Marie Brema
Encyclopedia
Marie Brema was an English dramatic mezzo-soprano
singer in concert, opera
tic and oratorio
work in the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th centuries. She created several important roles and was the first English singer to appear at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus
.
of a German father (from Bremen
) and an American mother. She was brought up among people who enjoyed music and drama, but took no professional interest in music until her marriage in 1874 to Arthur Frederick Braun. She was then encouraged to undergo vocal training, which she did, but it was several years more (after 3 months of study with George Henschel
) that she first appeared before the public, singing Schubert's Ganymed
in a popular concert. She was so admired that she continued training under other teachers and made further concert appearances. Her stage debut was in 1891 at Oxford as Adriana Lecouvreur
.
, as Lola, at the Shaftesbury Theatre
, London. (This was under Arditi
, and opposite Francesco Vignas as Turiddu: the new opera was a sensation.) She achieved a success, and followed it with a greater one in Gluck
's Orfeo ed Euridice later in the same year. Shaw
witnessed some early appearances in London, for instance in May 1892 an encored performance of Welsing's setting of Love's Philosophy
, and in July in a Miscellaneous Concert (with David Bispham
, Ellen Terry
, Josef Hollmann, etc.) where she sang Schubert's Erlkonig and won Shaw's admiration. However he found her insufficiently versatile, over-specialized, with a fixed vocal colour owing to over-emphasis of the dramatic lower register: and recommended that she should permit instead the simple beauty of sound in the upper part of her voice to be heard, when she should take high rank as a singer.
In February 1893, at a Royal Albert Hall
performance of Gounod
's Redemption
, he thought she sang 'While my watch I am keeping' 'with a gentler vocal touch and a nearer approach to purely lyric style than I had heard from her before', saying she might now become the successor of Mme Belle Cole
. In April 1893, at a Philharmonic
concert (also featuring Sapellnikoff
in Chopin's E major concerto), "happening to be tremendously in the dramatic vein, she positively rampaged through a Schiller-Joachim
scena and through Beethoven's Creation Hymn, scandalizing the Philharmonic, but carrying away the multitude."
Shaw, who did not admire Brahms, praised Marie Brema's introduction of the Harzreise im Winter in March 1894, for though he thought Goethe's words had been 'dehumanized' (by Brahms) and that she sang 'without twopenn'orth of feeling', she had 'a thousand pounds' worth of intelligence and dramatic resolution. She has of late made a remarkable conquest of the art of singing.' He had once thought her voice would not last five years, but admitted that now it might last for fifty. The signs of wear and tear had vanished, and 'the sustained note at the end was a model of vocal management. In any reasonably artistic country,' he added, 'Miss Brema would be pursuing a remarkable career on the lyric stage instead of wasting her qualities on the concert platform.' His recommendation was not wasted.
In 1894 Brema created the part of the Evil Spirit in Sir Hubert Parry
's King Saul at the Birmingham Festival
. During the operatic career which followed, she continued to sing frequently at concerts and oratorios at the music festivals in Great Britain.
by Hermann Levi
, and was invited to take part in the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth, where she sang the roles of Ortrud in Lohengrin
and Kundry in Parsifal
. She was the first English singer to appear there. Established as a Wagnerian, in 1894 she made her first tour of the United States of America
with the Damrosch Company, and in addition to those two roles also appeared as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde
and Brünnhilde in Die Walküre
. Her Brünnhilde was considered especially fine, not only for her splendid vocalisation but also for her stature and handsome appearance. Returning to Europe she performed these roles at Bayreuth, and added to them the second Brünnhilde (Götterdämmerung
) and Fricka in Das Rheingold
.
In America Marie Brema sang Brangäne in a German Tristan in a cast with Lillian Nordica
as Isolde, Jean de Reszke
as Tristan and brother Edouard
as King Mark, and also in The Ring, performances under the direction of Anton Seidl
and Felix Mottl
. During the 1898-99 season at the Met
she sang Fides in Meyerbeer's Le prophète
opposite both de Reszkes and Lilli Lehmann
. In various parts of Europe, in Paris, Berlin and Brussels, for example, she appeared with great success as Dalila in Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, a role which especially suited her, and as Amneris in Verdi's Aida
. Orfeo also remained a most important role throughout her career. In the London 1897 season David Bispham
, Wotan in Walküre, called her 'superb' alongside Ernest van Dyck
, Susan Strong and Ernestine Schumann-Heink
.
In 1897 Brema was among those invited to perform at the State Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, where she sang 'Plus grand dans son Obscurité' from Gounod's La reine de Saba
. Other performers included Bispham
, Nevada
, de Lucia
and Mme Albani
. Brema and Bispham sang again by royal invitation at Osborne House
not long afterwards.
In 1897 she also performed the Wesendonck Songs of Wagner (Felix Mottl arrangement) at the Queen's Hall
for Henry Wood on a Wagner birthday concert (May 22), and later in the same programme delivered Brünnhilde's Immolation scene. Wood enjoyed working with her, and called her 'a really great Wagnerian singer.' He remarked that she could dramatize the parts without making gestures, and was 'certainly German in style.' In 1898 she introduced Saint-Saëns's La fiancee du timbalier. In November and December 1900 she appeared for Wood in three special Wagnerian concerts at the Royal Albert Hall
, with orchestras of 200 members.
, Marie Brema created the role of the angel in the first performance of Sir Edward Elgar
's The Dream of Gerontius
, with Edward Lloyd
and Harry Plunket Greene
, under the baton of Hans Richter
. The performance was not a great success, owing partly to the difficult and somewhat revolutionary nature of the composition, and the comparatively short time that had been available for the artists to prepare it. She performed it again, this time under Elgar's baton, at the 1902 Sheffield
Festival, with John Coates
and David Ffrangcon-Davies: in the same concert Ysaÿe
played the Beethoven concerto.
In the following years the role of the angel was more often taken by the leading English contralto Louise Kirkby Lunn
, also a celebrated Wagnerian singer (Ortrud, Kundry, Brangane and Fricka), Amneris and Dalilah, and in many ways a successor to Marie Brema, though without her range for a compelling Brünnhilde. In 1903, writing to Brema of her original performance, Elgar wrote 'I have, of course, in memory your fine and intellectual creation of the part; and though I never thought the 'tessitura' suited you well, as the magnificent artist you are, you made it go very finely.'
, describing the London musical scene circa 1900, noted the absence of leading English-born women singers, apart from the three notable exceptions of Clara Butt
, Marie Brema and Kirkby Lunn.
Brema appeared opposite David Bispham again in the premiere of Stanford
's opera Much Ado About Nothing, as Beatrice to his Benedick, in a cast also including John Coates
, Suzanne Adams
and Pol Plançon
. This was for the Covent Garden 1901 season. In 1902 she sang Brünnhilde (in German) in Paris for Hans Richter. In January 1908 she organized three concerts given in Brussels
, in which Gervase Elwes joined her in the solo quartets of the Brahms Liebeslieder.
In 1910-11 she organised an opera season of her own at the Savoy Theatre
, singing Orfeo in English: this season was conducted by Frank Bridge
. According to Henry Wood, her training of the chorus to project the diction into the auditorium was wonderful and inscrutable. In 1912 she toured the provinces with the Denhof Opera Company. After this she retired from the stage.
. Among those to benefit from her instruction were Luella Paikin and Heddle Nash
. She died in Manchester
, aged 69, from undisclosed causes.
. After the outbreak of war in 1914, Sir Edward Elgar composed a symphonic accompaniment "Carillon
" for a patriotic poem "Chantons, Belges, Chantons" by Cammaerts which was first performed with the recitation by Tita Brand. Tita Brand, who had a career as an actress, was a large woman with a deep speaking voice, capable of reciting Grieg's Bergliot audibly over an unsubdued orchestra conducted by Henry Wood.
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
singer in concert, opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic and oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
work in the last decade of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th centuries. She created several important roles and was the first English singer to appear at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus
Bayreuth Festspielhaus
The or Bayreuth Festival Theatre is an opera house north of Bayreuth, Germany, dedicated solely to the performance of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner...
.
Origins and training
Marie Brema was born Minnie Fehrmann in LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
of a German father (from Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
) and an American mother. She was brought up among people who enjoyed music and drama, but took no professional interest in music until her marriage in 1874 to Arthur Frederick Braun. She was then encouraged to undergo vocal training, which she did, but it was several years more (after 3 months of study with George Henschel
George Henschel
Sir George Henschel , was a British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer of German birth....
) that she first appeared before the public, singing Schubert's Ganymed
Ganymed (Goethe)
Ganymed is a poem by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, in which the character of the mythic youth Ganymede is seduced by God through the beauty of Spring....
in a popular concert. She was so admired that she continued training under other teachers and made further concert appearances. Her stage debut was in 1891 at Oxford as Adriana Lecouvreur
Adriana Lecouvreur
Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the play by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé...
.
Early career
On 10 October 1891 (aged 35), taking her stage name from her father's birthplace, she made her opera debut in the first English production of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticanaCavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, as Lola, at the Shaftesbury Theatre
Shaftesbury Theatre
The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End Theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:The theatre was designed for the brothers Walter and Frederick Melville by Bertie Crewe and opened on 26 December 1911 with a production of The Three Musketeers, as the New...
, London. (This was under Arditi
Luigi Arditi
Luigi Arditi was an Italian violinist, composer and conductor.Arditi was born in Crescentino, Piemonte . He began his musical career as a violinist, and studied music at the Conservatory of Milan. He made his debut in 1843 as a director at Vercelli, and it was there that he was made an honorary...
, and opposite Francesco Vignas as Turiddu: the new opera was a sensation.) She achieved a success, and followed it with a greater one in Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
's Orfeo ed Euridice later in the same year. Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
witnessed some early appearances in London, for instance in May 1892 an encored performance of Welsing's setting of Love's Philosophy
Love's Philosophy
Love's Philosophy is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1820.-Original text:The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the Ocean,The winds of Heaven mix for everWith a sweet emotion;Nothing in the world is single;...
, and in July in a Miscellaneous Concert (with David Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
, Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE was an English stage actress who became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain. Among the members of her famous family is her great nephew, John Gielgud....
, Josef Hollmann, etc.) where she sang Schubert's Erlkonig and won Shaw's admiration. However he found her insufficiently versatile, over-specialized, with a fixed vocal colour owing to over-emphasis of the dramatic lower register: and recommended that she should permit instead the simple beauty of sound in the upper part of her voice to be heard, when she should take high rank as a singer.
In February 1893, at a Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
performance of Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Redemption
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
, he thought she sang 'While my watch I am keeping' 'with a gentler vocal touch and a nearer approach to purely lyric style than I had heard from her before', saying she might now become the successor of Mme Belle Cole
Belle Cole
Belle Cole was a well-known American contralto.She first achieved success while on a transcontinental tour of the United States with Theodore Thomas in 1883. She later sang in England, performing at The Crystal Palace and many other venues. In 1901, she toured Australia. It is said that musical...
. In April 1893, at a Philharmonic
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
concert (also featuring Sapellnikoff
Wassily Sapellnikoff
Wassily Sapellnikoff , was a Russian pianist.A more true transliteration of his name is Vasily Lvovich Sapelnikov, however when he concertised in England he chose the above version....
in Chopin's E major concerto), "happening to be tremendously in the dramatic vein, she positively rampaged through a Schiller-Joachim
Joachim
Saint Joachim was the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions. The story of Joachim and Anne appears first in the apocryphal Gospel of James...
scena and through Beethoven's Creation Hymn, scandalizing the Philharmonic, but carrying away the multitude."
Shaw, who did not admire Brahms, praised Marie Brema's introduction of the Harzreise im Winter in March 1894, for though he thought Goethe's words had been 'dehumanized' (by Brahms) and that she sang 'without twopenn'orth of feeling', she had 'a thousand pounds' worth of intelligence and dramatic resolution. She has of late made a remarkable conquest of the art of singing.' He had once thought her voice would not last five years, but admitted that now it might last for fifty. The signs of wear and tear had vanished, and 'the sustained note at the end was a model of vocal management. In any reasonably artistic country,' he added, 'Miss Brema would be pursuing a remarkable career on the lyric stage instead of wasting her qualities on the concert platform.' His recommendation was not wasted.
In 1894 Brema created the part of the Evil Spirit in Sir Hubert Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
's King Saul at the Birmingham Festival
Birmingham Triennial Music Festival
The Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, in Birmingham, England, founded in 1784, was the longest-running classical music festival of its kind. Its last performance was in 1912.-History:...
. During the operatic career which followed, she continued to sing frequently at concerts and oratorios at the music festivals in Great Britain.
Bayreuth, America and Europe
She was then brought to the notice of Cosima WagnerCosima Wagner
Cosima Francesca Gaetana Wagner, née de Flavigny, from 1844 known as Cosima Liszt; was the daughter of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt...
by Hermann Levi
Hermann Levi
Hermann Levi was a German Jewish orchestral conductor.Levi was born in Gießen, Germany, the son of a rabbi. He was educated at Gießen and Mannheim, and came to Vinzenz Lachner's notice...
, and was invited to take part in the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth, where she sang the roles of Ortrud in 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...
and Kundry in Parsifal
Parsifal
Parsifal is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the 13th century epic poem of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail, and on Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail.Wagner first conceived the work...
. She was the first English singer to appear there. Established as a Wagnerian, in 1894 she made her first tour of the United States of America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with the Damrosch Company, and in addition to those two roles also appeared as Brangäne in 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...
and Brünnhilde in 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...
. Her Brünnhilde was considered especially fine, not only for her splendid vocalisation but also for her stature and handsome appearance. Returning to Europe she performed these roles at Bayreuth, and added to them the second Brünnhilde (Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
) and Fricka in 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...
.
In America Marie Brema sang Brangäne in a German Tristan in a cast with Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country....
as Isolde, Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke, born Jan Mieczyslaw, , was a Polish tenor. Renowned internationally for the high quality of his singing and the elegance of his bearing, he became the biggest male opera star of the late 19th century....
as Tristan and brother Edouard
Edouard de Reszke
Édouard de Reszke, originally Edward, was a Polish bass from Warsaw. Born with an impressive natural voice and equipped with compelling histrionic skills, he became one of the most illustrious opera singers active in Europe and America during the late-Victorian Era.-Career:Édouard de Reszke was...
as King Mark, and also in The Ring, performances under the direction of Anton Seidl
Anton Seidl
Anton Seidl was a Hungarian conductor.-Biography:He was born at Pest, Hungary. He began the study of music at a very early age, and when only seven years old could pick out at the piano melodies which he had heard at the theatre...
and Felix Mottl
Felix Mottl
Felix Josef von Mottl was an Austrian conductor and composer. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant conductors of his day. He composed three operas, of which Agnes Bernauer was the most successful, as well as a string quartet and numerous songs and other music...
. During the 1898-99 season at the Met
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...
she sang Fides in Meyerbeer's Le prophète
Le prophète
Le prophète is an opera in five acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer. The French-language libretto was by Eugène Scribe.-Performance history:...
opposite both de Reszkes and Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch was a German operatic soprano of phenomenal versatility...
. In various parts of Europe, in Paris, Berlin and Brussels, for example, she appeared with great success as Dalila in Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, a role which especially suited her, and as 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...
. Orfeo also remained a most important role throughout her career. In the London 1897 season David Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
, Wotan in Walküre, called her 'superb' alongside Ernest van Dyck
Ernest van Dyck
Ernest van Dyck was a Belgian dramatic tenor who was closely identified with the Wagnerian repertoire.A native of Antwerp, van Dyck studied both law and journalism before deciding to become an opera singer...
, Susan Strong and Ernestine Schumann-Heink
Ernestine Schumann-Heink
Ernestine Schumann-Heink was a celebrated Austrian, later American, operatic contralto, noted for the size, beauty, tonal richness, flexibility and wide range of her voice.- Early life:...
.
In 1897 Brema was among those invited to perform at the State Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, where she sang 'Plus grand dans son Obscurité' from Gounod's La reine de Saba
La reine de Saba
La reine de Saba is a grand opera in four or five acts by Charles Gounod to a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré inspired by Gérard de Nerval's Le voyage en Orient...
. Other performers included Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
, Nevada
Emma Nevada
Emma Nevada was an American operatic soprano particularly known for her performances in operas by Bellini and Donizetti and the French composers Ambroise Thomas, Charles Gounod, and Léo Delibes...
, de Lucia
Fernando De Lucia
Fernando De Lucia was an Italian opera tenor and singing teacher who enjoyed an international career....
and Mme Albani
Emma Albani
Dame Emma Albani DBE was a leading soprano of the 19th century and early 20th century, and the first Canadian singer to become an international star. Her repertoire focused on the operas of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Wagner...
. Brema and Bispham sang again by royal invitation at Osborne House
Osborne House
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat....
not long afterwards.
In 1897 she also performed the Wesendonck Songs of Wagner (Felix Mottl arrangement) at the Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
for Henry Wood on a Wagner birthday concert (May 22), and later in the same programme delivered Brünnhilde's Immolation scene. Wood enjoyed working with her, and called her 'a really great Wagnerian singer.' He remarked that she could dramatize the parts without making gestures, and was 'certainly German in style.' In 1898 she introduced Saint-Saëns's La fiancee du timbalier. In November and December 1900 she appeared for Wood in three special Wagnerian concerts at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, with orchestras of 200 members.
Gerontius and Elgar
In October 1900, at the Birmingham Triennial Music FestivalBirmingham Triennial Music Festival
The Birmingham Triennial Musical Festival, in Birmingham, England, founded in 1784, was the longest-running classical music festival of its kind. Its last performance was in 1912.-History:...
, Marie Brema created the role of the angel in the first performance of Sir Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
, with Edward Lloyd
Edward Lloyd (tenor)
Edward Lloyd was a British tenor singer who excelled in concert and oratorio performance, and was recognised as a legitimate successor of John Sims Reeves as the foremost tenor exponent of that genre during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.- Early training in choral tradition :Edward...
and Harry Plunket Greene
Harry Plunket Greene
Harry Plunket Greene was an Irish baritone singer who was most famous in the formal concert and oratorio repertoire. He made a great contribution to British musical life also by writing and lecturing upon his art, and in the field of competitions and examinations...
, under the baton of Hans Richter
Hans Richter (conductor)
Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...
. The performance was not a great success, owing partly to the difficult and somewhat revolutionary nature of the composition, and the comparatively short time that had been available for the artists to prepare it. She performed it again, this time under Elgar's baton, at the 1902 Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
Festival, with John Coates
John Coates (tenor)
John Coates was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Purcell to contemporary works, and embraced the major heldentenor roles in Richard Wagner's operas...
and David Ffrangcon-Davies: in the same concert Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...
played the Beethoven concerto.
In the following years the role of the angel was more often taken by the leading English contralto Louise Kirkby Lunn
Louise Kirkby Lunn
Louise Kirkby Lunn was an English contralto. Sometimes classified as a mezzo-soprano, she was a leading English-born singer of the first two decades of the 20th century, earning praise for her performances in concert, oratorio and opera.-Training:Kirkby Lunn had her early vocal training in her...
, also a celebrated Wagnerian singer (Ortrud, Kundry, Brangane and Fricka), Amneris and Dalilah, and in many ways a successor to Marie Brema, though without her range for a compelling Brünnhilde. In 1903, writing to Brema of her original performance, Elgar wrote 'I have, of course, in memory your fine and intellectual creation of the part; and though I never thought the 'tessitura' suited you well, as the magnificent artist you are, you made it go very finely.'
Later career
Herman KleinHerman Klein
Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...
, describing the London musical scene circa 1900, noted the absence of leading English-born women singers, apart from the three notable exceptions of Clara Butt
Clara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE , sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.-Early life and career:Clara Butt was born in Southwick,...
, Marie Brema and Kirkby Lunn.
Brema appeared opposite David Bispham again in the premiere of Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
's opera Much Ado About Nothing, as Beatrice to his Benedick, in a cast also including John Coates
John Coates (tenor)
John Coates was a leading English tenor, who sang in opera and oratorio and on the concert platform. His repertoire ranged from Bach and Purcell to contemporary works, and embraced the major heldentenor roles in Richard Wagner's operas...
, Suzanne Adams
Suzanne Adams
Suzanne Adams was an American lyric coloratura soprano. Known for her agile and pure voice, Adams first became well known in France before establishing herself as one of the Metropolitan Opera's leading sopranos at the beginning of the twentieth century.-Biography:Adams was born in Cambridge,...
and Pol Plançon
Pol Plançon
Pol-Henri Plançon was a distinguished French operatic bass . He was one of the most acclaimed singers active during the 1880s, 1890s and early 20th century—a period often referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".In addition to being among the earliest international opera stars to have made...
. This was for the Covent Garden 1901 season. In 1902 she sang Brünnhilde (in German) in Paris for Hans Richter. In January 1908 she organized three concerts given in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, in which Gervase Elwes joined her in the solo quartets of the Brahms Liebeslieder.
In 1910-11 she organised an opera season of her own at the Savoy Theatre
Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre located in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre opened on 10 October 1881 and was built by Richard D'Oyly Carte on the site of the old Savoy Palace as a showcase for the popular series of comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan,...
, singing Orfeo in English: this season was conducted by Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...
. According to Henry Wood, her training of the chorus to project the diction into the auditorium was wonderful and inscrutable. In 1912 she toured the provinces with the Denhof Opera Company. After this she retired from the stage.
Teaching career
Following her retirement Brema became director of the opera class at the Royal Manchester College of MusicRoyal Manchester College of Music
The Royal Manchester College of Music was founded in 1893 by Sir Charles Hallé who assumed the role as Principal. For a long period of time Hallé had argued for Manchester's need for a conservatoire to properly train the local talent. The Ducie Street building, just off Oxford Road, was purchased...
. Among those to benefit from her instruction were Luella Paikin and Heddle Nash
Heddle Nash
William Heddle Nash was an English lyric tenor who appeared in opera and oratorio in the middle decades of the twentieth century. He also made numerous recordings that are still available on CD reissues....
. She died in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, aged 69, from undisclosed causes.
Family
Marie Brema and Arthur Fredrick Braun's daughter, Tita Brand, married the Belgian scholar, poet and writer Emile CammaertsÉmile Cammaerts
Émile Leon Cammaerts was a Belgian poet.He became Professor of Belgian Studies at the University of London in 1933, and his papers are held there in Senate House Library....
. After the outbreak of war in 1914, Sir Edward Elgar composed a symphonic accompaniment "Carillon
Carillon (Elgar)
”Carillon” is a recitation with orchestral accompaniment written by the English composer Edward Elgar as his Op. 75, in 1914. The words are by the Belgian poet Émile Cammaerts....
" for a patriotic poem "Chantons, Belges, Chantons" by Cammaerts which was first performed with the recitation by Tita Brand. Tita Brand, who had a career as an actress, was a large woman with a deep speaking voice, capable of reciting Grieg's Bergliot audibly over an unsubdued orchestra conducted by Henry Wood.
Sources
- G. Davidson, Opera Biographies (Werner Laurie, London 1955)
- W. Elwes and R. Elwes, Gervase Elwes The Story of his Life (London 1935)
- H. Klein, Thirty Years of Musical Life in London (Century Co, New York 1903)
- H. Rosenthal and J Warrack, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (London 1974 Edn)
- G.B. Shaw, Music in London 1890–1894, 3 vols, (London, 1932)
- H. Wood, My Life of Music (London, 1938)
- P.M. Young, Letters of Edward Elgar (Geoffrey Bles, London 1956)