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Marie Engle

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Marie Engle, by Aimé Dupont, 1895

Marie Engle (c. 1860 – 1953) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who performed in the United States and Europe in the late 19th century. She retired twice during her career, once at the behest of her then husband in the late 1880s. She returned to the opera in the spring of 1895, notably performing several years later at the Teatro Real just weeks before the outbreak of the Spanish–American War.

She retired again in the late 1890s to take care of her sick father in Michigan. Critics praised her stage presence and technical expertise as a vocalist. Selections of her work were recorded by Gianni Bettini as part of the first phonograph cylinders of opera singers offered for sale in a catalog, the originals of which were destroyed in World War II. After her father's death, she left the United States for England.

Early life

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Marie Engle was born around 1860 in Chicago, Illinois.[a][6] She was raised in Chicago, along with one brother, Charles.[7] Her father, Christian Engle, came to the United States and settled in Michigan. His father was from Prussia and Christian's mother was the French prima donna Marie Stoll. Christian later married Augusta Merrill, a singer who was part Irish and part English. Augusta, Marie's mother, died when Marie was young, but before she passed away she asked her daughter to sing for her.[8]

Marie's father, who became a successful brewer in St. Louis,[9] later served as a private secretary for Albert Allison Munger, the heir to the Wesley Munger grain elevator company. He also helped plan Marie's musical education.[10] She studied under Anna Frederika Magnusson Jewett[11] and Adelina Murio-Celli d'Elpeux.[12] At the age of 14, she appeared at the Academy of Music in New York. For most of her career prior to her marriage, Marie's father accompanied her on tour.[8]

Career

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James Henry Mapleson heard her perform at the Academy and took her under his management. She debuted in San Francisco in 1886[1] as Zerlina in Don Giovanni. The following year, she appeared in the opera season at Drury Lane under the management of Augustus Harris, where she performed as the queen in Les Huguenots, Adalgisa in Norma, and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro.[12]

She debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1895, appearing as Micaëla in Carmen and Baucis in Philémon et Baucis.[13] Under director Maurice Grau, Engle performed in three grand opera productions in the winter of 1898 in Chicago's Auditorium Theatre: once again as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, in the leading role of Lady Harriet Durham in an Italian version of Martha, and again as the queen in Les Huguenots.[14]

Three years later, she made a notable appearance at the Teatro Real that was widely covered by newspapers of the time. Just several months after the sinking of the Maine and only weeks before the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, she appeared as Ophelia in a production of Hamlet before a critical and skeptical Spanish audience. Owing to the political situation, the crowd gave her a chilly reception at first, with no reaction in the opening act, only silence. By the second act, shouts of "Americana" began, followed by hissing, which continued until the final act, when she eventually won the audience over with cheers and approval.[15]

In the late 1890s, the problem of acoustic cylinder duplication was solved using the pantograph, allowing phonograph cylinders to be copied and sold. Many of the first opera singers to have their music commercially available were recorded by Gianni Bettini at his Fifth Avenue studio, including Engle. Bettini offered these recordings for wider purchase through his catalog, making Engle's voice among the earliest to be recorded, duplicated, and sold to home listeners.[16] She was listed as artist No. 21 in the 1897 and 1898 Bettini catalog, which offered a recording of her singing the "Polonaise" ("Je suis Titania") from Mignon, an 1866 opera by Ambroise Thomas, priced at $3.50 ($132.29 in 2024).[17] The original wax cylinders were stored in a warehouse in France that was destroyed by an air raid in World War II.[16]

Personal life

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Marie Engle by Elliott & Fry, 1890

Engle married her manager, Gustav Amburg, then the manager of the Bowery Theatre, in 1889.[1] During their marriage, she was frequently occupied with preparing for performances or touring.[12] Engle's relationship with her husband was difficult,[1] as he was abusive toward her.[18] She temporarily acceded to his wishes for her to retire and she left the opera for several years.[12]

Around this time Engle began caring for a white Angora cat named Mizzi. The cat was later immortalized by artist Nelson N. Bickford in the painting Kitty's Birthday, which was popularized by journalist Helen M. Winslow in her book, Concerning Cats (1900),[19] and later remarked upon by writer Carl Van Vechten.[20]

After discovering her husband had a second wife in Germany, Engle divorced Amburg in 1896.[1] She spoke about her work in several interviews, noting that it was a difficult career. "We cannot all win, to be sure", she told one reporter, "and the few who attain success well deserve it."[13] She gave up her opera career to care for her sick father in Michigan, who died in 1899.[10] She was later said to have devoted herself to Catholicism.[21] In 1912, The New York Times reported that Engle was living in Brighton.[7] She died at the age of 92 in 1953, in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, England.[22]

Reception

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According to music critic William Armstrong, Engle was once regarded as one of the most beautiful opera singers of her time and was also technically proficient.[21] During her career, critical reviews noted that her voice was not known for its projection or its timbral richness, but rather for its clean tone, precise intonation, and effortless agility, and for her unique approach to the lyric coloratura, in particular her ability to execute trills.[6] Another reviewer wrote that Engle was "gifted with considerable personal attraction, a beautiful mezzo-soprano organ, and a singularly correct ear."[12]

Notes

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  1. ^ Contemporary news articles and biographies of Engle report she was a "native of Chicago"[1] or "born and raised" in Chicago[2] or "born in Chicago".[3] In the 1870 census, she was recorded as born in Illinois[4] and her 1889 marriage record similarly reports a birth in Chicago, Illinois.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Lahee, Henry Charles (1898). Famous Singers of To-Day and Yesterday. Boston: L.C. Page. pp. 251–252. ISBN 9780893414382. OCLC 560428.
  2. ^ "A New Chicago Prima Donna". The Inter Ocean. 11 April 1886. p. 13. Retrieved 15 January 2026.
  3. ^ "Mlle. Marie Engle". The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly. Vol. XI. George Newnes. 1896. p. 648. Retrieved 15 January 2026.
  4. ^ "1870 United States Federal Census, Marie Engel", United States census, 1870; Chicago, Cook County, Illinois; page 78,, enumeration district Chicago Ward 17. Retrieved on 15 January 2026.
  5. ^ "Marriage of Marie Engle and Gustav Amberg, 9 May 1889". New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938. FamilySearch. Retrieved 15 January 2026.
  6. ^ a b Slonimsky, Nicolas; Thompson, Oscar; Harris, George Wesley (1946). "ENGLE, Marie". The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians. 4th Ed. Rev. Vol. 1. Dodd, Mead & Co. p. 504. OCLC 1471621.
  7. ^ a b "Obituary notes". The New York Times. May 3, 1912. p. 11.
  8. ^ a b "Theatrical topics". Evening Messenger. April 3, 1899. p. 2.
  9. ^ Freund, John Christian, ed. (December 9, 1916). "Mephisto's Musings". Musical America. 25 (6): 7–8.
  10. ^ a b "Marie Engle's Father Dead". The New York Times. October 28, 1899 [October 27]. p. 6.
  11. ^ Olson, Ernst Wilhelm (1917). The Swedish Element in Illinois. Chicago : Swedish-American Biographical Association. OCLC 867735447. Free access icon
  12. ^ a b c d e "The Stars of the Opera". The Philadelphia Times. March 1, 1896. p. 17.
  13. ^ a b "Song Bird from Chicago". The Chicago Chronicle. November 24, 1895. p. 3.
  14. ^ "Music". Chicago Tribune. November 20, 1898. p. 54.
  15. ^ "She Wins the Dons". The Sunday Inter Ocean. Vol. 27, no. 10. April 8, 1898. p. 25.
  16. ^ a b Gelatt, Roland (1977). The Fabulous Phonograph, 1877–1977. 2d Ed. Macmillan. p. 78-80. ISBN 9780025429604. OCLC 2644666.
  17. ^ Favia-Artsay, Aida (October 1955). "Famous Singers on LP". Hobbies. 60 (8): 24-27.
  18. ^ McPherson, Jim (2003). "Italo Campanini: One of a Kind". The Opera Quarterly. 19 (2). Oxford University Press: 253–254.
  19. ^ Winslow, Helen M. (1900). Concerning Cats. Boston: Lothrop Publishing Company. pp. 181-182. OCLC 1148589762.
  20. ^ Van Vechten, Carl (1920). "The Cat in Music". The Musical Quarterly. 6 (4). Oxford University Press: 573–585. Open access icon
  21. ^ a b Armstrong, William (1922). The Romantic World of Music. E.P. Dutton & Company. p. 101. OCLC 857341.
  22. ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 for Marie Agnes Engle.