Gertrud Elisabeth Mara

Gertrud Elisabeth Mara (born Schmeling, born February 23, 1749 Kassel, † January 20, 1833 in Reval, now Tallinn) was a German opera singer.

Life

Elisabeth Mara was born in 1749 as the eighth child of a poor city musician Johann Schmeling ( the son of the tailor Hans Kaspar Schmeling in Kirchheim native ) in Kassel. Her mother Ottilia born Ellerbaum ( daughter of Kassel linen weaver ) died in 1764, when she was still a child. From her father she received violin lessons at a young age and eventually abdicated in 1755 as a child prodigy, inter alia, in Antwerp and Amsterdam. Influential friends from Kassel, but also admirers from other cities made ​​it possible for her finally, in 1759 to go for the first time to England, where she was trained at the Italian singing teacher Pietro Domenico Paradisi. This was followed by trips to Ireland and the Netherlands before she was taught from 1765 to 1771 in Leipzig Johann Adam Hiller's singing school in singing, piano playing, writing and dancing. At the same time she was hired as the first concert singer for 600 dollars and met u [ ] a with Corona Schröter together, which was also involved in Leipzig. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe she heard as a student and dedicated her 1771 poem:

The Demoiselle Schmehling after performance of Hassischen Sta. Elena al Calvario, Leipzig 1771st

Soon she was considered the greatest singer that Germany had ever produced. In Berlin could be Frederick II of admirers Elisabeth Mara convince them to listen to one of her performances. The monarch, who faced German singers refusing to have only followed the concert of a next room, be but then appeared in the concert hall, where he was subsequently allowed to sing the heaviest arias from the leaf, the singer, to finally become one of her admirers.

In 1771 she was nominated for a 3000 Reichstaler first German singer for life at the Royal Opera in Berlin. She made her debut here in hatred Intermezzo Piramo e Tisbe. Her marriage to cellist John Mara (1744-1808) she dropped out of favor with their patron Frederick II, so that their position in Berlin was dissolved in 1780 after their flight to Leipzig. In the following years she enjoyed great success in Dresden, Vienna and Munich. During their performances in Paris in 1782, where she was awarded as première chanteuse de la Reine (First singer of Queen ), was a public competition with the Portuguese singer Luísa Todi ( 1753-1833 ), who split the audience regularly in Todisten and Maratisten.

Several newspaper articles of the Augsburg Ordinaries Post newspaper report of Maras time in Paris:

" Nro. 80th Wednesday, April 3. Anno, 1782. [P 2] [ ... ] Paris, 22 March. [ ...] [ Page 3 ] [... ] For some time here is a Madame Mara * a German, the music hall is not spacious enough to hold all the almost countless listeners. loud applause followed you came from London, and has be-ing cause with the French satisfied that their rare art pay well, and clap your hands tired. * the Madame Mara, former Mademoiselle Smelling is indisputably one of the greatest singers of this century. , you stood before 12 years at the big concert in Leipzig with a respectable contents. Thereupon they went to a greater content in the king of Prussia services, and has been visiting drey years, the capitals of Europe, where their voice through gehends found the loudest applause. [ ... ] "

" Nro. 94th Freytag, April 19. Anno, 1782. [P 3] [ ... ] concise messages. [ ... ] Madame Mara, a German, is still charmed by her voice the Parisian world, and the French confess frey out that this German throat surpasses all singers that they had ever heard. takes huge sums of money a [...]. "

Two years later she went to London, where she worked with small interruptions until 1802 - in 1788 /89 and 1791 she has traveled to Turin and Venice - in opera, but was especially successful in concerts.

In the meantime, it has been speculated over and over again, which cities would still bewitch with their singing. Even Berlin was back as a possible target for selection, such as the Augspurgische Ordinaries Post newspaper reported several times:

" Nro. 273 Wednesday, November 15 Anno 1786. [P 4] [ ... ] The famous singer, Madame Mara, is to come under vortheilhaften conditions back to Berlin. [ ... ] "

" Nro. 60th Freytag, 11 March. Anno 1791. [P 4] [ ... ] concise messages. [ ... ] The famous singer Mara, comes on Easter, in turn, to Berlin, with a salary of 9000. [! ] thalers. [ ... ] "

Elisabeth Mara settled in 1799 divorced her profligate husband and went in 1802 from London to France the following year to Germany and finally in 1805 as a vocal coach to Moscow.

Again, the Augspurgische Ordinaries Post newspaper report revealing from this period:

" Nro. 240 Thursday 7 Oktob. Anno 1802. [P 1] [ ... ] Paris, 29 Sept. Madame Mara, who delighted several years, the ears of the English, whose fame last of rough caster [sic ] voice of Miss Billington was obscured, is now in Paris. [ ... ] "

Others, young voices made ​​their competition or they had outflanked.

In the course of the war with France Elisabeth Mara lost their fortunes and eventually had to leave the city in 1812 during the Great Brands of Moscow. She went to Tallinn in Estonia, where the last time she traveled to England in 1819 and the following year ended her singing career. In Reval, she worked as a singing teacher. For her 82nd birthday her devoted Goethe another poem.

At Madame Mara, the joyful year fixed, Weimar 1831

Elisabeth Mara died in 1833 retired and impoverished. She was buried in the cemetery in Tallinn Kopli district. Your grave stone adorns the following inscription: "Here rests the singer Mara, she who once set Europe in delight and admiration. Heilig this place was any Friends of beauty and art. "

Voice

Elisabeth Mara had a vocal range that extended from uncoated G to the three-line F, ie comprised nearly three octaves. It is their voices have been equally strong within this scale and their interpretations have triggered primarily by their ease and speed admiration.