Talk:Johanna Gadski

American Citizen??

I never heard of this. What is the reference for this supposition?

Do you not have access to Ancestry.com? I also have a copy of the "Report of the Death of an American Citizen" that was filed at the Berlin American Consul at the time of her death. It is not a supposition. Her March 1929 Oath of Allegiance is easily found due to the uniqueness of her name, but you're free to believe/disbelieve what you like, while others delete fact from the article. George B. Parous (talk) 04:37, 14 January 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by GPAROUS (talk • contribs) 03:26, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

Biography

• see : "Kobbe's Opera Book", 1918 edition:

  "Johanna Gadski-Tauscher was born June 15, 1872, ina a suburb of Stettin Germany, where her Father was postmaster. She was the daughter of Julius and Bertha (Degner) Gadski. Her education she received in the principal private school of her native town, and was graduated there in 1888. As a child she sang constantly while at play. It is said that, when she was about seven years old, a musician in the orchestra at the opera, who lived in the house back of her parents' and had heard her singing when at play, finally called upon her Mother and told her she had a remarkable voice, but would ruin it if she were allowed to go on using it without instruction. As a result, he was permitted to take young Miss Gadski to Frau Schroeder-Chaloupka, once of the most widely known singers and teachers of the day in Germany. The latter accepted her for a pupil and continued to instruct her in the art of tone production for twelve years.
  Already in 1889, however, she had acquired sufficient proficiency to appear in opera, so at least through Engel, the regisseur of Kroll's Theatre, in Berlin, who heard her sing at a concert in Stettin, and at once offered her a contract. At first she declined, for she had never entertained the idea of a stage career. But at last he prevailed upon her to accept a provisional contract with the result that she made her debut at the Kroll Theatre as Undine, in Lortzing's opera of that name. Although but seventeen years of age, her success with the public was so remarkable that Engel engaged her for all the following season till 1893 inclusive. During the period she sang leading parts in many of the standard operas, including Pamina, in The Magic Flute, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Agathe in Der Freischutz, and appeared with such artists as Lilli Lehmann and Marcella Sembrich. In 1894 Mme. Gadski made and extended concert tour through the principal cities of Germany and Holland and also sang in the Royal Opera House in Berlin. It was there that Walter Damrosch heard her and was so favorably impressed with her singing that he immediately made her an offer of an engagement in the United States......."

• see : Walter Damroch's biography which has multiple citings on Gadski, "a young singer of 23 who sang for me in Berlin, for Elsa and Elisabeth...."
• see : Frank La Forge's autobiography, "Among the Pleiades."
• see : Lilli Lehmann's autobiography which mentions her asking Gadski to sing in the 1906 first Mozart Festival in Salzburg where she sung Donna Elvira and Pamina.
• see : a Hans Richter biography discusses briefly her selection as Eva in Meistersinger for the 1899 Bayreuth Festspiele.
• She was quite busy from her debut at the Kroll at the age of 17.
• An accounting of her career by Kusch-Riemans :

• 1889-1890 Stadttheater in Stettin
• 1890-1891 Stadttheater in Mainz
• 1891-1892 Statdtheater in Stettin
• 1892-1893 Kroll, Berlin
• 1893-1895 Stadttheater in Bremen
• 1894 sung concerts in Holland
• 1895 Walter Damarosch's touring company in the US

• "One of the more interesting facts I came across while documenting and compiling what I believe to be a "complete" chronology of her American performances, both in opera and concert, is the number of times she sang the role of Micäela. Looking at her performances with the Met only, years ago I was puzzled as to why this German dramatic soprano of the more "heroic" mold had sung the smaller French role exactly once.
  But after I had tracked down her performances with the Damrosch, then Damrosch-Ellis, and, finally, Ellis companies, I found that the role had loomed rather largely in her repertoire in the 1890s, and that she had sung the part (almost always receiving excellent reviews) in cities including Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Cincinnati, Louisville, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Omaha, Minneapolis and elsewhere, in several locations more than once. Her debut in the role took place in Philadelphia in early January 1897, with none other than Calvé as the "guest artist" Carmen.
  Also going back to the days of relying on the Met annals, I was surprised to find elsewhere that she was singing Brünnhilde in “Die Walküre” and “Siegfried” as early as December 1897.
  I, too, find that Victor's constant experiments with recording techniques rendered many of her commercial recordings less than impressive, and that her Mapleson cylinders are quite thrilling."
  http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1209D&L=OPERA-L&T=0&F=&S=&P=65734
  http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1209d&L=OPERA-L&D=0&P=65734
  http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=OPERA-L;Uc8cPg;20060718175428-0400C
  http://listserv.bccls.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1209D&L=OPERA-L&T=0&F=&S=&P=53355

• "The Met has indeed performed an opera by a woman composer. At least one. DER WALD by Ethel Smyth during the 1902-03 season. It was given a rather ritzy cast including Johanna Gadski and David Bispham. Information that is freely available to anyone who bothers to look in the most obvious of places, the Archives section of the Met Opera website. There’s even an essay on the subject.
  http://slippedisc.com/2014/10/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-met-in-10-graphs/

64.175.40.229 (talk) 21:59, 26 December 2017 (UTC)