Maria Jeritza

The flamboyant soprano Maria Jeritza, born in Moravia, made her early career primarily in Vienna, where her exceptional beauty, silvery spinto-weight voice and flair for dramatic (not to say sensational) stage action made her a star of the first magnitude. Baptized Mimi Jedlitzková and later calling herself Marie Jedlitzka, she sang a wide repertory and participated in the premieres of several important operas. Her glamorous presence was as welcome at the Metropolitan Opera as it was in Europe and she became a leading artist there in the 1920s.

Surprising though it may seem, given her later theatrics, Jeritza was a very shy child. Beginning her studies at the age of 12, she entered the Brünn Musikschule. At 14, she undertook private lessons from Professor Auspitzer, with whom she remained for several years. Although urged by Auspitzer to audition for a position with a number of regional opera houses, Jeritza refused, too terrified to sing before an audience of any size. Her teacher, therefore, devised a ruse, asking her one day simply to sing through some arias. When she finished, the director of the Olmütz Opera appeared from behind some draperies and informed the startled young soprano that he wished to engage her.

Jeritza's Olmütz debut as Elsa in Lohengrin saw the start of a rapid rise in confidence and dramatic savvy. Less than half a year later, she traveled to Vienna to audition for the Volksoper. Singing but a few measures, she was informed that she would be hired. Two seasons at the Volksoper led to guest engagements elsewhere and an appointment to Vienna's Court Opera, especially at the request of Emperor Franz Joseph