Description

FELICIE KASCHOWSKA (WARSAW, MAY 12, 1867 – BIELSKO-BIAŁA, JULY 18, 1951)

 

 

 

 

At the age of 15 her voice was discovered by the famous tenor Enrico Tamberlik. She studied under Troschel in Warsaw, then at the Vienna Conservatory with Joseph Gänsbacher, and later with Jean de Reszke in Paris. At 16 she gave her first concert in Warsaw and made her operatic debut at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw as Alice in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable and as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust.

In 1888 she was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, making her debut as Urbain in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. She remained there during the 1888–1890 seasons and returned in 1890–1891. At the Met she was heard primarily in Wagnerian roles, including Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. She also made guest appearances at the opera houses of St. Louis, Boston, and Buffalo, and appeared in concert with leading American orchestras.

In 1892 she undertook a major tour of the United States. The following year, in 1893, she was engaged by the National Opera in Budapest, where she created a sensation as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre. From 1894 to 1896 she appeared at the Opera House in Düsseldorf, in the 1896–1897 season at the Opera House in Leipzig, and from 1897 to 1905 at the Court Theatre in Darmstadt. Later she sang at the Court Theatre in Karlsruhe, but returned once more to the Metropolitan Opera for the 1908–1909 season.

She made further guest appearances at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome (1910), at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw (1910–1911), at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, and in Amsterdam, Madrid, Stockholm, and Paris. In 1917 she retired from the stage and worked in Warsaw as a pedagogue. She also taught in Vienna, where among her pupils was the Hungarian soprano Maria Nemeth.

 

Chronology of appearances

 

1884 Warsaw Grand Theatre

1888–1891 New York Metropolitan Opera

1893 Budapest National Opera

1894–1896 Düsseldorf Opera House

1896–1897 Leipzig Opera House

1897–1905 Darmstadt Court Theatre

1908–1909 New York Metropolitan Opera

1910 Rome Teatro Costanzi

1910–1911 Warsaw Grand Theatre

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

L’élégie (Massenet) E 9564-II 04602 Anker

Lohengrin (Wagner) Du Ärmste kannst wohl nie ermessen (w. Hempel) 78543 781 av Polydor 1922

Tosca (Puccini) Preghiera di Tosca E 9564-I 04600 Anker

Zauberflöte (Mozart) Bei Männern (w. Lordmann) 14553 Pathé, Berlin 1909

Zauberflöte (Mozart) Das klinget so herrlich (w. Lordmann) 14551 Pathé, Berlin 1909