Word: jeritza
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DIED. Maria Jeritza, 94, soprano golden girl of opera's golden age; in Orange, N.J. Combining a radiant voice with flamboyant acting, the Austrian-born singer began her ascent to stardom in 1912, when the Emperor Franz Josef invited her to join the Vienna Royal Opera. At the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang from 1921 to 1932, the director reported that the largest ovation he had ever heard followed her "Vissi d'arte, "the great second-act aria in Tosca; she sang it prostrate on the floor. A tempestuous diva onstage and off, Jeritza gathered three husbands, prompted...
...teenager, his works were performed by Pianist Artur Schnabel and Conductor Bruno Walter. In 1921, when Korngold was 24, his third opera, Die Tote Stadt (The Dead City), was staged at New York's Metropolitan Opera. In the leading role of Marietta was Soprano Maria Jeritza, making her Met debut. The American public took to Jeritza but not to Korngold, and after a few years it forgot him as a serious composer...
Last week Die Tote Stadt was finally revived by the New York City Opera, with Jeritza, now a remarkably robust and handsome 87, sitting in the fourth row center. Even in the 1920s, Die Tote Stadt was an anachronism. Korngold was to Richard Strauss what Engelbert Humperdinck (Hansel und Gretel) was to Wagner-a brilliant but minor follower. The style of Die Tote Stadt is a lush, clamorous, occasionally schmaltzy orchestral sonorama that lies somewhere between Der Rosenkavalier and Elektra, with special added effects from Puccini, Debussy, Mahler and Rimsky-Korsakov. The best of its vocal moments, like the taunting...
...rumination exquisitely ill-suited to a house of the Met's proportions. Last week the company used its resources to far better effect. It revived Czech Composer Leos Janáček's Jenufa, last heard at the Met 50 years ago in a production starring Maria Jeritza. Still looking glamorous at 87, Jeritza watched opening night from the front left box. She was applauded warmly at the first intermission...
...Korngold was 13, Artur Schnabel was playing his piano sonata in Vienna and Berlin. Four years later Conductors Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer were doing his orchestral works. In 1921, when Korngold was 24, his opera The Dead City was mounted at the Metropolitan Opera, and legendary Soprano Maria Jeritza made her debut in it. Korngold promised much, but he kept that promise, sad to say for the world of serious music, in Hollywood, where he died...