Marie Gutheil-Schoder (16 February 1874 – 4 October 1935) was an important German soprano. Born Marie Schoder in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

, she married Gustav Gutheil in 1899, with whom she lived until his death in 1914. In 1920, she married the photographer Franz Xaver Setzer. She debuted in the secondary role of the First Lady at the Weimar Court Opera in ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

'' in her native city of Weimar in 1891. Gustav Mahler engaged her for the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is an opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by August ...

in 1900, where she remained until 1926. She appeared at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Ope ...

as Octavian in ''

Der Rosenkavalier (''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...

'' in 1913. One of her famous roles was her portrayal of a "strange, Nietzschean" Carmen. She was seen in the 1914 Vienna premiere of Richard Strauss's ballet, ''

Josephslegende ''Josephslegende'' (''The Legend of Joseph''), Op. 63, is a ballet in one act for the Ballets Russes based on the story of Potiphar's Wife, with a libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Harry Graf Kessler and music by Richard Strauss. Composed ...

'' as Potiphar's Wife. She created Esmeralda in the world premiere of Franz Schmidt's opera '' Notre Dame'' in the same year. Gutheil-Schoder created the fiercely difficult single role of Arnold Schoenberg's

monodrama A monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character. In opera In opera, a monodrama was originally a melodrama with one role such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau's '' Pygmalion'', which w ...

Erwartung ' (''Expectation''), Op. 17, is a one-act monodrama in four scenes by Arnold Schoenberg to a libretto by . Composed in 1909, it was not premiered until 6 June 1924 in Prague conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky with Marie Gutheil-Schoder as the sop ...

'' in 1924 in Prague; earlier that year, she performed his ''

Pierrot lunaire ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire"'' ("Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire), commonly known simply as ''Pierrot lunaire'', Op. 21 ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the Moonlight"), is a m ...

''. Mahler termed her "a musical genius," and she was highly regarded as a musician and singing-actress, although she seemed to be, as one Viennese critic wrote, "the singer without a voice." In her later career, she became a stage director of opera. She was a well-known pedagogue as well, one of her students being the mezzo-soprano

Risë Stevens Risë Stevens (; June 11, 1913 – March 20, 2013) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano and actress. Beginning in 1938, she sang for the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for more than two decades during the 1940s and 1950s. She was most ...

. She died at the age of 61, in Ilmenau, Germany.

Recordings

In 1902, she recorded for Gramophone & Typewriter Company Records, in Vienna: Two excerpts from '' Carmen'', an aria from '' The Merry Wives of Windsor'', and duets from ''

La dame blanche ''La dame blanche'' ( English: ''The White Lady'') is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and is based on episodes from no fewer than five works of the Sc ...

'' and ''

Les contes d'Hoffmann ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died in ...

'' were performed. She is heard in Volume I of

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

's ''

The Record of Singing ''The Record of Singing'' is a compilation of classical-music singing from the first half of the 20th century, the era of the 78-rpm record. It was issued on LP (with accompanying books) by EMI, successor to the British company His Master's Voi ...

'', in the duet from ''La dame blanche''. In 2004, Symposium Records issued a Compact Disc entitled ''Vienna – The Mahler Years''. Included are the two duets Gutheil-Schoder recorded (with Franz Naval), along with recordings by Selma Kurz, Leo Slezak, Erik Schmedes,

Lilli Lehmann Lilli Lehmann, born Elisabeth Maria Lehmann, later Elisabeth Maria Lehmann-Kalisch (24 November 1848 – 17 May 1929) was a German operatic soprano. She was also a voice teacher. Biography The future opera star's father, Karl-August Lehmann, wa ...

, etc.

References

* ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', by

John Warrack John Hamilton Warrack (born 1928, in London) is an English music critic, writer on music, and oboist. Warrack is the son of Scottish conductor and composer Guy Warrack. He was educated at Winchester College (1941-6) and then at the Royal College ...

and Ewan West, Oxford University Press, 1996.

External links

Marie Gutheil-Schoder in an excerpt from ''Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor'' (1902).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutheil-Schoder, Marie 1874 births 1935 deaths German operatic sopranos German opera directors Female opera directors Voice teachers People from Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Musicians from Weimar 19th-century German women opera singers 20th-century German women opera singers Women music educators