Marie Engle: Difference between revisions

 

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[[File:Marie Engle Aimé Dupont 1895 cropped.jpg|thumb|Engle, by [[Aimé Dupont]], 1895]]

[[File:Marie Engle Aimé Dupont 1895 cropped.jpg|thumb|Engle, by [[Aimé Dupont]], 1895]]

”’Marie Engle”’ ({{Circa|}} 1860 – 1953) was an American operatic [[mezzo-soprano]] known for her performances in the late 19th century in the United States and Europe. She retired twice during her career, once in the late 1880s at the request of her then husband. In the spring of 1895, she resumed her opera career and performed at the [[Teatro Real]] shortly before the [[Spanish–American War]] in 1898.

”’Marie Engle”’ ({{Circa|}} 1860 – 1953) was an American operatic [[mezzo-soprano]] known for her performances in the late 19th century in the United States and Europe. She retired twice during her career, once in the late 1880s at the request of her then husband. In the spring of 1895, she resumed her opera career and performed at the [[Teatro Real]] shortly before the [[Spanish–American War]] in 1898.

She retired again in the late 1890s to care for her ill father in Michigan. Critics praised her stage presence and technical expertise as a vocalist. [[Gianni Bettini]] recorded some of her work for the first [[phonograph cylinder]]s of opera singers sold in a catalog. After her father’s death, she left the United States for England.

She retired again in the late 1890s to care for her ill father in Michigan. Critics praised her stage presence and technical expertise as a vocalist. [[Gianni Bettini]] recorded some of her work for the first [[phonograph cylinder]]s of opera singers sold in a catalog. After her father’s death, she left the United States for England.

American operatic soprano (1860–1953)

Marie Engle (c.  1860 – 1953) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano known for her performances in the late 19th century in the United States and Europe. She retired twice during her career, once in the late 1880s at the request of her then husband. In the spring of 1895, she resumed her opera career and performed at the Teatro Real in Madrid shortly before the Spanish–American War in 1898.

She retired again in the late 1890s to care for her ill father in Michigan. Critics praised her stage presence and technical expertise as a vocalist. Gianni Bettini recorded some of her work for the first phonograph cylinders of opera singers sold in a catalog. After her father’s death, she left the United States for England.

Engle was born around 1860 in Chicago, Illinois.^[a][6] She was raised in Chicago with one brother, Charles.^[7] Her father, Christian Engle, came to the United States and settled in Michigan. Christian’s father was from Prussia, and his mother was the French prima donna Marie Stoll. Christian later married Augusta Merrill, a singer of Irish and English heritage. Augusta died when Marie was young, but before her death, she requested her daughter to sing for her.^[8]

Her father was a successful brewer in St. Louis,^[9] and later worked as a private secretary for Albert Allison Munger, heir to the Wesley Munger grain elevator company. He also helped plan her musical education.^[10] She studied under Anna Frederika Magnusson Jewett^[11] and Adelina Murio-Celli d’Elpeux.^[12] At age 14, she performed at the Academy of Music in New York. Before her marriage, she was accompanied by her father on tour for most of her career.^[8]

James Henry Mapleson heard Engle perform at the Academy and took her under his management. She debuted in San Francisco in 1886^[1] as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The following year, she appeared in the opera season at Drury Lane under the management of Augustus Harris, where she performed as the Queen in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots, Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma, and Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.^[12]

She debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1895, appearing as Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen and Baucis in Gounod’s Philémon et Baucis.^[13] Under director Maurice Grau, Engle performed in three grand opera productions in the winter of 1898 at Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre: as Cherubino, Lady Harriet Durham in an Italian version of Flotow’s Martha, and the Queen in Les Huguenots.^[14]

Three years later, she made a appearance at the Teatro Real, which was extensively covered in newspapers of the time; shortly after the sinking of the Maine and just before the Spanish–American War, she performed as Ophelia in Hamlet by Abroise Thomas for a critical Spanish audience. Due to the political situation, she received a cold reception from the crowd initially, with no reaction during the opening act, only silence. In the second act, the audience initially reacted with shouts of “Americana” and hissing. However, by the final act, she managed to win them over to cheer and approval.^[15]

In the late 1890s, the problem of acoustic cylinder duplication was solved using the pantograph, allowing phonograph cylinders to be copied and sold. Gianni Bettini recorded some of the first opera singers for commercial release at the Bettini Phonograph Laboratory in the Judge Building on Fifth Avenue, including Engle. Bettini made Engle’s recordings available for wider purchase through his catalog, making her voice one of the earliest to be commercially recorded and sold to home listeners.^[16] She was listed as artist No. 21 in the 1897 and 1898 Bettini catalog, which offered a recording of her singing the Polonaise (“Je suis Titania”) from Mignon by Thomas, priced at $3.50 ($132.29 in ).^[17]

Engle married her manager, Gustav Amburg, then the manager of the Bowery Theatre, in 1889.^[1] During their marriage, she was frequently occupied with preparing for performances or touring.^[12] Engle’s husband was abusive towards her,^[1] making their relationship difficult.^[18] She temporarily retired from the opera for several years at his request.^[12]

During this period, Engle cared for a white Angora cat named Mizzi. The cat was immortalized in the painting Kitty’s Birthday by artist Nelson N. Bickford. The painting gained popularity through journalist Helen M. Winslow‘s book Concerning Cats (1900)^[19] and was later noted by writer Carl Van Vechten.^[20]

In 1896, Engle divorced Amburg after learning he had a second wife in Germany.^[1] She spoke about her work in several interviews, noting that it was a difficult career. “We cannot all win, to be sure”, she told one reporter, “and the few who attain success well deserve it.”^[13] She ended her opera career to care for her ill father in Michigan, who passed away in 1899.^[10] She was later said to have converted to Catholicism.^[21] In 1912, The New York Times reported that Engle was living in Brighton.^[7]

Engle died in 1953 at the age of 92 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, England.^[22]

According to music critic William Armstrong, Engle was once regarded as one of the most beautiful opera singers of her time and was also technically proficient.^[21] During her career, critical reviews noted that her voice was not known for its projection or its timbral richness, but rather for its clean tone, precise intonation, and effortless agility, and for her unique approach to the lyric coloratura, in particular her ability to execute trills.^[6] Another reviewer wrote that Engle was “gifted with considerable personal attraction, a beautiful mezzo-soprano organ, and a singularly correct ear.”^[12]