertory. Indeed, of the 992 performances she would give at the Vienna Hofoper (later Staatsoper) more than 100 would be devoted to Mimì in Puccini's La bohème. She also created that composer's Madama Butterfly for Vienna (1907) as wel
l as Saffi in Johann Strauss II's Der Zigeunerbaron, 1910. She sang Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) and Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) in 1911 and, in one of the many high points of her Viennese career, created Zerbinetta in the world première of the second version of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, on Oct
ober 4, 1916. She sang Zerbinetta 36 times in Vienna. In Vienna she sang every imaginable role, from Tchaikovsky's Violanta and Wagner's Elsa (in Lohengrin) and Sieglinde (in Die Walküre) to Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Massenet's Manon, Frau Fluth in Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor and Rosalin
de in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus. Her last performance at the great theatre in the Ringstraße took place on February 12th, 1927. This appearance, as Rosina in Barbiere, closed one of the most glorious operatic careers in the Twentieth Century. Her very last public appearance was in September 1
932 at the baptism of Archduke Stefan (1932-1998), son of Archduke Anton and Princess Ileana of Romania. Although already mortally ill, she sang Mozart's Ridente la calma and the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria. Kurz died 9 months later of cancer. She left over 150 78rpm sides. The first were made for Berli
ner in 1900. These were followed by Zonophone and Gramophone & Typewriter disks, 1901-1906. She made a long and glorious series for HMV (now EMI) in 1907-1914. These are by far the best. Around 1910 she recorded three cylinders for Edison; TWO I've posted on YouTube. She made a few electrical records, but by this time her once glorious voice was seriously on the wane.

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