Background

Gluck was born Reba Feinsohn on May 11, 1884 in Iași, Romania, the daughter of Zara and Leon Feinsohn. While still a child she was brought to the United States by her parents, who settled in New York City on the lower East Side. Her early life was hard, for the family was poor. Her father died while she was still young.

Education

Gluck had shown musical ability at an early age, and by the time she was twenty she had studied piano and was giving piano lessons and singing in a natural, untrained voice, though with no thought of a musical career.

Career

To earn her living Gluck had become a stenographer in a New York law office. Meanwhile, in 1906, she had begun vocal training in earnest under Arturo Buzzi-Peccia. Impressed with her talent, he arranged to have her sing for Arturo Toscanini, and on the latter's recommendation the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1909 engaged her for three seasons. Taking the stage name of Alma Gluck, she made her New York debut that fall, at the New Theatre on November 16, as Sophie in Werther. Altogether during her first season she sang in eleven different roles, only two of which she had previously studied. She won immediate recognition, with special acclaim for her singing of the role of the Happy Shade in the composer Gluck's opera Orfeo, with Louise Homer in the title role and Toscanini, who was to be her lifelong friend, conducting. Other roles of these first three years included Mimi in La Bohème, Nedda in Pagliacci, Lenora in Il Trovatore, and Marguerite in Faust. Critics thought it remarkable that Alma Gluck had never studied in Europe. Somewhat later she did study with Jean de Reszke and in Switzerland with Marcella Sembrich, but her brilliant debut had come about with no training except what she had had in the United States. In the years before the first World War Alma Gluck grew in popularity, both in opera and, increasingly, on the concert stage. Her name had a magical effect on box-office receipts; only two or three opera singers of her day could in any sense be called her rivals. People flocked to hear her lieder singing, and in time her concert work drew her away from opera. During the war she sang in many parts of the United States and made a number of successful phonograph recordings, one of them, "Carry Me Back to Ol' Virginny, " selling the phenomenal total of nearly two million discs. On June 15, 1914, Alma Gluck married the violinist Efrem Zimbalist, and this second marriage proved most happy. She and her husband gave a number of concerts together, as they had done before their marriage. After the war she withdrew into private life and devoted herself to her family, though she remained active in musical circles as a hostess and patron and gave generous aid to musical philanthropies. Her last concert, following an interval in which she sang very little, was given in 1925 at the Manhattan Opera House in New York. Early in 1930 she learned that she was suffering from an obscure liver ailment, for which there was no known cure. She pushed this knowledge aside and continued until the very end to live actively with her family and friends as if nothing were the matter. Stricken suddenly one night eight years later, she died at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital in New York City the next day of cirrhosis of the liver, at the age of fifty-four. Her ashes were buried in the old cemetery on Town Hill in New Hartford, Connecticut, where she and her family had for many years made their home.

Achievements

• Gluck was a singer whose considerable repertoire, performance skills, and presence made her one of the most sought-after recital performers of her day.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Alma Gluck: Soprano 1884-1938

    (The 17 tracks by this early 1900's Romanian Soprano are: ...)

  • Alma Gluck
  • Alma Gluck Sings Verdi, Zeller, Bellini, Rimsky-Korsakov, Handel, Puccini, Smetana, Charpentier
  • Alma Gluck: Recordings 1911-1917

Membership

Founder of the American Woman's Association

Connections

On May 25, 1902, Gluck married an insurance agent, Bernard Gluck. Their daughter, Abigail, later took the name of Marcia and became the well-known novelist Marcia Davenport. The marriage, an unhappy one, ended in divorce in 1912. On June 15, 1914, Alma Gluck married the violinist Efrem Zimbalist, and this second marriage proved most happy. Their two children, Maria Virginia and Efrem, grew up in a household filled with music.

Father:

Leon Feinsohn

Mother:

Zara Feinsohn

Spouse:

Efrem Zimbalist

Spouse:

Bernard Gluck

Daughter:

Marcia Davenport

Daughter:

Maria Virginia Zimbalist

granddaughter :

Stephanie Zimbalist

She is an American actress best known for her role as Laura Holt in the NBC detective series Remington Steele.

Son:

Efrem Zimbalist

References

• Ein Glück ohne Ruh': Die Briefe Gustav Mahlers an Alma : erste Gesamtausgabe (German Edition)