Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Beloved Contralto

Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Beloved Contralto

The great contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink was born Tina Rössler in the German- speaking town of Liben, near Prague. Her father was a shoemaker, and the family moved many times in her youth: Chezkoslovakia, Austria, Italy, Germany and Poland, finally to Graz, in Austria, where she had her first voice lessons as a girl in her early teens. In 1877, when was only 16 years old, she made her debut in Graz, singing in a performance of Beethoven's 9th. The following year, she made her opera debut at Dresden's Royal Opera House, singing Azucena in Trovatore. (at 17!) It was during this period that her first big break came, in Hamburg, when she substituted for another singer who had fought with the management and refused to sing. She performed Carmen with one day's notice and no rehearsal! It was a success, spurring the angry (and perhaps jealous) prima donna to walk out altogether, with the result that young Tina sang La Prophete the next night, again with no rehearsal, and Lohengrin the following night, again with no rehearsal! This was an amazing feat for the young woman, and what it means, in essence, is that she knew the roles already, and had them in her head. She was a very hard working woman, and remained so for the rest of her life. Her biography is easily consulted. It is a tale of endless toil and many troubles.

By 1898, she had sung all over Europe and was appearing regularly at both Bayreuth and the Metropolitan. She was very active in the Wagnerian repertoire. Schuman-Heink, as she was by then known, had one of the rarest of voices—a real contralto. There have always been a fair few mezzo-sopranos parading as contraltos, but there have in fact not been that many genuine contraltos. Schuman-Heink was possibly the greatest of them all. The lower register of her voice was very deep, and yet curiously she possessed so solid a technique that the upper register was amazingly flexible, and she commanded an excellent trill and even the ability to sing coloratura passages when required. Here she is in a 1909 recording, when she was already 48 years of age, singing the lovely "Parto, parto," from Mozart's The Clemency of Titus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVYI6KvtNsA


Isn't that just wonderful! I call your attention especially to the trills and coloratura passages at the very end. This was a voice that had it all...range, timbre, color and flexibility, all handled with a great musical and stylistic sense born of a near lifetime in the theater.

Here is a recording I posted on Youtube just a few days ago—and I believe it may be the only example of it currently up, in which Madame Schumann Heink sings what is easily one of the best known and most loved melodies of the 18th century, Gluck's "Che farò senza Euridice," from Opheus and Euridice. This recording is in German, and dates to 1907:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fxprN6ANF4


This is what might be called tragic lyricism—not easily comprehended or controlled. It is stylistically excellent, exactly in the 18th century tradition. She was not, however, without the extreme dramatic sense that characterized much classical singing in her day, and to a large extent still does now. When she needed it, it was there. Here is a particularly spine-tingling interpretation of Der Erlkönig, a famous poem by Goethe, set to music by Schubert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxJzBOWNxv0

She seems almost on the point of losing control of herself toward the end, but such are the (melo)dramatic requirements of the song, which depicts the horror of child attacked by a supernatural being, and finally killed.

Schumann Heink established herself in America eventually, and lived in California, on a 500 acre ranch. She was, like Alma Gluck and Louise Homer, very much a musical presence in America in the 20's and early 30's, thanks to her many recordings and regular appearances on the radio. By the mid to late 20s, she was especially known for her Christmas/New Year's appearances, when she commonly sang Brhams' "Lullaby," and—on Christmas Eve—"Silent Night":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocq6QSofUiw&feature=related

A larger than life figure, Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink elicited extreme affection from her audience, one that resonates even now, some 74 years after her death. One of the true giants of classical music; of that there is no question.