EMMY DESTINN
26.02.1878 - 28.01.1930

Emmy Destinn or Ema Pavlina Kittlová the daughter of a wealthy family was born on 26 February 1878 in Prague. Emmy had wanted to be a violinist, and indeed, gave her first solo concert at the age of eight. By the time she was fourteen she had developed an outstanding voice and decided that she would like to become an opera singer. She studied in Prague with Marie Loewe-Destinn. In gratitude for the time, effort and support her teacher had spent while training her, she changed her name to Emmy Destinn when she made her debut at Dresden in 1897 as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana.

She was considered to be an outstanding performer, dramatic soprano with a voice of great power and body, vibrant quality and flexibility. She was involved with many local and some world premie`res of major operas, also possessing a natural facility in languages speaking a faultless German, classical French, perfect Italian and excellent un-accented English.

Emmy Destinn created Silvia in d’Albert’s Der Improvisator, Diemut in Richard Strauss’s Feuersnot, Elsa in Anno by Scholz, the title role in Louise in Charpentier’s opera, Marguerite in Till Eulenspiegel by von Reznicek. She sang in Leocavallo’s Roland von Berlin as Hedwig, in Humperdinck’s Heirat wider Willen, in Woikowsaky-Biedau’s Der lang Kerl, in Strauss’s Salome, Milada in Smetana’s Dalibor, Ganymede in Offenbach’s La Belle Helene and Magdalena in Adam’s Postillion von Lonjumeau, Senta in Fliegende Holländerm, Nedda and Santuzza and Madame Butterfly. She was also Verdi and Puccini singer. She undertook Aida which some thought was her finest role. She was surrounded by artists of the front rank like Caruso, Charles Dalmores, Selma Kurz, Pauline Donalda, Clarence Whitehill and Marcel Journet.

In 1916 when America entered the Great War, she returned to Czechoslovakia to join Dinh Gilly who had been interned while singing there. She was warned that the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy might not let her leave. This proved to be the case, and due to her outspoken patriotism for Czechoslovakia she was interned in her chateau at Straz and was not able to leave until the cessation of hostilities. Dinh Gilly lived at Straz with her, where she taught him a number of songs in Czech, a couple of which they recorded together. This period had a serious effect on her financial resources, and she was forced to sell much of the fine jewelry that had been presented to her by the Royal families.

It is interesting to note that she was also well known in Czechoslovakia as an authoress of novels, essays, plays, and texts for songs for several composers. She also composed songs herself, and for the Victor Record Company recorded one of them called ‘Romance’.

In 1923 she married Joseph Halsbach, a Czech Air Force officer. In 1926 Destinn decided to give up her theatrical career, but continued to ignore repeated medical advice about her diet and blood pressure with tragic results. She suffered a massive stroke and died aged 52 on the evening of January 28, 1930.