Description

MARIA KNÜPFER-EGLI (GRAZ, AUSTRIA, 17-10-1872 – BAYREUTH, GERMANY, 07-08-1924)

 

 

 

 

Her father and mother were opera singers engaged by the renowned impresario Bernhard Pollini at the Hamburg City Theater. Her father, Georg Egli (1832–1898), was a bass, while her mother, Elvira Egli-Wirth (1832–1898), was a coloratura soubrette active in Hamburg and Darmstadt. Trained for a singing career by her mother and especially by her father, she made her debut in 1893 at the Court Theater in Sondershausen, Thuringia, as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust. In 1894, she joined the Court Theater in Darmstadt. The following year, she moved to Berlin and sang at the Court Opera for five years, appearing among other roles in the 1897 premiere of Victor Hansmann’s opera Enoch Arden.

In 1899, she married the great bass Paul Knüpfer (1865–1920) and relinquished her permanent engagement the following year. Nevertheless, she continued to appear frequently as a guest and performed widely in concert and oratorio. In 1903, she appeared at London’s Covent Garden Opera as Elsa in Lohengrin and Sieglinde in Die Walküre; in later seasons she sang Gutrune in Götterdämmerung and one of the Valkyries in Die Walküre. From 1901 to 1906, she also performed at the Bayreuth Festival, where she appeared as one of the Rhinemaidens, as Rossweisse in Die Walküre, and as a Flower Maiden in Parsifal.

After the early death of her husband in 1920, she lived a secluded life in Berlin. Beginning in 1902, she recorded extensively for G&T, including excerpts from Bayreuth performances in 1904 such as scenes from Rheingold. She also recorded duets with Emilie Herzog and her sister-in-law Margarete Knüpfer (Paul Knüpfer’s sister), including for Zonophone in Berlin in 1907. Curiously, no duet with her husband survives; the only known recording featuring both artists together is a scene from the first act of Die Walküre, where they appear alongside tenor Ernst Kraus.

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

Contes d’Hoffmann (Offenbach) Barcarole (w. M Knüpfer) 2-44072 4313h G&T, Berlin 1906-03

Freischütz (Weber) Und ob die Wolke X-23208 Zonophone, Berlin 1907

Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck) Abends will ich schlafen geh’n (w. M Knüpfer) 2-44064 4315h G&T, Berlin 1906-03

Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck) Brüderlein, komm’ tanz’ mit mir (w. M Knüpfer) 2-44062 4280h G&T, Berlin 1906-03

Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck) Ein Männlein steht im Walde 43765 4314h G&T, Berlin 1906-03

Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck) Suse, liebe Suse (w. M Knüpfer) 2-44071 4278h G&T, Berlin 1906-03

Lohengrin (Wagner) Elsas Gesang an die Lüfte X-23207 Zonophone, Berlin 1907

Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) Briefduett (w. Herzog) 2-44198 10451u G&T, Berlin 1907

Trompeter von Säckingen (Nessler) Wie stolz und stattlich geht er 43759 4228h G&T, Berlin 1906-03

Walküre (Wagner) Künde nun, Gast (w. Kraus) 044171 529s Gramophone, Berlin 1910-10-12

Walküre (Wagner) Müd’ am Herd fand ich den Mann (w. Kraus & Knüpfer) 044168 512s Gramophone, Berlin 1910-09-30

Walküre (Wagner) Wunder und wilde Märe (w. Kraus & Knüpfer) 044170 514s Gramophone, Berlin 1910-09-30