Mabel Riegelman

Mabel Riegelman (1888 – December 1967) was a popular American operatic soprano.[1]

Mabel Riegelman
Mabel Riegelman in costume as Gretel, 1913.
Born1888 (1888)
Cincinnati, Ohio
Died1967(1967-00-00) (aged 78–79)
Burlingame, California
NationalityAmerican
OccupationOpera singer

Early life

Riegelman was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Meyer Riegelmann and Rachel Isaacs Riegelmann. Her father was born in Ohio, and her mother was born in Australia. The family moved to California when she was a child. Riegelman was "discovered" in San Francisco by Johanna Gadski, opera diva from Stettin.[2] Gadski and the two Riegelman sisters (Mabel, the singer, and her younger sister Ruby, the pianist) traveled to Stettin under Gadski's tutelage. [3][4]

Career
Mabel Riegelman on June 23, 1917 at the Lewisohn Stadium of the College of the City of New York

Riegelman made her American operatic debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, singing Gretel in Englebert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, which became her signature role.[5][6] Riegelman soon became a prima donna soprano.[7] She was connected with the Chicago Grand Opera Company[8] and Boston Opera Company. In Europe, she performed with the Stettin Grand Opera and the Plauen Grand Opera Co.[3]

Other parts Riegelman sang included Urbain in Les Huguenots (1910), Barbarina in Le Nozze de Figaro (1911), Rose in Lakme (1911), Siebel in Faust (1911), Noemie in Cendrillon (1911, 1912), Concetta and Stella in Jewels of the Madonna (1912), Crobyle and Myrtale in Thaïs (1912), Little Yniold in Pelleas et Melisande (1912), Musette in La bohème (1913), and the title role in Mignon (1913).[9][10] In 1926 she made a recording, Songs My Mother Taught Me.[11]

Riegelman promoted municipal opera houses across the United States: "We should do as well by our opera houses as we do by the movies," she told an Oakland newspaper in 1918. "There should be a municipally endowed opera house in every city, and if that were the case there would be more opera given outside of New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia."[12] She also taught voice; one of her students in San Francisco was Dorothy Warenskjold.[13]

Riegelman gave benefit concerts to support war relief during World War I.[14] Her brother Carl Robert Riegelman was injured in a 1919 train accident in France, while serving in the United States Navy.[15]

Personal life

Riegelman married lawyer Marcus Lorne Samuels in 1913.[16][17] They had one son, Lorne R. Samuels. They lived at 485 California St., San Francisco, California. [3] She was burned and injured by an electrical shock when a lamp in her home malfunctioned in 1928.[18] In 1932, her professionally loud screams helped thwart a burglary at their home.[19] She died in December 1967, in her late seventies, in Burlingame, California.[20]

References
  1. "A California Girl who Climbs Rapidly to Front Rank of Singers. Mabel Riegelman a Singer of Many Parts". Opera News.
  2. Hamlin, Kathleen Robertson (November 1905). "Plays and the Players; Gadski Favors a Young Californian". Sunset. 16: 101–103.
  3. Binheim, Max; Elvin, Charles A (1928). Women of the West; a series of biographical sketches of living eminent women in the eleven western states of the United States of America. p. 77. Retrieved 8 August 2017. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. "Johanna Gadski (1870-1932)". Mahler Foundation. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  5. "Mary Garden and Mabel Riegelman Charm Audiences". The San Francisco Examiner. 1913-03-14. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-05-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Gadski's Protegee Will Sing Tonight". The San Francisco Call. 1912-05-09. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-05-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Young American Artist is Coming to Broadway". The Butte Miner. 1916-04-04. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-05-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Two Young Girls are Popular Stars in Opera Company". The St. Louis Star and Times. 1912-02-04. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-05-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Hines, Dixie; Hanaford, Harry Prescott (1914). Who's Who in Music and Drama. H.P. Hanaford.
  10. "Opera Star Soon Coming Home; Triumph for Mabel Riegelman". The San Francisco Examiner. 1913-01-27. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-05-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Dvořák, Antonín (1926). Songs my mother taught me. Camden, N.J.: Victor Special Record.
  12. "Mabel Riegelman". Oakland Tribune. 1918-05-19. p. 28. Retrieved 2020-05-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Villamil, Victoria Etnier (2004). From Johnson's Kids to Lemonade Opera: The American Classical Singer Comes of Age. UPNE. p. 285. ISBN 978-1-55553-635-0.
  14. "Mabel Riegelman's Family in War Service". Pacific Coast Musical Review. 34: 3. June 15, 1918.
  15. "Injury to Mabel Riegelman's Brother". The Music News. 11: 44. May 9, 1919.
  16. "Mabel Riegelman to Marry; Singer Will Wed Attorney". The San Francisco Examiner. 1913-03-01. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-05-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Who's who in Law. 1937. p. 820.
  18. "Lamp Burns Noted Grand Opera Singer". Oakland Tribune. 1928-11-29. p. 13. Retrieved 2020-05-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Sounds A". Oakland Tribune. December 5, 1932. p. 8. Retrieved May 12, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  20. Hudson, Dale L. (1969). "Index to Music Necrology". Notes. 25 (4): 700–704. ISSN 0027-4380.
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