Margarethe Arndt-Ober
Encyclopedia
Margarethe Arndt-Ober was an American opera singer of German descent who had an active international career during the first half of the twentieth century. A highly skilled contralto
, Ober enjoyed a particularly long and fruitful association with the Berlin State Opera
from 1907 to 1944. She also was notably a principal singer at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York City between 1913 and 1917.
Ober made her professional opera debut as Azucena in Giuseppe Verdi
's Il trovatore
at the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt in 1906. After a short stint at the Opera i Operetka w Szczecinie, she became a principal singer with the Berlin State Opera
in 1907, remaining with that company for over 35 years. In 1908 she had her first major success in Berlin singing Amneris in Verdi's Aida
with Enrico Caruso as Radames. That same year she portrayed the tile role in the German premiere of Jules Massenet
's Thérèse
. In April 1910 she sang in the world premiere of Arthur Nevin
's Poia. In 1913 she portrayed Eboli in the Berlin premiere of Verdi's Don Carlos
.
In 1913 Ober joined the roster of principal singers at the Metropolitan Opera
in New York City, singing with the company for four seasons. She made her debut with the company on November 21, 1913, as Ortrud in Richard Wagner
's Lohengrin
. With the company she notably sang Octavian in the United States premiere of Richard Strauss
's Der Rosenkavalier
, Katharine in the Met's first production of Hermann Goetz
's Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung
, and Alisoun in the world premiere of Reginald de Koven
's The Canterbury Pilgrims
. Her other Met roles included Amneris, Azucena, Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
, Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns
's Samson et Dalila, Eglantine in Carl Maria von Weber
's Euryanthe
, Erda in both Wagner's Das Rheingold
and Siegfried
, Fricka in Wagner's Die Walküre
, Laura in Amilcare Ponchielli
's La Gioconda
, Nancy in Friedrich von Flotow
's Martha
, Waltraute in Wagner's Götterdämmerung
, and the Witch in Engelbert Humperdinck
's Königskinder
. Her final and 182nd performance at the Met was as Marina in Modest Mussorgsky
's Boris Godunov
on April 27, 1917.
Ober's opera career at the Met ended shortly after the outbreak of World War I. She fainted on stage after hearing of fighting between the United States and Germany during World War I. With the rise of prejudice against German-Americans in the United States, the Met decided to dismiss Ober while she was rehearsing on October 2, 1917. The house justified the action by saying that the singer loathed the United States. Ober sued for $50,000, maintaining she was "simply an artist". She returned to Germany after the court's decision, which was not made public.
Ober returned to Germany after being fired from the Met and continued to perform at the Berlin State Opera until her retirement from the stage in 1944. In 1924 she portrayed Kostelnicka in the Berlin premiere of Leoš Janáček
’s Jenůfa
. Other Berlin highlights included appearances in three more world premieres: Eduard Künneke
's operetta
Die große Sünderin (31 December 1935), and the operas Der singende Teufel by Franz Schreker
(10 December 1928) and Peer Gynt by Werner Egk
(24 November 1938).
Outside of Berlin, Ober was a regular performer at the Zoppot Festival, appearing there almost every year from 1922 to 1942. She also made appearances in Spain, Holland, and Norway
, and at most of Germany's major opera houses. Her voice is preserved on a number of recordings made on the HMV, Odeon, Parlophon, Pathé, and Victor labels.
She died in 1971.
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
, Ober enjoyed a particularly long and fruitful association with the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
from 1907 to 1944. She also was notably a principal singer at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York City between 1913 and 1917.
Biography
Born Margarete Ober in Brooklyn, New York to German immigrants, Ober studied singing in Berlin with Benno Stolzenberg and Arthur Arndt, the latter of whom eventually became her second husband in 1910.Ober made her professional opera debut as Azucena in Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
at the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt in 1906. After a short stint at the Opera i Operetka w Szczecinie, she became a principal singer with the Berlin State Opera
Berlin State Opera
The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...
in 1907, remaining with that company for over 35 years. In 1908 she had her first major success in Berlin singing Amneris in Verdi's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
with Enrico Caruso as Radames. That same year she portrayed the tile role in the German premiere of Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Thérèse
Thérèse (opera)
Thérèse is an opera in two acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jules Claretie. It was first performed at the Opéra in Monte Carlo on 7 February 1907, with Lucy Arbell in the title role...
. In April 1910 she sang in the world premiere of Arthur Nevin
Arthur Nevin
Arthur Nevin was an American composer, conductor, teacher and musicologist. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman, Blair Fairchild, Charles Sanford Skilton, and Arthur Farwell, among others, he was one of the leading Indianist composers of the early twentieth century.-Biography:Born in Edgeworth,...
's Poia. In 1913 she portrayed Eboli in the Berlin premiere of Verdi's Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
.
In 1913 Ober joined the roster of principal singers at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
in New York City, singing with the company for four seasons. She made her debut with the company on November 21, 1913, as Ortrud in Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
. With the company she notably sang Octavian in the United States premiere of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
's Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
, Katharine in the Met's first production of Hermann Goetz
Hermann Goetz
Hermann Gustav Goetz was a German composer.After studying in Berlin, he moved to Switzerland in 1863. After ten years spent as a critic, pianist and conductor as well, he spent the last three years of his life composing...
's Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung
Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung
Der Widerspänstigen Zähmung is a comic opera in four acts by the German composer Hermann Goetz. It was written between 1868 and 1872 and first performed in Mannheim, Germany on 11 October 1874 under the conductor Ernst Frank...
, and Alisoun in the world premiere of Reginald de Koven
Reginald de Koven
Henry Louis Reginald De Koven was an American music critic and prolific composer, particularly of comic operas.-Biography:...
's The Canterbury Pilgrims
The Canterbury Pilgrims
The Canterbury Pilgrims is an opera by the American composer Reginald De Koven. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House on March 8, 1917...
. Her other Met roles included Amneris, Azucena, Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
, Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
's Samson et Dalila, Eglantine in Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
's Euryanthe
Euryanthe
Euryanthe is a German "grand, heroic, romantic" opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed at the Theater am Kärntnertor, Vienna on 25 October 1823...
, Erda in both Wagner's Das Rheingold
Das Rheingold
is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...
and Siegfried
Siegfried (opera)
Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...
, Fricka in Wagner's Die Walküre
Die Walküre
Die Walküre , WWV 86B, is the second of the four operas that form the cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner...
, Laura in Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's La Gioconda
La Gioconda (opera)
La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli set to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835...
, Nancy in Friedrich von Flotow
Friedrich von Flotow
Friedrich Adolf Ferdinand, Freiherr von Flotow was a German composer. He is chiefly remembered for his opera Martha, which was popular in the 19th century....
's Martha
Martha (opera)
Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond is a 'romantic comic' opera in four acts by Friedrich von Flotow, set to a German libretto by Friedrich Wilhelm Riese and based on a story by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges....
, Waltraute in Wagner's Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
, and the Witch in Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
's Königskinder
Königskinder
Königskinder is a stage work by Engelbert Humperdinck that exists in two versions: as a melodrama and as an opera or more precisely a Märchenoper...
. Her final and 182nd performance at the Met was as Marina in Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
on April 27, 1917.
Ober's opera career at the Met ended shortly after the outbreak of World War I. She fainted on stage after hearing of fighting between the United States and Germany during World War I. With the rise of prejudice against German-Americans in the United States, the Met decided to dismiss Ober while she was rehearsing on October 2, 1917. The house justified the action by saying that the singer loathed the United States. Ober sued for $50,000, maintaining she was "simply an artist". She returned to Germany after the court's decision, which was not made public.
Ober returned to Germany after being fired from the Met and continued to perform at the Berlin State Opera until her retirement from the stage in 1944. In 1924 she portrayed Kostelnicka in the Berlin premiere of Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
’s Jenůfa
Jenufa
Jenůfa is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček to a Czech libretto by the composer, based on the play Její pastorkyňa by Gabriela Preissová. It was first performed at the Brno Theater, Brno, 21 January 1904...
. Other Berlin highlights included appearances in three more world premieres: Eduard Künneke
Eduard Künneke
Eduard Künneke was a German composer of operettas, operas and theatre music. He was born in Emmerich. His daughter was the actress and singer Evelyn Künneke....
's operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
Die große Sünderin (31 December 1935), and the operas Der singende Teufel by Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality , timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and...
(10 December 1928) and Peer Gynt by Werner Egk
Werner Egk
Werner Egk , born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a German composer.-Early career:He was born in the Swabian town of Auchsesheim, today part of Donauwörth, Germany. His family, of Catholic peasant stock, moved to Augsburg when Egk was six. He studied at a Benedictine Gymnasium and entered the municipal...
(24 November 1938).
Outside of Berlin, Ober was a regular performer at the Zoppot Festival, appearing there almost every year from 1922 to 1942. She also made appearances in Spain, Holland, and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and at most of Germany's major opera houses. Her voice is preserved on a number of recordings made on the HMV, Odeon, Parlophon, Pathé, and Victor labels.
She died in 1971.
External links
- Margarethe Arndt-Ober at Flickr Commons