Biography
Ernestine Rössler came into the world in territory now belonging to Czechoslovakia. An unusually opulent and powerful voice equipped her especially well for Wagnerian parts along with other dramatic roles. At seventeen she made her stage debut, taking the role of Azucena in Dresden. After that striking entrance she nevertheless spent roughly a decade in minor parts, gradually absorbing repertory and stage technique. A striking high point arrived when Hans von Bülow personally chose her to sing Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody in the composer’s presence.
Her private life brought repeated hardship. Before she turned twenty-one she married Ernst Heink, who fathered four children and then abandoned the household. Despair and poverty once drove her to lead the children to a railroad yard with the intention of stepping in front of a train. An engagement in Hamburg rescued the situation; substituting for the indisposed Marie Goetz in Carmen, Fides in Le prophète, and Ortrud quickly established her as a star. When Mahler took the podium there he assigned her the Wagnerian alto roles of Fricka, Erda, and Brangäne. She soon built a major career in Germany.
In 1893 she divorced her absent husband and married attorney Paul Schumann, thereafter appearing under the name Schumann-Heink. A notable Covent Garden debut followed in 1896, after which she turned westward to America. National popularity ensued; she toured from major cities and White House appearances to small western towns. The tours proved so profitable that she cancelled her remaining German contracts. After her second husband’s death in 1905 she married Chicago attorney William Rapp and became an American citizen. She sang often at the Metropolitan Opera yet never accepted a long-term contract. Her appearance in a Broadway musical startled the musical world. Richard Strauss personally selected her to create Klytemnaestra in Elektra; the performance created a sensation even though she came to detest the role, later recalling, “It was frightful … we were all a bunch of mad-women.”
During World War I she supported American troops through countless Liberty Bond concerts while suffering the knowledge that sons from her first two marriages served on opposing sides. “My sympathies were with the American cause, but my heart was with my son on the other side,” she said. The son who commanded a submarine died when his boat was lost at sea; typhoid soon claimed another son.
Recordings made in her later years preserve a strong, rich voice distinguished by uncommon intelligence and musicality in interpretation and phrasing. The Wall Street crash of 1929 wiped out her investments, leading her to join a touring vaudeville company. A Hollywood producer invited her west, imagining she might succeed the late Marie Dressler. She appeared in the musical film Here’s to Romance, which met with little success. She died in Hollywood in 1936.
Her private life brought repeated hardship. Before she turned twenty-one she married Ernst Heink, who fathered four children and then abandoned the household. Despair and poverty once drove her to lead the children to a railroad yard with the intention of stepping in front of a train. An engagement in Hamburg rescued the situation; substituting for the indisposed Marie Goetz in Carmen, Fides in Le prophète, and Ortrud quickly established her as a star. When Mahler took the podium there he assigned her the Wagnerian alto roles of Fricka, Erda, and Brangäne. She soon built a major career in Germany.
In 1893 she divorced her absent husband and married attorney Paul Schumann, thereafter appearing under the name Schumann-Heink. A notable Covent Garden debut followed in 1896, after which she turned westward to America. National popularity ensued; she toured from major cities and White House appearances to small western towns. The tours proved so profitable that she cancelled her remaining German contracts. After her second husband’s death in 1905 she married Chicago attorney William Rapp and became an American citizen. She sang often at the Metropolitan Opera yet never accepted a long-term contract. Her appearance in a Broadway musical startled the musical world. Richard Strauss personally selected her to create Klytemnaestra in Elektra; the performance created a sensation even though she came to detest the role, later recalling, “It was frightful … we were all a bunch of mad-women.”
During World War I she supported American troops through countless Liberty Bond concerts while suffering the knowledge that sons from her first two marriages served on opposing sides. “My sympathies were with the American cause, but my heart was with my son on the other side,” she said. The son who commanded a submarine died when his boat was lost at sea; typhoid soon claimed another son.
Recordings made in her later years preserve a strong, rich voice distinguished by uncommon intelligence and musicality in interpretation and phrasing. The Wall Street crash of 1929 wiped out her investments, leading her to join a touring vaudeville company. A Hollywood producer invited her west, imagining she might succeed the late Marie Dressler. She appeared in the musical film Here’s to Romance, which met with little success. She died in Hollywood in 1936.
Singles
