Word: jeritza
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There she became the Great Jeritza to a gay, music-loving Vienna. Her fame grew with her repertoire. A beautiful prima donna has always seemed a phenomenon. Here was one magnificently built, with sea-blue eyes and golden hair. The public raved. Composers made their music for her. She created Strauss' Ariadne, later the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten. She was his Salome, his Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier). He saw her in Max Reinhardt's revival of Offenbach's Belle Hélène and an idea was born. It simmered and swelled until last winter...
...early as 1914 there was talk of Jeritza's coming to the U. S. Otto Kahn had heard her in Europe. So had Mr. Gatti. But then came the War. Vienna stayed German and the Metropolitan Opera went Italian. Jeritza was married-to Baron Leopold Popper de Podraghy,* one of the wealthiest industrialists of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, turned soldier for his Emperor. She herself sang at the front, worked in a hospital. Not until the fall of 1921 did she come to the Metropolitan...
...Metropolitan curtain is never late. Patrons wondered. None knew the fault was the new soprano's, so frightened backstage that no sound would come from her throat. She ate some pineapple. She crossed herself once, ten times. Manager Gatti whispered encouragement. The curtain went up and Jeritza made her debut. With her singing and her acting she was a sensation...
...tenderness of her Elsa; the white compassion of her Elizabeth. Critics carp at vocal imperfections, occasional explosive performances, but in the final reckoning they pale like small talk before the fact that operatic puppets are given life, that people who had hitherto small patience with "grand" opera go to Jeritza, pay top prices, listen and watch intently and go again...
...When Jeritza first came to the U. S. it was the fashion for newsmen to ask all Europeans what they thought of prohibition. One approached Jeritza. She smiled a radiant smile, but did not understand the English...