Amalie Materna
also Amalie Friedrich-Materna, Amalie Materna-Friedrich, Amalia Materna
Birthplace: Sankt Georgen an der Stiefing, Austrian Empire
Amalie Materna, a schoolteacher's daughter, sang operetta at Graz and at the Carltheater in Vienna before an audition took her straight into leading roles at the Hofoper, where she debuted as a guest on 2 April 1869 as Sélika in L'Africaine and stayed twenty-five years. In 1875 she created the title role of Goldmark's Die Königin von Saba, and Venus in the house's Tannhäuser. Wagner gave her Brünnhilde in the first complete Ring at Bayreuth in 1876 and Kundry in the first Parsifal in 1882, which she sang at every festival until 1891. She made her farewell as Brünnhilde in Götterdämmerung on 30 December 1894.
Creations
- Venus — Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (Vienna, 1875)
Written from
- Wikipedia (2026) Amalie Materna. (Accessed: 27 August 2026). The German article.
- Wikipedia (2026) Amalie Materna. (Accessed: 27 August 2026). The English article.
- Forbes, E. (1992) 'Materna(-Friedrich), Amalie', in Sadie, S. (ed.) The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. London: Macmillan Reference, vol. 3, p. 264.
- Kutsch, K.J. and Riemens, L. (1987) 'Materna, Amalie', in Großes Sängerlexikon. Bern and Stuttgart: Francke, vol. 2, cols. 1890-1891.
- Pfarre St. Georgen an der Stiefing (n.d.) Taufbuch 7, 1844-1858, entry 58 of 1844. Matricula. (Accessed: 14 October 2026).
- Österreichisches Musiklexikon Online (n.d.) Materna, Familie. (Accessed: 14 October 2026).
- Neues Wiener Journal (1894) 31 December, p. 3. (Accessed: 14 October 2026).
- Wiener Staatsoper (n.d.) Amalie Friedrich-Materna. Performance archive. (Accessed: 14 October 2026).
- Neue Freie Presse (1869) 2 April, p. 10. (Accessed: 16 October 2026).
- Fremden-Blatt (1869) 3 April, p. 4. (Accessed: 16 October 2026).