Thérèse Johanne Alexandra Tietjens
Encyclopedia
Thérèse Johanne Alexandra Tietjens (July 17, 1831, Hamburg
– October 3, 1877, London
) was a leading opera
and oratorio
soprano
of German
birth but, according to some sources, Hungarian
extraction. She made her career chiefly in London during the 1860s and 1870s, but her unbroken sequence of musical triumphs in the British capital was terminated prematurely by cancer. During her prime, her powerful yet agile voice was said to span seamlessly a range of three octaves. Many opera historians consider her to have been the finest dramatic soprano
of the second half of the 19th century.
. She studied with Heinrich Proch
, who was also the teacher of Mme Peschka-Leutner and other prime donne. She made a successful debut at Hamburg in 1849 as Lucrezia Borgia
in Donizetti
's opera, a work with which she was particularly associated all her professional life. She sang in Frankfurt
from 1850 to 1856, and in Vienna from 1856-1859.
. England thereafter became her home, and she continued to sing opera regularly at Her Majesty's Theatre
, the Drury Lane
and Covent Garden
until her untimely death in 1877. She was equally fine in oratorio
, and became a leading dramatic soprano in England during the 1860s and early 1870s on both stage and platform. The early part of her London career coincided with the heyday of the tenor Antonio Giuglini
(1827–1865), a student of Cellini, who made his debut at Her Majesty's in 1857 as Fernando in La Favorita
. In July 1859, Tietjens created the first London Elena in Les vêpres siciliennes
of Verdi
(four years after the original Paris production) at Drury Lane
, opposite Giuglini's Arrigo.
At this time the soprano Giulia Grisi
was still singing in London: Tietjens was to inherit parts of Grisi's London repertoire and of that of Giuditta Pasta
. In 1860 E.T. Smith, manager of Her Majesty's, attempted to seize the market in both English and Italian opera by having two companies alternating. The Italian opera began with Il trovatore
, with Tietjens, Mme Lemaire, Guiglini and the baritone Vialetti, and the team then progressed to Don Giovanni
, while the English opera premiered George Macfarren
's Robin Hood with Sims Reeves. On 15 June 1861 Tietjens was the first London Amelia, opposite Giuglini's Riccardo, and the Renato of Enrico Delle Sedie
(a singer of great style, musicianship and talent but limited vocal range) in the original Lyceum
Un ballo in maschera
for Mapleson
.
In her ideal role as Lucrezia, Tietjens led the cast at the London debut of Zelia Trebelli
(singing Orsino) in 1862. In that year Herman Klein
, aged 15, saw her in Les Huguenots and, 40 years later, described his realisation then, that she was a tragedienne of the highest order. Moreover, his teacher had described her delivery of Handel
's "I know that my Redeemer liveth" to him in terms of wonder. On 14 July 1862 at the 50th Jubilee concert for the Philharmonic Society
, she sang the Mendelssohn
Loreley (with choir) and "With joy the impatient husbandman" from Haydn
's The Seasons. This was at St James's Hall
Piccadilly, conducted by William Sterndale Bennett
: other soloists were the baritone Charles Santley
, soprano Jenny Lind
, violinist Joseph Joachim
, a pianist billed as Mrs Anderson, and the cellist Carlo Alfredo Piatti
.
The year 1863 saw the first performance of Gounod
's Faust
in England, at London's Her Majesty's Theatre
, with Tietjens as Marguerite, Guiglini (as Faust), Charles Santley (as Valentin), Edouard Gassier (as Mephistopheles) and Trebelli (as Siebel). This production was transferred to the theatre at Covent Garden and was performed in every successive season until 1911. In the same season Tietjens created the role of Selvaggia in Niccolo de' Lapi by Francesco Schira (conductor at Drury Lane
), also with Trebelli, Giuglini and Santley (Niccolo). (This work was revived with far greater success as Selvaggia in Milan 1875.) There was more Il trovatore, a Norma
(one of Tietjens's finest roles) with Désirée Artôt
(making her debut that year also as Violetta
and Marie
) (mezzo) as Adalgisa, and Weber
's Oberon
with Sims Reeves
(Huon), the immortal Marietta Alboni
(Fatima), Trebelli (Puck), the tenor Alessandro Bettini (Oberon), Gassier (Babekan) and Santley (Scherasmin). That autumn she went with the Mapleson tour to Dublin to appear in Faust with Reeves, Trebelli and Santley, and for herself also made a tour in Paris.
Otto Nicolai's 1849 opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor had its English premiere in May 1864 with Tietjens and Caroline Bettelheim as the wives, Gassier (Page) and Santley the husbands, Junca (who also replaced Gassier in Faust) as Falstaff, Giuglini as Fenton, Giuseppina Vitali (Anne), Manfredi
(Slender) and Mazzetti
(Dr Caius). Santley describes the fun he and Tietjens had in the scene turning out the linen basket and pelting each other with linen.
Tietjens, Santley, Giuglini, Mayerhofer and Pauline Lucca
gave a Buckingham Palace
concert before Queen Victoria in May 1864: Tietjens was then singing Gluck (Armide
), Bellini
(I puritani
), Rossini and Meyerbeer (Robert le diable
). On July 5, 1864 Titiens created Mireille
(opposite Giuglini's Vincent) in the first production in England of Gounod's opera, which in its original five-act form had been premiered in Paris in the March. Leon Carvalho
, Director of the Opéra-Comique
, Paris, and his brother-in-law Miolon personally supervised the later rehearsals. Santley thought this role didn't suit her. The 1864 production of Fidelio
, however, more fully established Tietjens as a London successor in the repertoire of Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
.
, who had created the tenor role in I masnadieri
in 1847 in London with Jenny Lind
and Luigi Lablache
. On June 6, 1865 Tietjens lead the cast in the first England performance Cherubini's 1797 opera Médée
, a new version with recitatives by Luigi Arditi
. Later that year she toured in Manchester
with Santley in Don Giovanni
, and in October in London they appeared together in Weber's Der Freischütz
.
In 1866 she assisted at the unsuccessful return of Giulia Grisi in Norma and Don Giovanni: her own appearances were however very successful, not least as Iphigenie in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride
, with Gardoni (Pilade), Santley (Oreste) and Gassier (Thoas). Two private performances were given for the Earl of Dudley
, supported by Sims Reeves, the baritone Giovanni Battista Belletti, and Santley. The same season saw her Elvira in an Ernani
revival with Tasca
, Gassier and Santley, and an Il Seraglio with Mme Sinico, and Messrs Gunz
, a new tenor Rokitanski, and the Irish bass Signor Foli.
In 1867 the tenor Pietro Mongini took the role of Alvaro opposite Santley's Vargas and Tietjens's Leonora in the first England La forza del destino
(Verdi) on 22 June, with Gassier as Fra Melitone. At this time the illustrious Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson also became a regular performer at Her Majesty's, and there was a Don Giovanni with Tietjens and Nilsson, Mme Sinico, Gardoni and Rokitanski.
The newspaper critic Herman Klein
heard her in rehearsal at the 1868 Norwich
Festival. He later remarked that then her voice was still fresh, powerful and penetrating, with the curiously dramatic 'human' quality that was perhaps its most notable attribute. Her style was marked by the same rare individuality, and her phrasing a curious blend of vigour and grace. She used portamento in approaching a high note from below, a technique often thought ugly, but in her a natural and artistic effect, for she was quite capable of entering a note with superb attack if she wished. Her magnificent energy and purity of tone was especially evident in the opening bars of the 'Inflammatus' in Rossini's Stabat Mater, and in 'Let the bright Seraphim'.
's The Prodigal Son in 1869. In 1870 Gassier retired (he died in 1872). The English premiere of Rossini's Messe Solennelle occurred, with Tietjens, Sofia Scalchi
, Mongini and Santley: and in 1871, Mme Tietjens was awarded the Gold Medal of the Philharmonic Society. In this first year of the award ten medals were given, and thereafter seldom more than one in any one year.
When the Gye
and Mapleson
companies were successfully merged, in 1871, Tietjens was the one principal artist not re-engaged by George Wood
. However, Lucrezia had remained a staple of her repertoire throughout the 1860s, and in May 1872 she again led a cast, on this occasion at Drury Lane, for the London debut of the tenor Italo Campanini
(as Gennaro), with Trebelli as Orsino and the French baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure
as Alfonso, under the baton of Sir Michael Costa
. She also took the solos in Sullivan's Festival Te Deum
at The Crystal Palace
.
Campanini was at once (but rather prematurely) acclaimed as the successor of Mario and Giuglini. But in the next years, it was with Campanini as Lohengrin
, for Mapleson at Her Majesty's, that Tietjens attempted her only Wagnerian role, Ortrud; and in June 1874, in company with Christine Nilsson and Campanini, she created a lead in the posthumous first production of Michael Balfe's Il Talismano. A minor role in that production was created by a young baritone Giovanni de Reschi, who in the same year made his English debuts at Drury Lane in La favorita (Alfonso), as Don Giovanni, as Valentine (Faust), and as Count Almaviva. Returning to his vocal studies, he reappeared in Paris as a tenor in 1884, and became known to the world as Jean de Reszke
.
Until 1872 she and "Madame Rudersdorff" had been the joint 'queens' of the English oratorio platform, but in that year her friend and rival left to continue her career in the United States. Tietjens then reigned alone. In 1876, however, she visited North America, among other things performing the part of Lucrezia Borgia at the Astor Opera House
in New York City opposite the tenor Pasquale Brignoli. This was to prove the last major episode in her extraordinary career. Her great roles had been Lucrezia, Leonora
, Norma, Medea, and Donna Anna
. In addition to other parts mentioned, she sang Fides in Le prophète
and the eponymous lead in Semiramide
. The great Adelina Patti
(to lyric sopranos what Tietjens was to the dramatic variety) would refrain from adding Semiramide to own repertoire until after the death of Tietjens, out of respect for her immense distinction in the role.
's Messiah
and Mendelssohn
's Elijah
—both works dear to the taste of London concert-goers. She also grew extremely large: in 1920, the veteran American baritone David Bispham
could recall her appearance but not her voice. Shaw
, in 1892, remembered how her performances of Lucrezia, of Semiramide, Valentine, Pamina and her Countess had established a sort of belief that all these characters must have been extremely overweight. Despite her bearing, her intelligence, her great art and her goodhearted grace, he remembered a voice that had become stale and a genius that had ceased to be creative. The public had got used to going to see her, not the roles she performed. She had become loved for her private virtues as much as for her artistic gifts.
Herman Klein, who always retained his high opinion of Tietjens and her art, attended her last performance. It was Lucrezia at Her Majesty's on May 19, 1877. She had known for some time that her body harboured a malignant growth, and she gave this performance prior to undergoing a surgical procedure designed to her ease her affliction. She was really too ill to go on, but insisted. After each of the acts she fainted and had to be resuscitated, but while on stage showed no sign of her physical suffering, and only a few in the audience knew her condition. Her final scream, as Lucrezia realises that Gennaro is dead, sent a shudder through the house, and she did not shirk the painful fall to the stage at the close. The curtain rose twice to the applause, but she was again unconscious and lay motionless. The operation went ahead as planned but it was to no avail: she died in London on October 3, 1877. She was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery
'in the presence of a vast crowd, amid tokens of public grief such as no foreign artist before her had ever been vouchsafed on English soil.'
Among her achievements, she had introduced London to Gounod's Faust and Mireille, Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Les vepres siciliennes and La forza del destino, and Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, while maintaining for almost 20 years a repertoire that also embraced Oberon, Die Freischütz, Fidelio, Médée, Die Zauberflöte, Il Seraglio, The Marriage of Figaro and, of course, her signature part of Lucrezia Borgia—and many other roles besides, such as Ortrud. 'Her voice was a dramatic soprano of magnificent quality, and her powers as an actress were supreme. The great volume and purity of her voice and her sympathetic and dignified acting combined to make her famous in strong dramatic parts.' Michael Scott suggests that Emma Albani
attempted, unsuccessfully, to 'inherit the mantle' of Tietjens, but that Lillian Nordica
and Lilli Lehmann
(both of whom can be heard on recordings made in the early 1900s) were more natural successors to her vocal tradition.
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
– October 3, 1877, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) was a leading 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...
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...
soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
of German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
birth but, according to some sources, Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
extraction. She made her career chiefly in London during the 1860s and 1870s, but her unbroken sequence of musical triumphs in the British capital was terminated prematurely by cancer. During her prime, her powerful yet agile voice was said to span seamlessly a range of three octaves. Many opera historians consider her to have been the finest dramatic soprano
Dramatic soprano
A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound. Usually this voice has a lower tessitura than...
of the second half of the 19th century.
Hamburg, Vienna, Frankfurt
Mme Therese Tietjens received her vocal training in Hamburg and in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. She studied with Heinrich Proch
Heinrich Proch
Heinrich Proch was an Austrian composer.Proch studied jurisprudence and completed his training as a violinist in Vienna. From 1834 to 1867, he was a member of the Vienna Hofkapelle...
, who was also the teacher of Mme Peschka-Leutner and other prime donne. She made a successful debut at Hamburg in 1849 as Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (opera)
Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia. Lucrezia Borgia was first performed on 26 December 1833 at La Scala, Milan with...
in Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's opera, a work with which she was particularly associated all her professional life. She sang in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
from 1850 to 1856, and in Vienna from 1856-1859.
London (1858-1864)
Tietjens made her first appearance in London in 1858, as Valentine in Les HuguenotsLes Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
. England thereafter became her home, and she continued to sing opera regularly at Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, the Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
and Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
until her untimely death in 1877. She was equally fine in 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...
, and became a leading dramatic soprano in England during the 1860s and early 1870s on both stage and platform. The early part of her London career coincided with the heyday of the tenor Antonio Giuglini
Antonio Giuglini
Antonio Giuglini was an Italian operatic tenor. During the last eight years of his life, before he developed signs of mental instability, he earned renown as one of the leading stars of the operatic scene in London...
(1827–1865), a student of Cellini, who made his debut at Her Majesty's in 1857 as Fernando in La Favorita
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
. In July 1859, Tietjens created the first London Elena in Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes
Les vêpres siciliennes is an opéra in five acts by the Italian romantic composer Giuseppe Verdi set to a French libretto by Charles Duveyrier and Eugène Scribe from their work Le duc d'Albe, which was written in 1838 and offered to Halevy and Donizetti before Verdi...
of 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...
(four years after the original Paris production) at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
, opposite Giuglini's Arrigo.
At this time the soprano Giulia Grisi
Giulia Grisi
Giulia Grisi, also known as Madame De Candia was an Italian opera singer...
was still singing in London: Tietjens was to inherit parts of Grisi's London repertoire and of that of Giuditta Pasta
Giuditta Pasta
Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Pasta , born in Saronno, Italy, was a soprano considered among the greatest of opera singers, to whom the 20th-century soprano Maria Callas was compared.-Studies and career:...
. In 1860 E.T. Smith, manager of Her Majesty's, attempted to seize the market in both English and Italian opera by having two companies alternating. The Italian opera began with 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...
, with Tietjens, Mme Lemaire, Guiglini and the baritone Vialetti, and the team then progressed to Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, while the English opera premiered George Macfarren
George Macfarren
George Macfarren was a playwright and the father of composer George Alexander Macfarren. Macfarren's first play, Ah! What a Pity, or, The Dark Knight and the Fair Lady, was produced on 28 September 1818 at the English Opera House; for the next several decades, a Macfarren play was produced...
's Robin Hood with Sims Reeves. On 15 June 1861 Tietjens was the first London Amelia, opposite Giuglini's Riccardo, and the Renato of Enrico Delle Sedie
Enrico Delle Sedie
Enrico Augusto Delle Sedie was an Italian operatic baritone who sang extensively in Europe, performing the bel canto repertoire and in works by Verdi....
(a singer of great style, musicianship and talent but limited vocal range) in the original Lyceum
Lyceum
The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies between countries; usually it is a type of secondary school.-History:...
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
for Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson was an English opera impresario, probably the leading figure instrumental in the development of opera production, and of the careers of singers, in London and New York City in the second half of the 19th century.-Life and career:Mapleson was born in London, England...
.
In her ideal role as Lucrezia, Tietjens led the cast at the London debut of Zelia Trebelli
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini
Zelia Trebelli-Bettini , also known as Zelia Gilbert or by her stage name Trebelli, was a French opera singer.Mme Trebelli's artistry was greatly admired by George Bernard Shaw, who wrote about her a number of times in his various reviews...
(singing Orsino) in 1862. In that year Herman Klein
Herman Klein
Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...
, aged 15, saw her in Les Huguenots and, 40 years later, described his realisation then, that she was a tragedienne of the highest order. Moreover, his teacher had described her delivery of Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's "I know that my Redeemer liveth" to him in terms of wonder. On 14 July 1862 at the 50th Jubilee concert for the Philharmonic Society
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...
, she sang the Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
Loreley (with choir) and "With joy the impatient husbandman" from Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's The Seasons. This was at St James's Hall
St James's Hall
St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, and Vine Street and George Court. There was a...
Piccadilly, conducted by William Sterndale Bennett
William Sterndale Bennett
Sir William Sterndale Bennett was an English composer. He ranks as the most distinguished English composer of the Romantic school-Biography:...
: other soloists were the baritone Charles Santley
Charles Santley
Sir Charles Santley was an English-born opera and oratorio star with a bravuraFrom the Italian verb bravare, to show off. A florid, ostentatious style or a passage of music requiring technical skill technique who became the most eminent English baritone and male concert singer of the Victorian era...
, soprano Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
, violinist Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
, a pianist billed as Mrs Anderson, and the cellist Carlo Alfredo Piatti
Carlo Alfredo Piatti
Carlo Alfredo Piatti was an Italian cellist. He was born at via Borgo Canale, in Bergamo and died in Mozzo, 4 miles from Bergamo....
.
The year 1863 saw the first 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 Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
in England, at London's Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, with Tietjens as Marguerite, Guiglini (as Faust), Charles Santley (as Valentin), Edouard Gassier (as Mephistopheles) and Trebelli (as Siebel). This production was transferred to the theatre at Covent Garden and was performed in every successive season until 1911. In the same season Tietjens created the role of Selvaggia in Niccolo de' Lapi by Francesco Schira (conductor at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
), also with Trebelli, Giuglini and Santley (Niccolo). (This work was revived with far greater success as Selvaggia in Milan 1875.) There was more Il trovatore, a Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
(one of Tietjens's finest roles) with Désirée Artôt
Désirée Artôt
Désirée Artôt was a Belgian soprano , who was famed in German and Italian opera and sang mainly in Germany...
(making her debut that year also as Violetta
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
and Marie
La fille du régiment
La fille du régiment is an opéra comique in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It was written while the composer was living in Paris, with a French libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jean-François Bayard.La figlia del reggimento, a slightly different Italian-language version , was...
) (mezzo) as Adalgisa, and 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 Oberon
Oberon
Oberon is a legendary king of the fairies.Oberon may also refer to:-People:* Merle Oberon , British actress* Oberon Zell-Ravenheart , Neopagan activist-Media and entertainment:* Oberon...
with Sims Reeves
Sims Reeves
John Sims Reeves , usually called simply Sims Reeves, was the foremost English operatic, oratorio and ballad tenor vocalist of the mid-Victorian era....
(Huon), the immortal Marietta Alboni
Marietta Alboni
Marietta Alboni was a renowned Italian contralto opera singer. Together with the charismatic Maria Malibran, she was considered the greatest deeper-voiced female singer of the nineteenth century.-Biography:...
(Fatima), Trebelli (Puck), the tenor Alessandro Bettini (Oberon), Gassier (Babekan) and Santley (Scherasmin). That autumn she went with the Mapleson tour to Dublin to appear in Faust with Reeves, Trebelli and Santley, and for herself also made a tour in Paris.
Otto Nicolai's 1849 opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor had its English premiere in May 1864 with Tietjens and Caroline Bettelheim as the wives, Gassier (Page) and Santley the husbands, Junca (who also replaced Gassier in Faust) as Falstaff, Giuglini as Fenton, Giuseppina Vitali (Anne), Manfredi
Manfredi
Manfredi is a surname of Italian origin. The name refers to:Manfredi family of Faenza, Italy*See Manfredi familyPersons*Antonio Manfredi Manfredi is a surname of Italian origin. The name refers to:Manfredi family of Faenza, Italy*See Manfredi familyPersons*Antonio Manfredi Manfredi is a surname of...
(Slender) and Mazzetti
Mazzetti
-List of people with the surname Mazzetti:* Annamaria Mazzetti, an Italian triathlete* Mark Mazetti, an American journalist with The New York Times* Pilar Mazzetti, a Peruvian doctor and Minister of the Interior...
(Dr Caius). Santley describes the fun he and Tietjens had in the scene turning out the linen basket and pelting each other with linen.
Tietjens, Santley, Giuglini, Mayerhofer and Pauline Lucca
Pauline Lucca
Pauline Lucca was a prominent operatic soprano, born in the Austrian capital of Vienna.As a child she showed a remarkable talent for singing and at eight years old became a voice student of M. Walter. Not too long after her parents lost all their property, forcing her to abandon her studies...
gave a Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
concert before Queen Victoria in May 1864: Tietjens was then singing Gluck (Armide
Armide (Gluck)
Armide is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, his fifth for the Parisian stage and the composer's own favourite among his works. It was first performed in Paris at the Académie Royale on 23 September 1777....
), Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
(I puritani
I puritani
I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...
), Rossini and Meyerbeer (Robert le diable
Robert le diable (opera)
Robert le diable is an opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, often regarded as the first grand opera. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Casimir Delavigne and has little connection to the medieval legend of Robert the Devil. Originally planned as a three-act opéra comique, "Meyerbeer persuaded...
). On July 5, 1864 Titiens created Mireille
Mireille
Mireille is a French given name, derived from the Provençal Occitan name Mirèio . It could be related with the Occitan verb mirar "to admire" or with the Occitan surnames Miriam "Myriam", Maria "Mary".-A given name:* Mireille Darc , a French actress* Mireille Gingras , Canadian-American...
(opposite Giuglini's Vincent) in the first production in England of Gounod's opera, which in its original five-act form had been premiered in Paris in the March. Leon Carvalho
Léon Carvalho
Léon Carvalho was a French impresario and stage director.-Biography:Born Léon Carvaille in Port-Louis, Mauritius, he came to France at an early age...
, Director of the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
, Paris, and his brother-in-law Miolon personally supervised the later rehearsals. Santley thought this role didn't suit her. The 1864 production of Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
, however, more fully established Tietjens as a London successor in the repertoire of Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, born Wilhelmine Schröder , was a German operatic soprano. As a singer she combined a rare quality of tone with dramatic intensity of expression, which was as remarkable on the concert platform as in opera.- Biography :Schröder was born in Hamburg, the daughter of the...
.
London (1865-1868)
Early in 1865 Giuglini retired from the stage, showing signs of insanity. He returned to Italy and died there in October. His replacement (Santley thought, an improvement) was Italo GardoniItalo Gardoni
Italo Gardoni was a leading operatic tenore di grazia singer from Italy who enjoyed a major international career during the middle decades of the 19th century...
, who had created the tenor role in I masnadieri
I masnadieri
I masnadieri is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Andrea Maffei, based on Die Räuber by Friedrich von Schiller....
in 1847 in London with Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
and Luigi Lablache
Luigi Lablache
Luigi Lablache was an Italian opera singer of French and Irish heritage. He was most noted for his comic performances, possessing a powerful and agile bass voice, a wide range, and adroit acting skills: Leporello in Don Giovanni was one of his signature roles.-Biography:Luigi Lablache was born in...
. On June 6, 1865 Tietjens lead the cast in the first England performance Cherubini's 1797 opera Médée
Médée (Cherubini)
Médée is a French language opéra-comique by Luigi Cherubini.The libretto by François-Benoît Hoffmann was based on Euripides' tragedy of Medea and Pierre Corneille's play Médée....
, a new version with recitatives by Luigi 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...
. Later that year she toured 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...
with Santley in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, and in October in London they appeared together in Weber's Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...
.
In 1866 she assisted at the unsuccessful return of Giulia Grisi in Norma and Don Giovanni: her own appearances were however very successful, not least as Iphigenie in Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
, with Gardoni (Pilade), Santley (Oreste) and Gassier (Thoas). Two private performances were given for the Earl of Dudley
Earl of Dudley
Earl of Dudley, of Dudley Castle in the County of Stafford, is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, both times for members of the Ward family. This family descends from Sir Humble Ward, the son of a wealthy goldsmith and jeweller to King Charles I...
, supported by Sims Reeves, the baritone Giovanni Battista Belletti, and Santley. The same season saw her Elvira in an Ernani
Ernani
Ernani is an operatic dramma lirico in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Hernani by Victor Hugo. The first production took place at La Fenice Theatre, Venice on 9 March 1844...
revival with Tasca
Tasca
Taşca is a commune in Neamţ County, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Hamzoaia, Neagra, Taşca and Ticoş-Floarea....
, Gassier and Santley, and an Il Seraglio with Mme Sinico, and Messrs Gunz
Günz
The Günz is a river in Bavaria, Germany, right tributary of the Danube. It is formed near Lauben by the confluence of its two source rivers: the Östliche Günz and the Westliche Günz . It is approx. 90 km long . It flows generally north through the small towns Babenhausen, Deisenhausen,...
, a new tenor Rokitanski, and the Irish bass Signor Foli.
In 1867 the tenor Pietro Mongini took the role of Alvaro opposite Santley's Vargas and Tietjens's Leonora in the first England La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
(Verdi) on 22 June, with Gassier as Fra Melitone. At this time the illustrious Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson also became a regular performer at Her Majesty's, and there was a Don Giovanni with Tietjens and Nilsson, Mme Sinico, Gardoni and Rokitanski.
The newspaper critic Herman Klein
Herman Klein
Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...
heard her in rehearsal at the 1868 Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
Festival. He later remarked that then her voice was still fresh, powerful and penetrating, with the curiously dramatic 'human' quality that was perhaps its most notable attribute. Her style was marked by the same rare individuality, and her phrasing a curious blend of vigour and grace. She used portamento in approaching a high note from below, a technique often thought ugly, but in her a natural and artistic effect, for she was quite capable of entering a note with superb attack if she wished. Her magnificent energy and purity of tone was especially evident in the opening bars of the 'Inflammatus' in Rossini's Stabat Mater, and in 'Let the bright Seraphim'.
Later career
Tietjens sang again for the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1868. In the following year, when there was an attempt to form a union of the Her Majesty's and Covent Garden companies, the Italian season opened with Norma, Tietjens in the title role, with Sinico, Mongini and Foli. She also sang with Reeves and Santley in the premiere of Arthur SullivanArthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's The Prodigal Son in 1869. In 1870 Gassier retired (he died in 1872). The English premiere of Rossini's Messe Solennelle occurred, with Tietjens, Sofia Scalchi
Sofia Scalchi
Sofia Scalchi was an Italian operatic contralto who could also sing in the mezzo-soprano range. Her career was international, and she appeared at leading theatres in both Europe and America.-Singing career:...
, Mongini and Santley: and in 1871, Mme Tietjens was awarded the Gold Medal of the Philharmonic Society. In this first year of the award ten medals were given, and thereafter seldom more than one in any one year.
When the Gye
Frederick Gye
Frederick Gye was an English businessman and opera manager who for many years ran what is now the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.-Life:...
and Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson
James Henry Mapleson was an English opera impresario, probably the leading figure instrumental in the development of opera production, and of the careers of singers, in London and New York City in the second half of the 19th century.-Life and career:Mapleson was born in London, England...
companies were successfully merged, in 1871, Tietjens was the one principal artist not re-engaged by George Wood
George Wood
George Wood is the name of:*George Tyler Wood , governor of Texas*George W. Wood , U.S. politician*George Wood , left fielder in Major League Baseball for 13 seasons from 1880-1892...
. However, Lucrezia had remained a staple of her repertoire throughout the 1860s, and in May 1872 she again led a cast, on this occasion at Drury Lane, for the London debut of the tenor Italo Campanini
Italo Campanini
Italo Campanini was a leading Italian operatic tenor, whose career reached its height in London in the 1870s and in New York in the 1880s and 1890s...
(as Gennaro), with Trebelli as Orsino and the French baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure
Jean-Baptiste Faure
Jean-Baptiste Faure was a celebrated French operatic baritone and an art collector of great significance. He also composed a number of classical songs.-Singing career:Faure was born in Moulins...
as Alfonso, under the baton of Sir Michael Costa
Michael Costa (conductor)
Sir Michael Andrew Angus Costa was an Italian-born conductor and composer who achieved success in England.-Biography:He was born in Naples as Michaele Andrea Agniello Costa, to a family, according to some, of Sephardic stock...
. She also took the solos in Sullivan's Festival Te Deum
Festival Te Deum
The Festival Te Deum is the popular name for an 1872 composition by Arthur Sullivan, written to celebrate the recovery of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales from typhoid fever...
at The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
.
Campanini was at once (but rather prematurely) acclaimed as the successor of Mario and Giuglini. But in the next years, it was with Campanini as 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...
, for Mapleson at Her Majesty's, that Tietjens attempted her only Wagnerian role, Ortrud; and in June 1874, in company with Christine Nilsson and Campanini, she created a lead in the posthumous first production of Michael Balfe's Il Talismano. A minor role in that production was created by a young baritone Giovanni de Reschi, who in the same year made his English debuts at Drury Lane in La favorita (Alfonso), as Don Giovanni, as Valentine (Faust), and as Count Almaviva. Returning to his vocal studies, he reappeared in Paris as a tenor in 1884, and became known to the world as 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....
.
Until 1872 she and "Madame Rudersdorff" had been the joint 'queens' of the English oratorio platform, but in that year her friend and rival left to continue her career in the United States. Tietjens then reigned alone. In 1876, however, she visited North America, among other things performing the part of Lucrezia Borgia at the Astor Opera House
Astor Opera House
__notoc__The Astor Opera House, also known as the Astor Place Opera House and later the Astor Place Theatre, was an opera house in Manhattan, New York City, located on Lafayette Street between Astor Place and East 8th Street...
in New York City opposite the tenor Pasquale Brignoli. This was to prove the last major episode in her extraordinary career. Her great roles had been Lucrezia, Leonora
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
, Norma, Medea, and Donna Anna
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
. In addition to other parts mentioned, she sang Fides in 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:...
and the eponymous lead in Semiramide
Semiramide
Semiramide is an opera in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.The libretto by Gaetano Rossi is based on Voltaire's tragedy Semiramis, which in turn was based on the legend of Semiramis of Babylon...
. The great Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti
Adelina Patti was a highly acclaimed 19th-century opera singer, earning huge fees at the height of her career in the music capitals of Europe and America. She first sang in public as a child in 1851 and gave her last performance before an audience in 1914...
(to lyric sopranos what Tietjens was to the dramatic variety) would refrain from adding Semiramide to own repertoire until after the death of Tietjens, out of respect for her immense distinction in the role.
Illness, farewell and death
Late in her life Mme Tietjens developed cancer, which caused her much pain, and she died at the age of 46. By this stage, she had become a sort of British institution, and under Sir Michael Costa she sang many performances of HandelHANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
and Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Elijah
Elijah (oratorio)
Elijah, in German: Elias, is an oratorio written by Felix Mendelssohn in 1846 for the Birmingham Festival. It depicts various events in the life of the Biblical prophet Elijah, taken from the books 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the Old Testament....
—both works dear to the taste of London concert-goers. She also grew extremely large: in 1920, the veteran American baritone David Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
could recall her appearance but not her voice. 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...
, in 1892, remembered how her performances of Lucrezia, of Semiramide, Valentine, Pamina and her Countess had established a sort of belief that all these characters must have been extremely overweight. Despite her bearing, her intelligence, her great art and her goodhearted grace, he remembered a voice that had become stale and a genius that had ceased to be creative. The public had got used to going to see her, not the roles she performed. She had become loved for her private virtues as much as for her artistic gifts.
Herman Klein, who always retained his high opinion of Tietjens and her art, attended her last performance. It was Lucrezia at Her Majesty's on May 19, 1877. She had known for some time that her body harboured a malignant growth, and she gave this performance prior to undergoing a surgical procedure designed to her ease her affliction. She was really too ill to go on, but insisted. After each of the acts she fainted and had to be resuscitated, but while on stage showed no sign of her physical suffering, and only a few in the audience knew her condition. Her final scream, as Lucrezia realises that Gennaro is dead, sent a shudder through the house, and she did not shirk the painful fall to the stage at the close. The curtain rose twice to the applause, but she was again unconscious and lay motionless. The operation went ahead as planned but it was to no avail: she died in London on October 3, 1877. She was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...
'in the presence of a vast crowd, amid tokens of public grief such as no foreign artist before her had ever been vouchsafed on English soil.'
Among her achievements, she had introduced London to Gounod's Faust and Mireille, Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Les vepres siciliennes and La forza del destino, and Nicolai's Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, while maintaining for almost 20 years a repertoire that also embraced Oberon, Die Freischütz, Fidelio, Médée, Die Zauberflöte, Il Seraglio, The Marriage of Figaro and, of course, her signature part of Lucrezia Borgia—and many other roles besides, such as Ortrud. 'Her voice was a dramatic soprano of magnificent quality, and her powers as an actress were supreme. The great volume and purity of her voice and her sympathetic and dignified acting combined to make her famous in strong dramatic parts.' Michael Scott suggests that Emma 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...
attempted, unsuccessfully, to 'inherit the mantle' of Tietjens, but that Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica
Lillian Nordica was an American opera singer who had a major stage career in Europe and her native country....
and Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann
Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch was a German operatic soprano of phenomenal versatility...
(both of whom can be heard on recordings made in the early 1900s) were more natural successors to her vocal tradition.
Other Literature
- G. T. Ferris, Great Singers: Malibran to Titiens (D. Appleton & Co, New York 1881).
- S. Timms, Titiens - Her Majesty's prima Donna: Victorian London's Opera Idol Therese Titiens (Bezazzy Publishing UK 2005). ISBN 0955066700