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Fritzi Scheff (born Friederike Scheff; August 30, 1879 – April 8, 1954) was an American actress and singer.
Fritzi Scheff
portrait gallery at NYP Library
Fritzi Scheff; PeriodPaper.com about 1910
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheff, Fritzi 1879 births 1954 deaths 19th-century Austrian actresses 20th-century American actresses 19th-century Austrian women opera singers Austrian stage actresses Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States American stage actresses American film actresses American television actresses American opera singers Actresses from Vienna Musicians from Vienna Vaudeville performers Burials at Kensico Cemetery 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers
Fritzi Scheff (born Friederike Scheff; August 30, 1879 – April 8, 1954) was an American actress and singer.
Biography
Born Friederike Scheff inVienna
en, Viennese
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to Dr. Gottfried Scheff and Anna Yeager, she studied at the Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium – Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on 22 September 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for ...
in Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
. She made her debut on January 10, 1897 in Nuremberg. She debuted in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
at the Royal Opera House.
In 1901 she first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, singing rôles in ''La Bohème
''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuse ...
'', '' Die Meistersinger'', ''Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
'', and ''Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; Vienna (1788) title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spani ...
''. She sang in the Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is bes ...
operetta ''Babette'' at Washington, D.C. and New York (1903).
Toward the end of the 1904-05 season, Scheff became ill and was replaced by her understudy
In theater, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to a ...
Ida Hawley to close out the remaining performances of ''Babette''. Scheff had immense success as Fifi in '' Mlle. Modiste'' (1905–1908, 1913) and appeared also in ''The Prima Donna
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
'' (1908), ''The Mikado
''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Sa ...
'' (1910), '' The Duchess'' (1911), and '' The Love Wager'' (1912). From 1913-18, she appeared principally in vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic compositio ...
, returning in the latter year to the musical opera stage in ''Glorianna''. Among the rôles she sang with the Fritzi Scheff Opera Company was that of Adele in Johann Strauss
Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (german: links=no, Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed ov ...
operatta ''Die Fledermaus
' (, ''The Flittermouse'' or ''The Bat'', sometimes called ''The Revenge of the Bat'') is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée, which premiered in 1874.
Background
The original li ...
'' including at the Belasco Theater in Washington, D.C. in 1912.
Movies and television
In 1915 Scheff appeared in her first film, '' Pretty Mrs. Smith'', based on a Broadway play she starred in. It was to be her "vehicle", but critics were mostly negative about her performance and the film; instead, they were positive about Charlotte Greenwood. She made no other silent pictures. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Scheff ventured into sound movies and television. She appeared in night clubs, and died a month after being inRalph Edwards
Ralph Livingstone Edwards (June 13, 1913DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 86-87. – November 16, 2005) was an American radio ...
' '' This Is Your Life''.
Personal life and death
She married, first, Baron Fritz von Bardeleben a Prussian nobleman, then in 1908 John Fox, Jr. author of '' The Trail of the Lonesome Pine'', and, in 1913, George Anderson, an actor. The unions were all childless. Scheff died on April 8, 1954 in New York.Notes
External links
* * *Fritzi Scheff
portrait gallery at NYP Library
Fritzi Scheff; PeriodPaper.com about 1910
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scheff, Fritzi 1879 births 1954 deaths 19th-century Austrian actresses 20th-century American actresses 19th-century Austrian women opera singers Austrian stage actresses Austro-Hungarian emigrants to the United States American stage actresses American film actresses American television actresses American opera singers Actresses from Vienna Musicians from Vienna Vaudeville performers Burials at Kensico Cemetery 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American singers