Melanie Kurt

Melanie Kurt (January 8, 1879 in Vienna – March 11, 1941 in New York City) was an Austrian opera singer (dramatic soprano).

From 1897 to 1900 she only appeared as a pianist, before she gave her début at the civic theatre in Lübeck as Elisabeth in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser in 1902.

Her career reached its peak when she joined the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1915 where she succeeded Olive Fremstad as the company's leading Wagner soprano for three seasons.

Considering the obstacles Melanie Kurt had to master – the first World War I, later the advent of the Nazis – she had an extraordinary career, though she was never an overnight star, but built her fame very gradually and with great discipline.

Her long way to the top is mirrored in a large and diverse repertoire: Though Kurt was most famous as a Wagner singer – she appeared as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde 49 times during her three years with the Met –, she also sang Verdi-roles (the title role in Aida, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera), the protagonist in Beethoven's Fidelio, Mozart's Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Rachel in Halévy's La Juive, several roles in operas by Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Richard Strauss (the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier), Christoph Willibald Gluck, even Handel.