Marcella Sembrich-Kochańska

As a singer and as a teacher of voice, Marcella Kochanska represented the most splendid traditions of her art in both America and Europe.

Stage name Marcella Sembrich; birth name Prakseda Marcelina Kochanska

Original recording by Marcella Sembrich - "Mad Scene from Lucia" in 1906. Recording is poor quality, but is of historical value. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWds7EKBXak

Thoroughly musical almost from day one, she was born Prakseda Marcelina Kochanska in Wiśniowczyk, Galicia, and as a child studied violin and piano with her father. She continued her studies at the Lvov Conservatory and later in Vienna, and with Wilhelm Stengel, who eventually became her husband. When she pursued her vocal training, Sembrich headed for Milan and the Lampertis, and made her operatic début as Elvira in Bellini’s I Puritani at Athens in 1877. Her success was rapid, followed by engagements at Dresden, Milan and London in a repertoire including Gilda, Violetta, Dinorah and Cathérine in Etoile du Nord.

She sang with great success in Russia (from 1880 – 1898), Paris, Berlin and in Spain before making her début at the Met as Lucia on October 24, 1883 – the second night of the company’s very existence! By the time of that first Met season, the amiable, "un-diva-like" prima donna was able to command a king’s ransom in compensation for singing Donna Elvira, Juliette, Ophélie in Hamlet, Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots, Zerlina, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro and other roles. Sembrich returned to the Met in 1898 and stayed there for the remainder of her career in opera, adding the Queen of the Night, Elvira in Ernani, Nedda, Lakmé, Susanna and Eva in Die Meistersinger, as examples, to her already vast repertoire. Her retirement in 1909 was a gala affair at the house, but she continued to give recitals until 1917. Sembrich then taught privately and at the Julliard and Curtis schools for as long as her health permitted. She died in New York.

Source: http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Sopranos/Sembrich__Marcella/sembrich...

Other websites: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/533848/Marcella-Sembrich (Encyclopedia Britannica in English)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcella_Sembrich (wikipedia in English)

http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcelina_Sembrich-Kocha%C5%84ska (wikipedia in Polski)