Role portrait photograph with autograph signature of the American soprano
252 x 202 mm. Half-length. Inscribed "To John Honig With every good wish Sincerely Dorothy Kirsten."
From the collection of the distinguished American mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (b. 1934); previously in the collection of John Honig.
Kirsten "made her début at the New York City Opera, as Violetta, in 1944, and at the Metropolitan, as Mimì, the following year; she sang at the Metropolitan intermittently for 30 years, making her farewell as Tosca in 1975. Her roles in the house included Violetta, Louise (which she had studied with Charpentier), Marguerite, Gounod's Juliet, Manon Lescaut (her favourite part), Minnie and Fiora (L'amore dei tre re). She also appeared regularly at the San Francisco Opera, where she undertook Cressida in the American première of Walton's opera in 1955 and sang Blanche in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. She also appeared in the film The Great Caruso (1951). Kirsten recorded extracts from several of her roles (most notably her feisty Minnie), which reveal her gleaming, if not particularly beguiling, lirico spinto soprano and her unfailingly secure technique." Max de Schauensee in Grove Music Online.
The Honig family emigrated from Vienna to England in September of 1938 and then to the United States in 1939. The family papers are held at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
"Horne had a voice of extraordinary range, rich and tangy in timbre, with a stentorian chest register and an exciting top... In concert she once achieved the feat of singing in a single programme Rossini arias and Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene, proof of her exceptional versatility. Throughout her lengthy career she was an admired recitalist, singing lieder, mélodies, and Spanish and American songs with equal aplomb." Alan Blyth in Grove Music Online.
Item #31850
Price: $35.00 other currencies