Litvinne, Félia (real name, Françoise- Jeanne Schütz)
Litvinne, Félia (real name, Françoise- Jeanne Schütz)
Litvinne, Félia (real name, Françoise- Jeanne Schütz), noted Russian soprano; b. St. Petersburg, Aug. 31, I860?; d. Paris, Oct. 12, 1936. She studied in Paris with Barth-Banderoli, Viardot-García, and Maurel; made her debut there in 1882 at the Théâtre-Italien as Maria Boccanegra; then sang throughout Europe. In 1885 she made her first appearance in the U.S. with Mapleson’s company at N.Y.’s Academy of Music; after singing at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (1886-88), at the Paris Opéra (1889), and at Milan’s La Scala, in Rome, and in Venice (1890), she appeared at the imperial theaters in St. Petersburg and Moscow (from 1890). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Valentine in Les Huguenots on Nov. 25, 1896, but remained on the roster for only that season. In 1899 she first appeared at London’s Covent Garden as Isolde, and made several further appearances there until 1910. She made her farewell to the operatic stage in Vichy in 1919, but continued to give concerts until 1924. In 1927 she became prof. of voice at the American Cons. in Fontainebleau. Her pupils included Nina Koshetz and Germain Lubin. She publ. her memoirs as Ma vie et mon art (Paris, 1933). Her most outstanding roles included Gluck’s Alceste, Donna Anna, Aida, Kundry, Brünnhilde, and Selika.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire