Cornélie van Zanten

Cornélie van Zanten, actually Wijntje Cornelia van Zanten ( born August 2, 1855 in Dordrecht, † January 10, 1946 in The Hague) was a Dutch opera singer. After her singing career, she worked as a singing teacher and author.

Van Zanten sang in both the mezzo- soprano vocal range, as well as a contralto.

She studied among others at the Conservatory of Cologne and Milan (under Francesco Lamperti ). In September 1875 she gave her debut as Leonora in Turin in Donizetti 's opera La Favorita. In 1879 she returned to Germany, where they engagements at the opera houses in Breslau, Kassel took over ( with Gustav Mahler as a conductor ) and Hamburg. During this time she wrote her own songs, including 1881 Mijn Moedertaal ( " My mother tongue ").

In 1885 she went to America and became part of several opera companies. 1887 she returned to Europe and worked in Russia (where they sang a complete Der Ring des Nibelungen ), in Holland and in Germany.

Van Zanten ended her singing career in 1895 and took over a professorship for solo singing at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where she taught several well-known Dutch singers, such as Jos Tijssen, Julia Culp and Tilly Koene.

1903 to the outbreak of the First World War, she took over the management of the Master School of Art singing in Berlin. In 1914 she moved to The Hague, where she continued to work as a classical singing teacher.

Van Zanten wrote several books on the art of singing and the human voice, which appeared on German and Dutch. Her book Bel Canto of the word: teaching the Stimmbeherschung by the Word (1911 ) was a standard work of singing lessons. In 1923 she made ​​a film about the voice. However, there are no vocals from her.