lden, with an
extra honorarium of five gulden for each performance.

While appearing nightly in the light works of the French and German
composers of the time, Fraulein Materna studied diligently during the
day at the more exacting roles of heavy opera with Professor Proch, and
in 1868 sang, in the presence of Hoffkapellmeister Esser, Donna Elvira's
grand air from "Don Giovanni."

Esser was delighted with her, and insisted that Hofrath Dingelstedt
should give the young singer a hearing, and the result was that she was
engaged for the Imperial Opera House.

Shortly after her engagement at the theatre in Gratz she married an
actor named Friedrich, who was engaged with her when she went to the
Karl Theatre, Vienna.

In 1869 she made her debut at the Imperial Opera House in the role of
Selika, in the "Africaine," in which part she was able to demonstrate
her capabilities, for she won a signal success, and was at once placed
in a high position among opera singers of the German school.

Still higher honors were in store for her. In 1876, twenty-eight years
after its first conception, "Der Ring des Nibelungen" of Wagner was
performed entire at Bayreuth, on which occasion the part of Brunhilde
was entrusted to Frau Materna. The really magnificent impersonation
which she gave earned for her a world-wide reputation. It was a part for
which she was exceptionally well qualified, and in which she never had
an equal. It is stated that Wagner, hearing Materna sing at Vienna while
she was at the Imperial Opera House, and while the production of the
Nibelungen Trilogy was uppermost in his mind, exclaimed: "Now I have
found my Brunhilde. I take her with thanks. I am glad to have found her
in Vienna."

During the Wagner festival, which was held in London in 1877, Materna
confirmed the high reputation which she had gained in Germany, and when
"Parsifal" was produced in 1882 at Bayreuth, Materna created the part of
Kundry.

In 1882 she visited the United States, singing in New York, Cincinnati,
and Chicago, and again in 1884 she crossed the Atlantic and sang in the
Wagner festival of that year with Scaria and Winkelmann, all of whom
made good impressions and helped to pave the way for the production of
the operas entire.

Frau Materna retired from the stage in 1897, on which occasion she sang
in a concert given in the hall of the Musical Union in Vienna. A
remarkable gathering of musicians and celebrities was there. Materna's
fir