Berlin ballad
Seven decades of difference in age doesn’t stand in the way of a charming interview between Marta Eggerth and Zachary Woolfe on the occasion of her viewing her 1932 film Das Blaue vom Himmel for the very first time. (Prepare to be verklempt.) [New York Observer]
thanks Mr. Wolfe for this interview-tribute to Marta Eggerth… you bring out her personality vividly and, you know, what she said about pre-WW2 Europe was very similar to what Maria Jeritza told me almost 40 year ago… much of the politico-economic turmoil never reached some parts of Main Street during those precarious times.
– You can find some of Marta Eggerth’s memoirs online on different websites & she has some wonderful stories (at least i found her stories very interesting), particularly one about Kirsten Flagstad smoking cigars & gambling early into the mornings hours on a day when she also sang Tristan und Isolde at the Met that evening.
– BTW, i also had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Zachary Wolfe at the Thalia last Sunday night & although he may be just barely old enough to be Marta Eggerth’s great-grandson, he is the cutest great-grandson I’ve seen in a long time!
i wonder how the dress for DonCarlo is/was/when is it?
It’s today.
Thanks for sharing this lovely piece. I’ve actually just been making the discovery of Eggerth over the past few months; thanks to phoenix for the recommendation to take up the online hunt for memoirs.
Mon dieu !! I thought she died years ago, how touching to hear from her at 98 years of age yet.
Such an adorable creature she was!
About ten or so years ago I heard her @ Licia Albanese gala. She was still singing.
May her memories all be golden and keep her warm in this cold world.
Marta & Jan Kiepura in Lehar’s Merry Widow. NYC 1943:
http://www.musicals101.com/News/mw43leads.jpg
Licia & Marta:
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/85020459.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215ABF3343C02EA5484D545FE29B5797FC1F67FEFD09768B5BE7F190D9D263A6E6
What a wonderful picture, phoenix!
I am currently listening to Susan Graham sing ‘Vilja’ on The Prairie Home Companion, by sheer coincidence!
Hope she’s got a merry widow on!!!! A BLACK one, too!
Glad you enjoyed the pictures, Camille. There are some wonderful ones up in the images section of the engines… i haven’t looked at the videos yet, but I’m sure they are fun, too.
– if only Susan Graham was even a fraction as glamorous as Marta was, how lucky we would be…