Melitta Muszely

Muszely's family originally came from Hungary. She was born in Vienna, and studied at the Konservatorium der Stadt Wien: piano with Roland Rautenstrauch, and voice with Maria Freiberg-Marx.[1]

In 1950, she made her debut at the Stadttheater Regensburg. In 1952, she moved to the Opernhaus Kiel, and from 1954 to 1968 she was a member of the Hamburg State Opera.[1] There she took part in several opera premieres, including Ernst Krenek's Pallas Athene weint[2] (1955) and Klebe's Figaro läßt sich scheiden (1963).[3]

Muszely had several guest contracts, among others with the Berlin State Opera and the Komische Oper Berlin.[1] In 1958, she portrayed four female characters (Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta, Stella) in Offenbach's Hoffmanns Erzählungen at the Komische Oper Berlin in the legendary production by Walter Felsenstein.[4][5] In the opera, the poet tells three stories of frustrated love while waiting for Stella. In 1970, she again played the four figures in Felsenstein's DEFA film version of the opera.[6]

• Muszely in Hoffmanns Erzählungen, 1958
• 
  Olympia, with Hanns Nocker as Hoffmann
• 
  Antonia, with Rudolf Asmus as Miracle
• 
  Giulietta, with Nocker

Muszely appeared at the Vienna State Opera from 1963 to 1967,[1] in the Mozart roles Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. She also appeared there as Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio, as Marie in Smetana's Die verkaufte Braut, in the title role Violetta Valéry in Verdi's La Traviata, and as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss.[7] International guest performances have taken Muszely to the Zurich Opera House and opera stages of Paris, Venice and Lisbon and to the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals.[5]

Muszely was also a lieder and concert singer, and a voice teacher. She appeared in recitals until 2008.[1][5]

Muszely became known mainly as a coloratura soprano but also performed lyric soprano repertoire. She was regarded as a specialist for Mozart roles, but also for characters by Richard Strauss, such as Sophie and the title role of Arabella. She also performed in rarely performed operas, such as the title role in Busoni's Turandot.[8]

Muszely's musical work, which has been transmitted through radio recordings, live recordings and records, has been partially re-released on CD in recent years. Muszely also recorded numerous operettes for radio, often as a partner of Fritz Wunderlich: Lehár's Der Zarewitsch and The Land of Smiles, Leo Fall's Die Rose von Stambul.[9][10]

• Carl Maria von Weber: Der Freischütz (excerpts), with Melitta Muszely, Horst Günter, Sándor Kónya, Arnold van Mill, James Pease, Ernst Wiemann, conductor: Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, NDR Symphonieorchester (1957)[11]
• Bedřich Smetana: Die verkaufte Braut, excerpt with Barry McDaniel, Cvetka Ahlin, Melitta Muszely, Martti Talvela, Ruth Hesse, Rudolf Schock, Kurt Böhme; choir and orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, conductor: Heinrich Hollreiser, LP, Album, Electrola[12]
• Georges Bizet: Carmen, with Christa Ludwig, Rudolf Schock, Hermann Prey, Melitta Muszely, Iwan Rebroff, conductor: Horst Stein, Berliner Symphoniker, CD, EMI[13]
• Richard Strauss: Arabella, with Muszely in the title role, Liselotte Hammes (Zdenka), Hugh Beresford (Mandryka), Willi Brokmeier (Matteo) and others, conducted by Meinhard von Zallinger (1966, live from La Fenice)[6]

• Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Großes Sängerlexikon. Third, extended edition, K. G. Saur, Munich 1999. Volume 4: Moffo-Seidel, p. 2472.

• Literature by and about Melitta Muszely in the German National Library catalogue
• Melitta Muszely on IMDb
• Melitta Muszely discography at Discogs