1. Ernestine Schumann-Heink was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American operatic dramatic contralto of German Bohemian descent.
23 Facts About Ernestine Schumann-Heink
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink was noted for the flexibility and wide range of her voice.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink was born Ernestine Amalie Pauline Rossler on 15 June 1861 to a German-speaking family at Liben, Bohemia, Austrian Empire, which is part of the city of Prague, Czech Republic.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink was baptized in her father's Roman Catholic faith five days later.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink had been stationed in northern Italy, where he met and married Charlotte Josepha Goldman, who was Jewish and with whom he returned to Liben.
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When Ernestine was three years old, the family moved to Verona.
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In 1876, Ernestine Schumann-Heink gave her first professional performance as alto soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Graz.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink remained in Dresden to pursue her career, and eventually rejoined her husband when she secured a position at the Hamburg Opera.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink, pregnant, did not follow him; they were divorced in 1892 when Ernestine Schumann-Heink was thirty-one years old.
10.
Ernestine Schumann-Heink came to the United States to make a brief foray into Broadway theatre, playing in Julian Edwards' operetta Love's Lottery, in which her performance was noted for the fact that she often broke off to ask the audience whether her English was good enough.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink left the production after 50 performances and soon returned to opera.
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In 1887, Ernestine Schumann-Heink sang Johannes Brahms' Alto Rhapsody under the direction of Hans von Bulow in a concert in Hamburg, with Brahms in attendance.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink was then engaged by Bulow to sing in a cycle of Mozart performances later that year.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink acquired a stepson, Walter, and had three more children with Paul: Ferdinand Schumann, Marie Theresa Schumann, and George Washington Schumann.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink performed with Gustav Mahler at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, during the Hamburg company's London season in 1892, and became well known for her performances of the works of Richard Wagner, forging "a long and fruitful relationship with [the Annual] Bayreuth [Wagnerian music Festival]" that "lasted from 1896 to 1914".
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink recorded the first of her many musical gramophone performances in 1900.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink separated from her husband on 10 December 1911.
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On 10 September 1912, Ernestine Schumann-Heink performed a benefit concert at the church to raise money to purchase the adjacent Presbyterian manse, Cleveland's birthplace.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink entertained the troops and raised money for Liberty Bonds, as well as "the Red Cross, knights of Columbus, Young Men's Christian Association, and Jewish War Relief, and to entertaining soldiers Throughout the United States" in order to help wounded veterans.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink lost most of her assets in the Wall Street crash of 1929 and was forced to sing again at age 69.
21.
Ernestine Schumann-Heink died of leukemia on 17 November 1936 in Hollywood, California, aged 75.
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Ernestine Schumann-Heink's funeral was conducted by the American Legion at the Hollywood Post Auditorium, and she was interred at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego.
23.
On Memorial Day, 30 May 1938, a bronze tablet honouring Ernestine Schumann-Heink was unveiled by her granddaughter, Barbara Heink, at the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park, San Diego.