Pauline Lucca

http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2009030689/ I.S. 12/27/2017

Lucca, Pauline

(b Vienna, 25 April 1841; d Vienna, 28 Feb 1908). Austrian soprano. She studied with Uffmann and Richard Levy, becoming a chorus member at the Vienna Hofoper, where she sang the Second Boy in Die Zauberflöte. Engaged at Olomouc she made her début there on 4 September 1859 as Elvira in Ernani, and the following year sang in Prague, as Valentine in Les Huguenots and as Norma. On the recommendation of Meyerbeer she was engaged at the Königliches Opernhaus, Berlin, from 1861. She made her London début at Covent Garden as Valentine in 1863 and returned in 1864 to sing Marguerite in Gounod's Faust. She took the part of Selika at the first London and Berlin performances of Meyerbeer's L'africaine in 1865, and during the 1866 Covent Garden season sang Léonor in Donizetti's La favorite, Zerlina in Auber's Fra Diavolo and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. She sang Elisabeth de Valois in the first London performance of Don Carlos at Covent Garden in June 1867. In 1868 and 1869 she went to Russia, but returned to London in 1870; her roles in the early 1870s included Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. In 1872 she broke her contract in Berlin and went to sing at the Academy of Music in New York. On her return to Europe in 1874 she was engaged at the Vienna Hofoper, where she remained until her retirement in 1889. In 1882 she returned to Covent Garden, where she sang Carmen and Leonora in Il trovatore. Her voice ranged two and a half octaves from g to c? and she was especially admired in such dramatic roles as Selika, Marguerite and Carmen.

Bibliography

A. Ehrlich [A. Payne], ed.: Berühmte Sängerinnen der Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Leipzig, 1895)

J. Kapp: Geschichte der Staatsoper Berlin (Berlin, 1937)

H. Rosenthal: Two Centuries of Opera at Covent Garden (London, 1958)

H. Kralik: Die Wiener Oper (Vienna, 1962, Eng. trans., 1963)

Elizabeth Forbes

Oxford Music online