Maria Jeritza

Background

Jeritza was born in Brno, Czech Republic in 1887 as Mitzi Jedlicka or Marie Jedličková.

Education

Maria Jeritza studied piano, violin, cello and harp.

Career

Jeritza's Olmütz debut as Elsa in Lohengrin saw the start of a rapid rise in confidence and dramatic savvy. Less than half a year later, she traveled to Vienna to audition for the Volksoper. Singing but a few measures, she was informed that she would be hired. Two seasons at the Volksoper led to guest engagements elsewhere and an appointment to Vienna's Court Opera, especially at the request of Emperor Franz Joseph. Meanwhile, she had created the title role in Stuttgart of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, thus beginning her long-term relationship with the composer who would give her yet another spectacular role, that of the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten in its 1919 premiere in Vienna. In both Frau and in the 1916 premiere of the revised Ariadne in Vienna, Jeritza was paired with soprano Lotte Lehmann. Jeritza also created the role of Janácek's Jenufa for Vienna, as she was later to do for New York.

Another highly publicized Jeritza creation was the role of Marietta in Erich Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, premiered in Hamburg in 1920 and repeated in New York the following year. This role, in fact, provided the vehicle for Jeritza's Metropolitan debut. During this time, the soprano also achieved renown for her interpretations of Puccini heroines. Her imperious Turandot was hailed as a major accomplishment and her not-quite vulnerable Tosca became exceedingly famous, not least for her singing "Vissi d'arte" from a prone position. Tenor Aureliano Pertile, celebrated in his native Italy as the best of the dramatic tenors, had the misfortune to make his debut opposite Jeritza's first Metropolitan Tosca. Jeritza received what, according to Met manager Giulio Gatti-Casazza's recollection, was the greatest response he had ever witnessed in a theatre. Pertile was all but ignored.

Jeritza's successes embraced a wide range of roles, all of them interesting, if sometimes misconceived. Her Octavian in Rosenkavalier was both stunningly handsome and handsomely sung. Her Minnie, Thaïs, Salome, Fedora, and Ägyptische Helena (which she premiered at the Met) were creatures of unending fascination. Although Jeritza left the Met during the Depression years when pay cuts were mandated, she continued to enthrall audiences in Europe throughout the 1930s.

Achievements

• Maria Jeritza made a number of 78-rpm recordings which testify to the high quality of her voice. Many of these recordings have been released on CD.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Sunlight and Song
  • Lebendige Vergangenheit

Connections

After a two-year marriage to a man named Wiener, Maria Jeritza was married to an Austrian Baron, Friedrich Leopold Salvator Freiherr Popper von Podhragy (1886-1953). She married to her third husband in 1935, Hollywood mogul Winfield R. Sheehan, who died in 1945. In 1948 she married to New Jersey businessman Irving Seery and moved to a mansion in the Forest Hill neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, where she lived until her death in 1982, at the age of 94.

Spouse (4):

Irving Seery

Spouse (1):

Wiener

Spouse (3):

Winfield R. Sheehan

Spouse (2):

Friedrich Leopold Salvator Freiherr Popper von Podhragy

(1886-1953)