Emmy Destinn (1878 - 1930)

Note by Alan Bilgora











In an era that could boast a number of great lyric/dramatic sopranos Emmy Destinn was still considered to be an outstanding performer and operatic personality. She achieved an enormous standing with the most demanding of critics, her colleagues held her in the highest esteem and her international public worshiped her. Her musicianship was of an exceptional standard, due to her early training in piano and violin, and she was involved with many local and some world premières of major operas, also possessing a natural facility in languages speaking a faultless German, classical French, perfect Italian and excellent un-accented English. For a female artist she held surprisingly strong patriotic views, changing her name to Destinová after the Great War to emphasise her nationality. Although not particularly glamourous of figure, being small of stature and putting on weight in her maturity, she was extremely ‘fair of face’. Throughout her professional life she was the friend, confidante and paramour of a number of famous figures in the world of the performing arts, all of whom adored her, and these included the famous pianist Arthur Rubenstein, and the Algerian born and eminent baritone Dinh Gilly (1877-1940) who shared in several of her operatic successes, and with whom she had a long-time liaison.

Emmy Destinn or Ema Pavlina Kittlová as she was christened, was born on 26 February 1878 in Prague the daughter of a wealthy family. Her mother had also studied singing but gave up any idea of a career when she married Emmy’s father. Originally Emmy had wanted to be a violinist, and indeed, gave her first solo concert at the age of eight. By the time she was fourteen however she had developed an outstanding voice and decided that she would like to become an opera singer. She studied in Prague with Marie Loewe-Destinn who had enjoyed a substantial career herself, and for whom Emmy was a very special gifted pupil. In gratitude for the time and effort, and more importantly, the love and support her teacher had spent whilst training her, she changed her name to Emmy Destinn when she made her debut at Dresden in 1897 as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. In 1898 she sang the same role at the Kroll Theatre which was a branch of the Hofoper in Berlin, and where her talent was quickly recognised, becoming a regular member of that company and being offered a contract that was to last ten years. Such was her musicianship that at very short notice she stood in for ailing colleagues as Mignon in Thomas’s opera, as Carmen and in another emergency shortly afterwards, sang Elizabeth in Tannhäuser without any rehearsal. The local press were full of praise for her artistic and musical abilities.

During her tenure at the Berlin Hofoper, which constituted the bedrock of her artistic career, she underlined her importance, singing in a wide range of standard and more unusual roles and also in 1902 creating Silvia in the world première of d’Albert’s Der Improvisator and Diemut in the Berlin première of Richard Strauss’s Feuersnot, In 1903 she created Elsa in the world première of Anno 1757 by Scholz, the title role in Louise in the local première of Charpentier’s opera and Marguerite in the première of Till Eulenspiegel by von Reznicek. She sang in the premiere of Leocavallo’s Roland von Berlin (1904) as Hedwig in the première of Humperdinck’s Heirat wider Willen (1905) and in 1906 sang in the première of Woikowsaky-Biedau’s Der lang Kerl and in the local première of Strauss’s Salome. 1909 she appeared as Milada in the Berlin première of Smetana’s Dalibor.

Her idea of relaxing was to sing Ganymede in Offenbach’s La Belle Helene and Magdalena in Adam’s Postillion von Lonjumeau. In 1901 she became only the second Czech singer to have been invited to Bayreuth where she sang Senta in Fliegende Holländer returning there in 1902.

Destinn made her London debut at Covent Garden on 2 May 1904 in Don Giovanni singing Donna Anna to Renaud’s elegant Don. Hermann Klein, that doyen of London critics, commented that ‘another rich soprano of the Tietjens and Lucca type; Destinn is an actress of consummate ability, a splendid Mozart singer, in a word, the admirable, very nearly perfect Donna Anna, and with no lack of "freshness" in her round and penetrating tones’. (Tietjens and Lucca were two of the greatest singers of a previous generation).

That review underlines where her real strengths lay, as internationally she made her greatest impressions as a Verdi and Puccini singer. During that first Covent Garden season she sang Nedda and Santuzza, and on three occasions sang both roles in the same evening. On 22 July Destinn undertook Aida which some people thought was her finest role, and again Klein wrote ‘the power that she displayed when she rose to the climax of the Nile scene I shall never forget’. As her Radames was Caruso, Antonio Scotti the Amonasro and Louise Kirby Lunn the Amneris that cast could be certainly claimed as being of distinguished proportions. Back in London for the 1905 season, and surrounded by artists of the front rank like Caruso, Charles Dalmores, Selma Kurz, Pauline Donalda, Clarence Whitehill and Marcel Journet she was heard in Carmen, Les Huguenots, Aida, Don Giovanni and on 10 July in the Covent Garden première of Madame Butterfly where Destinn was a sensation. Again Klein was effusive in his critical analysis of the performance closing with ‘ the tears drawn by Emmy Destinn from every eye in her inspired creation of Cio Cio San constituted a real baptism of the new work.’ Destinn appeared in London every season up to and including 1914, singing at Covent Garden over 130 times. During her London appearances she stayed in Cornwall Terrace, Regents Park living with her sister who usually accompanied her when she was abroad. She sang all her familiar roles with many of the finest singers of the day, adding La Gioconda to her repertoire, Madelaine in Andrea Chenier, Armide (sung in German), the title role in the première of d’Erlanger’s Tess and the British première of La Fanciulla del West. She also gave concerts at the Albert Hall, Queen’s Hall, and the Bechstein Hall (now the Wigmore Hall).

Although she had signed a contract in 1903, Destinn’s New York Metropolitan Opera debut was not made until 1908 when she was finally released from her Berlin commitments. On 16 November she sang in Aida with Louise Homer as Amneris, Caruso as Radames and Antonio Scotti as Amonasro. Richard Aldrich of the New York Times wrote ‘Mme. Destinn, the new dramatic soprano from Berlin ... has a voice of great power, body, and vibrant quality, dramatic in expression, flexible and wholly subservient to her intentions which are those of a singer of keen musical feeling and intelligence’. The result was that any night that featured both Caruso and Destinn was sure to be a ‘sell-out’, and this also applied when she sang with the Company on their extensive annual tours throughout the USA.

On 23 November she sang in the American première of d’Albert’s Tiefland. Her New York repertoire consisted in the main of works by Verdi, Puccini, but she was also heard in operas by Leoncavallo, Ponchielli and Meyerbeer, appeared in some Wagner operas, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni where her Donna Anna was always much admired. She of course repeated many of her Berlin and Covent Garden roles adding Ricke in Franchetti’s Germania and Alice Ford in Falstaff to her repertoire.

The American première of Catalani’s La Wally took place on Jan 6 1909 with Destinn in the title role and the fine American tenor Riccardo Martin (real name Hugh Whitfield) as Hagenbach and on the 19 February she sang in the American première of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride. Tchaikowsky’s Pique Dame received its American première on 5 March 1910 with Destinn as Lisa and Leo Slezak as Hermann, and on 10 December that year she created the role of Minnie in the world première of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West with Caruso as Dick Johnson and Pasquale Amato as the Sheriff Jack Rance.

For some unexplained reason, early in her career she was underused by her own country appearing only occasionally at the Narodni Divadlo as a guest. However once she achieved world acclaim, then she was asked to perform more frequently in national operas by Dvorak, Smetana, and Fibich with some Wagner sung in Czech. Following on her American performance of The Bartered Bride, she was named Honorary Member of the Prague Narodni Divadlo to mark her participation in the 500th presentation at the National Theatre. She made a huge impact on her audience when in 1918 she sang in Libuse declaiming the text of one important aria which states that ‘Czechoslovakia will live forever’, the house rising in tearful response and loud applause that held up the performance.

Destinn made her Chicago Opera debut, when she opened the 1915 season there on 15 November in La Gioconda with Amadeo Bassi as Enzo, Mario Ancona as Barnaba, Vittorio Arimondi sang Alvise. In 1916 when America entered the Great War, she returned to Czechoslovakia to join Dinh Gilly who had been interned whilst singing there. She was warned that the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy might not let her leave. This proved to be the case, and due to her outspoken patriotism for Czechoslovakia she was interned in her chateau at Straz and was not able to leave until the cessation of hostilities. Dinh Gilly was released from internment and lived at Straz with her, where she taught him a number of songs in Czech, a couple of which they recorded together. This period had a serious effect on her financial resources, and she was forced to sell much of the fine jewellry that had been presented to her by the Royal families of both Germany and England with whom she had become a great favourite.

She did sing two more seasons at the Metropolitan (1919-1921) and toured with the Company. In 1919 she sang at the Czecho-Slovak Festival at Queen’s Hall London, appearing too in the Grand Season at Covent Garden in Aida with the Greek tenor Ulysses Lappas, and singing Madama Butterfly, Ballo in Maschera and Tosca with Giovanni Martinelli.

In order to try and recoup some of her lost earnings, she also accepted a number of concert engagements. In 1923 she married Joseph Halsbach, a Czech Air Force officer who had some time before showed her aerial photographs he had taken of her chateau, and they lived in her home until shortly before her death. In 1926 Destinn decided to give up her theatrical career, but continued to ignore repeated medical advice about her diet and bloodpressure with tragic results. Emmy Destinn suffered a massive stroke and died aged 52 on the evening of 28 January 1930.

It is interesting to note that besides her remarkable gifts as a singer, she was well known in Czechoslovakia as an authoress of novels, essays, plays, and texts for songs for several composers. She also composed songs herself, and for the Victor Record Company recorded one of them called ‘Romance’.

The recordings transferred onto this CD compilation are taken from her sessions with the Gramophone, Odeon and Victor companies. They cover a wide ranging selection of her roles in the German, Czech, French and Italian repertoire. Dich teure Halle from Tannhäuser demonstrates her exciting attack, Senta’s Ballad from Der Fliegende Holländer is truncated, but, as with Einsam in trüben Tagen from Lohengrin and Allmächtige Jungfrau also from Tannhäuser they do show her range of vocal colour and more importantly her ability to produce tone that would cut through the large orchestral forces set against the vocal line. Butterfly was one of her favourite roles, and the purity of tone and superb legato evident in Un bel di vedremo and passion as she sings farewell to here child Tu, tu piccolo iddio are object lessons in how to be moving, without being cloying. Destinn’s version of Vissi d’arte from Tosca is a touch-stone and considered by many to be definitive. Certainly it is taken at a very demanding slow tempo, and the stunning attack on the top B flat followed by the controlled A flat and the little mordent dropping to the final top G are affecting in the extreme. In the great aria O Patria mia from Aida some of the qualities that so pleased Hermann Klein when he heard her at Covent Garden are in evidence. She shows the longing for her country, and the ascent to the high C is full voiced and confident but the final note because of the acoustic recording ambience sounds slightly disembodied. Both excerpts from the Queen of Spades (sung in German, probably because she had premiered the work in that language at the Metropolitan) are suitably dramatic. Finally in Smetana’s Ukolebavka (Cradle song) from his opera Hubicka, we get an ideal opportunity of hearing Destinn sing in her native language. This compilation is a well deserved tribute to an exceptional voice and artist.


© 2003 Alan Bilgora

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