Description

BELLA PAALEN (PÁSZTÓ, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, 9 JULY OR 9 DECEMBER, 1881 – NEW YORK, 28 JULY, 1964)

 

 

 

 

Her real name was Isabella Pollak. She studied with Rosa Papier-Paumgartner and Johannes Ress in Vienna. She made her debut in 1904 at the Düsseldorf Opera House as Fides in Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète. From 1905 to 1906, she sang at the Graz City Theatre, and from 1906 to 1937, she was a member of the Vienna State Opera (known until 1918 as the Vienna Court Opera).

She was brought to Vienna by the famous composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, who had heard her as the soloist in his Third Symphony in Graz. At the Vienna Opera, she took part in the local premiere of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (1907) as Kate Pinkerton, and in the first performance of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (1911) as Annina.

Guest appearances brought her great success in the Netherlands, Spain, England, and Czechoslovakia. In 1911 and 1912, she appeared as Fricka in Die Walküre with the Amsterdam Wagner Society. From 1934 to 1937, she performed at the Salzburg Festival, appearing as the First Maid in Strauss’s Elektra (1934 and 1937) and as Manuela in Hugo Wolf’s Der Corregidor (1936).

In 1925, she achieved great success as a guest at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London, where she sang Ortrud (Lohengrin), Magdalene (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Mary (Der fliegende Holländer), Fricka (Die Walküre), and Annina (Der Rosenkavalier).

In 1938, she emigrated to North America with the assistance of the renowned Lotte Lehmann, and subsequently worked as a teacher in New York.

Recordings of her performances were issued by Pathé (1910) and HMV (including an electrically recorded short version of Der Rosenkavalier, Vienna, 1934). In the Koch/Schwann edition, excerpts from performances of the Vienna State Opera were published, featuring her as Magdalene, Herodias, Mary, Annina, Fricka, Grimgerde, and the Third Norn in Der Ring des Nibelungen. On EJS, fragments survive from Götterdämmerung (Vienna State Opera, 1935).

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Götterdämmerung (Wagner) Rheintöchter-Terzett (w. Pohlner & Förstel) 51186 Pathé, Wien 1910/1911

Mignon (Thomas) Kennst du das Land 51163 Pathé, Wien 1910/1911

Orfeo ed Eurydice (Gluck) Ach, ich habe sie verloren 51164 Pathé, Wien 1910/1911

Prophète (Meyerbeer) Ach, mein Sohn 51166 Pathé, Wien 1910/1911

Rheingold (Wagner) Rheintöchter-Terzett (w. Pohlner & Förstel) 51187 Pathé, Wien 1910/1911

Rigoletto (Verdi) Quartett (w. Reinhardt, Pohlner & Schwarz) 51175 Pathé, Berlin 1910/1911

Rosenkavalier (Strauss) Ich hab’ halt schon einmal (w. Mayr) DB2067 (32-4115) 2WA598-1 HMV, Wien 1933-09-22

Rosenkavalier (Strauss) Wart, dich hau’i’ z’samm (w. Mayr & chorus) DB2067 (32-4114) 2WA596-1 HMV, Wien 1933-09-22

Trovatore (Verdi) Lodernde Flammen 51165 Pathé, Wien 1910/1911