Marcella Sembrich & The Role of a Lifetime
Marcella Sembrich as Lucia (ca. 1883). From The Sembrich Collection.
Marcella Sembrich was beloved for her portrayals of numerous heroines of the opera stage, including Violetta in La Traviata, Gilda in Rigoletto and Mimi in La Bohème. But it was the role of Lucia in Donizetti’s masterpiece, Lucia di Lammermoor that served to launch an international career for the young singer. Based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott and set in the hills of Scotland, Lucia di Lammermoor relates the tale of a fragile young heroine caught up in the struggle between two feuding families. The third act of the opera culminates in an extensive “mad scene,” an expressive tour de force for soprano.
We’re delighted to present an enthralling remote performance of that same tour de force, created specifically for this second edition of our Virtual Visionaries series, featuring soprano Alexandra Nowakowski, winner of the 2018 Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition, flutist Adria Foster and pianist Robert Ainsley.
But first, let’s explore the role that set the young, unknown Polish soprano, Marcella Sembrich, on course for worldwide acclaim.
Alexandra Nowakowski, soprano, winner of the 2018 Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition. Photo courtesy of The Kosciuszko Foundation.
Though Marcella Sembrich had her first opportunity to try out the challenging part during her debut at the Teatro Falero in Athens in June of 1877, it wasn’t until the following year, in September of 1878, when Sembrich bowed as Lucia at the Dresden Royal Opera, that the twenty year-old singer created a sensation in the role, immediately hailed as “the Polish Patti” (her immeasurable talent compared favorably to the reigning soprano of the day, Adelina Patti).
Marcella Sembrich as Lucia (ca. 1883). From The Sembrich Collection.
1878 Lucia Program with Sembrich. From The Sembrich Collection. Click to enlarge.
“Bleibe!” banner presented by the Dresden public. From The Sembrich Collection. Click to enlarge.
Sembrich quickly gained favor among Dresden audiences and critics alike and might have continued her engagement at the German house for years to come. But as is often the case in the world of opera, politics came into play. The Director of the Court Opera, the eminent conductor Ernst von Schuch, was married to Clementine Proska-Schuch, a Marchesi-trained coloratura soprano to whom the majority of roles were assigned. As a result, numerous parts that Sembrich, by rights, needed to learn and perform in order to advance in her career were simply not available to her.
The frustration of Sembrich’s position with the company became a very public matter. “All the critics stood up for Sembrich,” wrote famed contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink in her memoir. “Even the students took her part, and there was a terrible to-do when they knew of the intrigues against her. She always packed the house when she sang--the people would even hang on the chandeliers, if necessary, to hear her!”
Adelina Patti, soprano (1843-1919)
From The Sembrich Collection. Click to enlarge.
Sembrich finally arrived upon the difficult decision to break her contract with the company which, essentially, banned her from singing in German houses for years to come. At her final performance in Dresden, students pulled her carriage through the streets and presented her with laurels and large ribbons embroidered with “Bleibe! Bleibe!” (Stay! Stay!). A favorite artifact, these ribbons remain on display in The Sembrich’s museum to this day.
Sembrich left Germany, set sail for England and sought out an audition with Ernest Gye, manager of the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden. It was the reigning soprano of the day, that very same Adelina Patti, just concluding a rehearsal on Sembrich’s arrival, who petitioned Gye to listen to the young singer. Sembrich obliged and sang two arias from Lucia. Once again, the role of the Scottish heroine proved an effective calling card for the young soprano: Sembrich was hired on the spot! Not only was Gye impressed, but the orchestra rose, en masse, and applauded the new singer.
Let’s listen now to Marcella Sembrich in a portion of the Mad Scene (“Ardon gl'incensi”) from Lucia di Lammermoor, recorded by Victor on March 1, 1906, with Darius Lyons, flute:
Marcella Sembrich (1858-1935) debuted at the Met in the 1883-84 season, in Lucia di Lammermoor. She performed the role 41 times at the Met. This ancient recording gives a very good idea of the art of operatic singing in the 19th century.
Marcella Sembrich made her London debut at Covent Garden as Lucia on June 12th, 1880. The critics were unanimous in their praise:
“Saturday will be memorable in the annals of the Royal Italian Opera as the night on which Madame Sembrich made her first appearance in this country, for there can be no doubt that a great artist has been discovered.”
A four-year tenure at Covent Garden served to secure Sembrich’s stature as one of the rising stars of the opera world. In May of 1883, impresario Henry Abbey, director of the fledgling Metropolitan Opera, came calling at Sembrich’s London apartment with an astounding offer for a role in his new troupe, a position that included a stipend of $1,500 per performance, round-trip passage to New York, hotel lodging for the singer, her husband and a servant and exclusive rights to sing the roles of Lucia, Gilda, and Rosina.
The Royal Opera House, London. From the Illustrated London News, May 15, 1858. Click to enlarge.
The original Metropolitan Opera House, New York. Image in the public domain. Click to enlarge.
Marcella Sembrich made her Metropolitan Opera debut during the opening week of the company, on October 24th, 1883, a house where she would reign for the next quarter century as one of the leading singers of her time. Though Sembrich would go on to sing a wide array of operas at the Met, it was the endearing role of Lucia di Lammermoor that introduced the young singer to America and that inspired The New York Times to proclaim: “Madame Marcella Sembrich…is a consummate mistress of her art (and) one of the reigning queens of song.”
Alexandra Nowakowski, winner of the 2018 Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition. Photo courtesy of The Kosciuszko Foundation.
I first met Alexandra Nowakowski in November of 2018 at the Kosciuszko Foundation’s Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition in New York City. The competition, established in 1968 to honor Polish soprano Marcella Sembrich, featured over two dozen talented young singers, competing over the course of two days, vying for a variety of prizes totaling over $16,000. Though The Sembrich has supported this event for decades, the 2018 competition marked the first time that a solo recital at the Sembrich studio was offered as one of the prizes.
I had the privilege of selecting the recipient of this performance award---and I knew as soon as I heard Alexandra’s exquisite voice that she was the ideal candidate for the prize. Clearly, the competition judges felt as strongly about this young singer’s artistry as I did, since Alexandra ultimately went on to win the competition’s top prize of $8,000.
This past spring, Alexandra and I had been corresponding, making plans for her proposed recital at the studio during the summer of 2021. When word came down that our 2020 season had been cancelled, I contacted Alexandra to see if she might be available to join us for this remote appearance. Alexandra responded without hesitation: “I would be absolutely thrilled to record a remote performance of Lucia's mad scene for you…I sang Lucia at the Academy of Vocal Arts so it’s like putting on an old comfy sweater.”
Photo courtesy of The Kosciuszko Foundation
Her colleagues in the DC area, flutist Adria Foster and pianist Robert Ainsley joined her with equal enthusiasm. “Any opportunity to make art in the current climate is appreciated!” responded Ainsley, while Adria Foster wrote, “With all of our concerts at the Kennedy Center cancelled it was a welcome opportunity! I’ve played (Lucia) in the opera house many times, but the last production with Washington National Opera was done with a glass harmonica instead of flute. Needless to say I was a bit peeved!! Thank you for suggesting this repertoire and for including the FLUTE!” (Please read the complete biographies of these artists, listed below).
It gives us great pleasure now to present the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti with Alexandra Nowakowski, soprano, Adria Foster, flute and Robert Ainsley, piano:
Many of the details in this post are drawn from the meticulously researched unpublished biography of Sembrich by Stephen Herx, the manuscript of which was left in the care of The Sembrich on Stephen’s passing over a decade ago. As ever, we express sincere thanks to the Herx family and to Stephen’s surviving partner, Jeffrey Wu, for the invaluable information that these papers provide.
We also want to acknowledge our partners at the Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition in New York City: Ewa Zadworna, Director of Cultural Affairs at the Kosciuszko Foundation and Edyta Kulczak, mezzo-soprano from the Metropolitan Opera who serves as Artistic Director of the Competition.
Until next time,
Richard Wargo
Artistic Director
Edyta Kulczak and Ewa Zadworna. Photo courtesy of the Kosciuszko Foundation. Click to enlarge.
Praised by Opera News for her “impassioned singing,” coloratura soprano Alexandra Nowakowski is a first generation Polish-American, fluent in Polish. She graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Polish School in Palatine, IL. Alexandra is passionate about bringing light to Polish song repertoire, and recently performed a recital of all Polish music with the Kosciuszko Foundation. She recently captured First Prize in the Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing Competition, the Partners for the Arts Competition, the Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition with the Kosciuszko Foundation, and is a winner of the 2019 Astral National Auditions. Alexandra is also a First Prize winner in the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, the Vocal Arts DC Art Song Discovery Competition, and the Violetta DuPont Competition.
She has been a member of numerous prestigious young artist programs, including the Washington National Opera Cafritz Young Artist Program, the Wolf Trap Opera Young Artist Program, and the Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique, where she sang Gilda in a live medici.tv broadcast of Rigoletto with the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra. Nowakowski has also been a master class participant with the Joyce DiDonato Master Class series with Carnegie Hall. Some of her operatic roles include Zerbinetta and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Nannetta in Falstaff, Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice, Pamina and the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Gilda in Rigoletto, and Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffman. Alexandra Nowakowski holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an artist diploma from The Academy of Vocal Arts.
Principal Flutist of the Washington National Opera/Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, Adria Sternstein Foster has been praised by the Washington Post for her “molten phrasing” and tone of “sheer iridescence.” As a member of the IBIS Chamber Music Society, Adria has performed chamber music for flute, harp and strings throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area. She has been heard on NPR’s Front Row Washington and appears in the 2017 documentary film Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty.
Recordings include Vivaldi’s flute concerto “Il Gardellino” on the disc IBIS x 2, and Iridescence, a CD of works for flute and harp with Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra principal harpist Susan Robinson. A native of New York City, Ms. Foster attended La Guardia High School of Music and the Arts and was a student of Bonnie Lichter at Juilliard’s Pre-College Division. She continued her education at Juilliard where she received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees as a student of Julius Baker and Jeanne Baxtresser. Adria is honored to collaborate on Volume 2 of the indispensable publication for flutists, “Orchestral Excerpts for Flute with Piano Accompaniment,” with her mentor Jeanne Baxtresser, former Principal Flutist of the New York Philharmonic. For more information please visit adriasfoster.com.
Active as an opera fanatic and factotum since 2001, Robert Ainsley has explored every facet of the art form across the country, and lives to pass on his enthusiasm to others. He is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, Mannes College of Music, and the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. Since then, he has been Co-founder and Principal Conductor of the Greenwich Music Festival, a guest Chorus Master at English National Opera, Associate Music Director at Portland Opera, Head of Music Staff and Chorus Master at Minnesota Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and a faculty member at Westminster Choir College’s CoOPERAtive Program.
He is now the Director of the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and the American Opera Initiative, seeking out and grooming the finest young American singers, composers, and librettists for international careers. His artists have performed on the world’s leading stages, won the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, been finalists in Operalia, and performed with him at the 2018 White House State Dinner for the President of France. He has conducted his own realizations of seventeenth-century operas, collaborated on a string of world premieres, raved about art song in recital series of his own creation, and lectured on everything from Adams to Zemlinsky. Through it all, he has inspired hundreds of young artists and thousands of audience members to share his passion, and prides himself on the friendships he has formed along the way.
This presentation was made possible through the generosity of the
Touba Family Foundation and Ann Zagoreos.
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