Bella Alten

Bella Alten (* June 30, 1877 in Zaxaczewo, Poland, † 31 December 1962 in London) was a German -British soprano and coloratura soprano.

Life

Bella Alten studied with Gustav Engel in Berlin and at Aglaya Orgeni in Dresden. She had her stage debut in 1897 at the Leipzig Opera House. Had as Annie in Der Freischütz and remained there engaged until 1900 in Germany they then Engagements 1900 at Court Theatre Braunschweig, 1903 at the Opera House Cologne, from 1904 at the National Theater in Berlin, 1908-1911 she was a member of the Hamburg Stadttheater. Between 1904 to 1914 she also appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and sang in 1905 under the eyes of Engelbert Humperdinck Gretel in the premiere of Hansel and Gretel, what there was her signature role, also in 1905, Adele in the first performance of the bat. At the Met they played until 1914, six Opernpremien and had over 400 appearances, moreover, also on Broadway. In 1912, she was brought for the Italian premiere of Ermanno Wolf- Ferrari's The Curious Women under Arturo Toscanini in Milan. 1908 and 1909 she sang at the Bayreuth Festival in the Forest Bird in Siegfried and the Wellgunde in the Ring of the Nibelung. Guest appearances have also led to the Court Opera in Dresden, at the Covent Garden Opera, 1910 to the Grand Opéra Paris and at the Théâtre de la Monnaie. To this end, she was also a concert singer.

She was since 1912 when Bella Deri - old married to the Viennese bank director Hermann Deri ( 1874-1941 ), brother of Max Deri. From 1917 to 1923 she had several engagements at the Vienna State Opera. They later lived as a singing teacher in Vienna. After the handover of power to the National Socialists in Germany she and her husband emigrated in 1936 from Vienna, and thus in time before the annexation of Austria to London, where she was naturalized in 1948.