PARA PAR@ ` ±TEXT ` πHauk, Minnie1851?╨1929opera singerBorn in New York City, probably on November 16, 1851 (some sources say 1852 or 1853), Minnie Hauk moved with her family soon afterward to Providence, Rhode Island; they subsequently moved about 1857 to Sumner, Kansas, and about 1860 to New Orleans. In New Orleans she received her first musical training, and she had already sung in public when in 1862 she and her mother returned to New York. There she came under the patronage of financier Leonard Jerome (father of Jennie Jerome Churchill), who sponsored her further vocal training under Achille Errani. She made her operatic debut in La Sonnambula at Jerome╒s private theater and a few weeks later, on October 13, 1866, made her public debut in the same opera at the Brooklyn Academy of Music under the name ╥Amalia M. Hauck.╙ (Later she resumed her own name.) In November she appeared with Clara Louise Kellogg in L╒Etoile du Nord at the Winter Garden. During 1867 she sang in Don Giovanni and Faust, and in December 1867, at the age of sixteen, she sang Juliette in the American premiere of Gounod╒s RomÄo et Juliette at the Academy of Music. Other roles and appearances in other cities followed. In 1868, with a loan from music publisher Gustav Schirmer, she traveled to Europe. Hauk studied for a time under Maurice Strakosch and in the spring of 1869 made her Paris debut in his company in La Sonnambula. In October 1869 she appeared in the same opera in London. After appearances in Holland, St. Petersburg, and Moscow, she made her Vienna debut in May 1870 in Faust at the Imperial Opera House. She was a leading singer at the Imperial until 1874, when she joined the new Komische Oper (later the Ring Theater) as its prima donna assoluta for the first season. Late in 1874 she joined the Berlin Royal Opera, where she remained for three years. During these years she was especially popular in Le Roi l╒a dit, La Part du Diable, and Taming of the Shrew. In May 1978 she made her long desired appearance in Carmen in Brussels, a role she repeated to great acclaim in the opera╒s British premiere at Her Majesty╒s Theatre, London, in June of that year. With the same company, under Colonel James H. Mapleson╒s management, she sang Carmen in the opera╒s American premiere at the Academy of Music in New York in October 1878. Through the 1880s Hauk continued to sing regularly in England and Europe, with occasional tours of the United States; during such a tour in 1883╨1884 she sang for President Chester A. Arthur at the White House. In December 1885 she sang the title role in the American premiere of Manon at the Academy of Music in New York. Her last New York appearance was in Carmen in April 1891. In September 1891, with her own company, she sang the first Chicago performance of Cavalleria Rusticana. Her final American performance was in L╒Africaine in Philadelphia in November 1893, and her last in England was in Cavalleria Rusticana in February 1895. A short time later she retired from the stage. Although hers was perhaps not the greatest voice of the day, her magnetic quality as a singing actress made a permanent impression on the staging of opera. From her retirement until World War I she lived at her Villa Triebschen near Lucerne, Switzerland, with her husband (from 1881), Baron Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg. The war and her husband╒s death shortly afterward left her in poverty, and she was supported thereafter by funds raised by Geraldine Farrar and others. She died at Villa Triebschen on February 6, 1929. ╬styl ` 0 ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ & !I ⁿ !I ▐ !I u !I é !I x !I ▐ î !I É !I á !I ╨ !I ▄ !I ß !I µ !I L !I ] !I 5¬ !I u !I ä !I # !I ( !I ┬ !I ╓ !I t !I é !I ä !I ò !I ¢ !I « !I σ !I δ !I $ 5¬ % !I
> !I
C !I
Ä !I
ö !I
° !I !I 5 !I @ !I é !I û !I ô !I ▐ ú !I >link ` HYPR ⁿ HYPR x îHYPR ô ú
