Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink

Biography

Familiarly known as "Tini", Ernestine was the daughter of a shoe maker. When the family moved to Graz, she met Marietta von LeClair, a retired opera singer, who gave her voice lessons. In 1877, she made her first professional performance, in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Graz, appearing with soprano Maria Wilt, and her operatic debut took place at Dresden's Royal Opera House on 15 October 1878 as Azucena in Il trovatore. In 1882, she married Ernest Heink, secretary of the Semperoper Dresden; as this violated the terms of their contracts, both had their employment abruptly terminated. Ernestine had four children. Son Henry was an opera singer. They divorced in 1893, that same year she married actor Curt Paul Fünstuck Schumann. One of their children, Ferdinand Karl became a prolific, though mostly unbilled, Hollywood character actor in 65 films. In 1904 Ernestine came to the United States to play in Julian Edwards' operetta Love's Lottery on Broadway. During her performance she often broke off to interact with the audience, asking if her English was good enough. After 50 performances she returned to opera. Then came her breakthrough : when prima donna Marie Goetze argued with the director of the Hamburg opera, he asked Ernestine to sing Carmen, without rehearsal, which she did to great acclaim. Goetze, in a fit of pique, canceled out the role of Fidès in Le prophète planned for the following night, and Ernestine replaced her once more, and also as Ortrud in Lohengrin the following evening, one more time without rehearsal. Then she was offered a ten-year contract. She performed with Gustav Mahler at the Royal Opera House in London, and became well known for her deliveries of the works of Wagner at the Bayreuth Festivals from 1896 to 1914. She first sang at the Metropolitan in 1898, and would perform there for decades. In 1900 came the first of her many recordings, mostly reissued on CD and which continue to impress for her rich voice and excellent technique. On 27 May 1905, she married William Rapp, Jr., a lawyer and her manager. In March 1908 she became an U.S. naturalized citizen. Two years later, she bought farm land outside of San Diego (Helix Hill, in Grossmont), where she would live for most of her life. Her residence there still stands. In 1909, she created the role of Klytaemnestra in the premiere of Richard Strauss's Elektra. Of which she had no high opinion, calling it 'a fearful din'. Strauss was not taken by her either, and is said to have told the orchestra during rehearsals : "Louder! I can still hear Mme. Schumann-Heink!" In September 1912 she performed a benefit concert to purchase President Grover Cleveland's birthplace, and became the first lifetime member of the museum installed there. From 1910 she was San Diego's most famous and best-beloved citizen, a legendary figure. She was considered the world's greatest contralto singer. Her records sold by the thousands, and like Babe Ruth and Mary Pickford, her name became a household word. A story was told of a little boy in Sunday school who was asked to name the first man, promptly replying "Adam", and then the first woman, to which he answered "Schumann-Heink." During World War I, Madame threw herself whole-heartedly into the sale of Liberty Bonds and singing for the soldiers and sailors. She had relatives fighting on both sides, so when she toured the camps she begged indulgence for her boys in the German army who were also doing their duty. She raised money for the war effort and to help wounded veterans. In return, they made her an honorary officer of the American Legion. Throughout the army she was universally called "Mother." In 1915, she made her first appearance on film in Mabel and Fatty Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco (1915). In 1926, she first sang Silent Night (in both German and English) over the radio for Christmas, and started a popular weekly show and a Christmas tradition which only her death would end. She lost a fortune in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, so went again singing at 69 years old, having her Golden Jubilee at the Met. She last sang there in 1931, aged 71, performing Erda in Ring des Nibelungen. In the movies of the 1930s, many a buxom opera singer or music teacher was modeled on her; see for instance Stage Door (1937). She appears in the retrospective The Golden Twenties (1950). She owed her great popularity to a phenomenal voice with a range from low D to high C, luminous, dark brown eyes and a magnetic personality that charmed everyone from children to grandparents - that all-important combination of talent and charisma that makes the superstar. She had three husbands and eight children, including a stepson. "Tina" barely topped five feet in height, but carried herself with such regal dignity that she was described in the press as looking "tall and stately." Even publicized as a Mother figure, when dressed in a silver gown, her white hair shining and her arms and ample bosom ablaze with diamonds she came across the stage with a radiant smile, she generated her own unique brand of glamour. Her rapport with the audience was established before she ever uttered a note. Besides an astonishing virtuosity, there was extraordinary warmth and beauty in the middle register of her voice. Although she had sung for many crowned heads in Europe, including a command performance for Queen Victoria's eightieth birthday, she was basically the people's singer. She would sing in any place that wanted her, no matter how small. She even sang in Wenden, Arizona, with a population of thirty, a benefit concert for their Red Cross. The ranchers made her a stage on planks laid across oil drums; hoisted the grand piano up on it; then hoisted Madame and her accompanist up. Her magnificent voice rose clear and true in the desert air to delight an audience many of whom had traveled hundreds of miles to hear her. Cattle grazed in a nearby field and as she sang, one passed its head over the fence, shining in the moonlight, and gave a low, appreciative "Moo-oo-oo." She walked to the edge of the stage, bowed deeply and said, "Thank you" - and the audience roared. Her recordings began in 1899 for Zonophone Records. Then she made the Grand Opera Series of 1903 for Columbia Records and moved to Victor Records in 1906. For this brand and until 1931 she recorded more than 135 records, around half of them available online at the Library of Congress. In 1932-33, she went on tours of Fox, RKO, and Loew's State Theaters. The veteran trooper sang four to five times a day, stopping at times to joke with and to scold people in her audience. "I could not retire," she said bravely, "unless I lost my voice. I want to work. I want to be useful. I want to go on singing." She denounced the Nazis persecution of the Jews. In September 1934, Metro Goldwyn Mayer presented her with a three-year contract, two studios filing suits against one another. She was delighted "They call me terrific, colossal and gigantic -- I think I don't like that gigantic very much, hah?" She appeared as herself in Here's to Romance (1935) singing Brahms Wiegenlied, and already had another project in queue : She was given a role as a poor grandmother in a film on Kathleen Norris's story "Gram", but she became sick with leukemia (this was the reason why a young Edna May -later Deanna- Durbin, who had been given a role in the picture, was dropped by MGM). In November 1936, in her Hollywood home and being 75 years old, the spirit of the great singer entered Valhalla. Los Angeles stated a funeral with full military honors conducted by the American Legion. Chaplain Hjalmar Carlson said "She loved them all, white and black, American and European, Jew and Gentile. In this she showed herself a master of the greatest of all arts -- the art of living." Veterans escorted the body to Union Station and the Redcaps placed it in an observation car. A police motorcycle escort accompanied the casket. Dorothy R. Snyder, harpist, and Merril Baldwin, cellist, played Gounod's "Ave Maria," Brahm's "Wiegenlied" and Bohm's "Silent as Night." It was her mixture of engaging and contrasting qualities that made Madame Schumann-Heink a legend in her time.