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She was born on February 15, 1858 in Wisniewczyk, in Austrian Galicia, now part of Ukraine. Her real name was Praxede Marcelline Kochanska, for her father, a violinist, was named Kasimir Kochanski. Her mother's maiden name, which the daughter adopted professionally, was Sembrich.
Her father gave her music lessons: when she was four on the piano, and on the violin when she was six. Later she studied piano with Wilhelm Stengel, a native of Lemberg (1846 - 1917). From 1869 to 1873 she studied the violin at the Lemberg Conservatory, under Brustermann.
She spent a season in Vienna (1875 - 76), studying singing with Hans Rokitansky, a basso-profundo at the Vienna Court Opera, and piano with Julius Epstein, and then went to Milan for eight months' study with Giovanni Lamperti. In Vienna she studied German repertoire with Richard Lewy.
In 1874 she had an audience with Franz Liszt, on which occasion she played the piano and the violin for him, and also sang. Liszt urged her to devote herself principally to singing, but not to neglect her instrumental accomplishments.
In June 1877 she made her operatic debut at Athens, singing the role of Elvira in Bellini's I Puritani. She remained in Athens for two months and then returned to Vienna. In October 1878 she began a two-year engagement at the Dresden Opera House, making her German debut as Lucia. In 1880 she was soloist at the Lower Rhine Festival. In the same year, on June 12, she made her London debut as Lucia at the Royal Italian Opera, and she returned there for four successive seasons.
In 1883 she sailed to America and made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, on October 24, in the role of Lucia. Her reputation had preceded her, particularly word of her recent successes at Covent Garden in London, but her performance at the New York debut surpassed all expectations.
Before she left America, however, she appeared at a concert given for the benefit of Henry E. Abbey, the manager at the Metropolitan, who, it was reported, had lost a considerable sum during his first season. It was on the program of this concert, on April 21, 1884, that Sembrich displayed her versatility as a musician: she sang as one number the part of Rosina in the second act of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and she not only played a violin obbligato to Christine Nilsson's singing of the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria, " she also appeared as violin soloist, accompanied by the orchestra, in two movements of De Beriot's Concerto for violin, No. 7. When the enthusiasm of the audience demanded an encore, she seated herself at the piano and played a Chopin mazurka.
In 1898 she again joined the Metropolitan in New York, making her return appearance as Rosina, on November 30. She had also sung in a concert at the Metropolitan in the preceding year, October 26, 1897. She remained with the company until 1909, announcing her intention of retiring in November 1908, twenty-five years after her New York debut.
Her final appearance in a complete opera occurred on January 23, 1909, when she sang with Caruso and Amato in a special performance of La Traviata. Her official farewell took place on February 6, when she sang Rosina in the second act of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. After her retirement from the Metropolitan Sembrich continued her concert career until 1917. Her recital repertoire included songs in many languages - Italian, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Polish, and English.
In her later years she was active as a teacher, and in addition to work with private pupils, she taught at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York. Her pupils numbered many who became famous as singers, among them Alma Gluck, Queena Mario, Sophie Braslau, Hulda Lashanska, Dusolina Giannini, and others.
She died in New York City.
During her career at the Metropolitan Marcella Sembrich was one of the most highly paid members of the entire company. For the season of 1905-06 her contract called for forty-five performances at $1, 000 each - the highest salary of that time. For twenty years Sembrich sang in the leading opera houses of Germany, Austria, France, Russia, Scandinavia, and Spain, and, her most famous roles were Gilda in Rigoletto, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, the title role in Dinorah, Mimi in La Boheme, and Eva in Die Meistersinger. Her students (Eufemia Gregory, Florence Page Kimball) became important vocal teachers in the United States and Europe.
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She was a great Polish patriot throughout her life. During World War One she was President of the American-Polish Relief Committee of New York. She was wholly devoted to raising money, food stuffs and clothes for her suffering countrymen.
As a singer, she possessed a truly remarkable voice. Its range extended from middle C to the third F above, and it combined an almost flute-like sweetness with a brilliance that brought dramatic effect to everything she sang.
Quotes from others about the person
H. E. Krehbiel remarked that she possessed "nearly all the graces of beautiful singing in the old Italian sense. "
On May 5, 1877 she married Wilhelm Stengel. Her domestic life was particularly felicitous. She and her husband were devoted to each other, and from the time of their marriage until his death in 1917, Stengel (or Stengel-Sembrich as he sometimes styled himself) acted as her manager and secretary, handling her business affairs, arranging her interviews, and protecting her from those callers who came only from curiosity.
