My golden age of singing / by Frieda Hempel ; annotated by William R. Moran ; with a prologue and epilogue by Elizabeth Johnston.
| Author/creator | Hempel, Frieda |
| Other author | Moran, William R. |
| Other author | Johnston, Elizabeth, 1913- |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | Portland, OR : Amadeus Press, ©1998. |
| Description | 450 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Subjects |
| Series | Opera biography series ; no. 10 Opera biography series ; no. 10. ^A267014 |
| Contents | My youth -- Student years in Berlin -- My first year in Schwerin -- Bayreuth -- Busy year of singing -- Royal opera in Berlin -- Emperor's skylark -- King Leopold of Belgium -- Great epoch in Berlin -- Richard Strauss -- America -- Rosenkavalier -- Giulio Gatti-Casazza and the years 1914-16 -- Summer during the war -- New York in war time -- Question of loyalty -- With the Chicago Opera Association -- Jenny Lind story -- Remembering the twenties -- Great Britain -- Washington, D.C. -- Luisa Tetrazzini -- Jekyll and Hyde -- Then and now: reflections on the golden age -- On Mozart and coloratura singing -- To the young singer -- Other years, other endeaveors -- My date with Brownie -- Singing is my life -- Epilogue: Final years / Elizabeth Johnson -- Postscript: Informal and selected chronolgy: Frieda Hempel's career as reported in the press ; Hempel and the lawyers: the Heckscher affair and the IRS ; George T. Keating, friend and benefactor / William R. Moran -- Frieda Hempel's operatic repertoire -- Recorded legacy of Fridea Hempel / William R. Moran. |
| Abstract | Frieda Hempel (1885-1955) was among the brightest stars of opera's Golden Age, one of the first singers whose entire career could be documented by recordings. These captured a coloratura voice of great lyric beauty which Hempel used with remarkable intelligence in opera and on the concert stage. She created the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier in both Berlin and at the Met, where she debuted with Caruso in 1912, and her performances of Mozart and Verdi remain touchstones. Almost fifty years have elapsed between writing and publication of her autobiography. Elizabeth Johnston, Hempel's student, secretary, and companion, recalls that Hempel dictated a somewhat different account to her, which was published in German in 1955 as Mein Leben dem Gesang. But Johnston wisely arranged safekeeping for her mentor's original manuscript, an earlier version in which Hempel tells the definitive story of her life as she wished it to be known. That work appears here for the first time. |
| Bibliography note | Includes discography (pages 391-429), bibliographical references (pages 437-438), and index. |
| LCCN | 97035976 |
| ISBN | 1574670360 |