Forgotten Opera Singers

Forgotten Opera Singers

Aug 19, 2014

Marian Alma (Tenor) (Zaleszyki, Poland 1860 - Berlin 1945?)



First he studied at the Lviv Polytechnic, then singing under Walery Wysocki in Lviv and made his debut there in 1878 as Lorenzo in ‘’Fra Diavolo’’ of D. Auber. He remained in this Opera House till 1884. Then he appeared in the 1884-85 season at the Opera House in Olmütz (under surname Manoli, which he filed later again), in the 1885-86 season at the Vienna Court Opera, from 1886-88 at the Municipal Theatre of Mainz, in the 1888-90 seasons at the Berlin Court Opera, from 1890-93 at the Opera House of Dusseldorf, in the 1893-94 season at the Opera House of Wroclaw, in the 1894-95 season at the Municipal Theatre of Magdeburg, in the end, in 1895-1914 again at the Berlin Court Opera. Since 1900 he appeared there primarily as Comprimario. He made guest appearances at the Opera Houses of Warsaw (1895), Cracow (1895) and Prague. In 1887 he sang at the Berlin Krolloper, also at the Court Theatre in Schwerin and in 1902 at Opera House of Leipzig. In 1904 he appeared at the Berlin Court Opera in the premiere of R. Leoncavallo’s opera ‘’Der Roland von Berlin’’, in 1911 in the Berlin première of ‘’Rosenkavaliers’’. Till 1914 he continued his career at the Berlin Court Opera. Then he was a singing teacher in the German capital, lived later in miserable relations. Probably died during the World War II in Berlin. His daughter Helene Alma was also active as a singer; she appeared about 1910 in Berlin, later in the USA.

 Chronology of some appearances

1878-1884 Lviv Opera House
1884-1885 Olmütz Opera House
1885-1886 Vienna Court Opera
1886-1888 Mainz Municipal Theatre
1888-1890 Berlin Court Opera
1890-1893 Dusseldorf Opera House
1893-1894 Wroclaw Opera House
1894-1895 Magdeburg Municipal Theatre
1895-1914 Berlin Court Opera

2 comments:

  1. I know that he also appeared at the Kroll Opera, Berlin, in 1890. Among his roles there was Max in "Der Freischütz," which he sang a couple of times in April and May, with the 20-year-old Johanna Gadski as his Agathe.

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  2. Going through my early Edison Cylinder Records, I found one entitled "Ich Weiss ein Herz fur das ich bete", supposedly sung by "Hans Hofmann. but when I looked up that recording, I found that it was actually recorded by Marian Alma (using the name of Hofmann), the recording was from 1901. I am assuming that this is only recording he ever made, as I can find no evidence that he made any others.

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