Maria Immaculata Martha Hussa-Greve

Maria was a opera singer. A prima soprano, who performed all over the world. She sang in the Vienna Opera House and sang for Kings and Queens. She debuted on April 1917 in Vienna, singing Der Rosenkavalier. Maria was close life long friends with the singer Richard Strauss. In her retirement she was a baker and a master chef cooking for family and neighbors. She and her husband Simon Arnold Goldschlager Greve, immigrated to America and joined other family members in Chicago Illinois. They volunteered at the Schubert Music school, where they both taught opera. Simon also taught and played piano for students. In her later years Maria was mugged by several men in a subway station. She was knocked down, hitting her head and died from her heart failing in the hospital several days later. While most of her immediate family is buried in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna, Maria was cremated and her remains are at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Chicago - Worth Illinois.

Maria and Senia were married on June 30, 1920 in Vienna, Austria.

They immigrated to New York and eventually moved to Chicago in 1937.

Note: Simon Arnold Goldschlager Greve was known as "Senia" to his family. Professionally in the opera community he was known as "Senia Greve"

see 1940 USA census (line 58) https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-27844-3714-20?cc=2000219

see naturalisation 1944 https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-31879-1928-0?cc=2040533

Soprano MARIA HUSSA, Austrian/American, 83 years old, in Chicago 4/19/80. In 1917 she made her debut at the Vienna Volksoper, and appeared at the Vienna Staatsoper the following year. She sang in Berlin from 1923 to 1926, and was a member of the Hamburg State Opera 1926-32, where she assumed major roles.

During that time she also sang the soprano leads in the premieres of Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane and Respighi’s La Campana sommersa. She emigrated to the United States in 1934, sang the role of the Marschallin at the Metropolitan Opera in 1940, and the same role as well as Sieglinde in Chicago during the same season. Later she taught at the Sherwood Music School.

SPc photo by Willinger Wien of the smiling soprano Wien 1936. She was a pupil of Elizza and sang in Vienna, Prague and all the German houses including Hamburg 1926-1932 where she created Korngold’s “Der Wunder der Heliane” and Resphigi’s “La Campana Sommersa”. She emigrated to Chicago in the late 1930s sang with the Chicago Opera and one Marschallin at the Met in 1940. She opened a successful voice studio in the windy city and lived there till 1980. She was then mugged and killed in the train station.

Maria also appeared in a B&W movie / film called "Czaty" (September 19, 1921) under the name "Frau Greve-Hussa" She played a character named Maryla.