"
Gertrude Elizabeth Mara, Germany's earliest noted queen of song, began
her public career in 1755 as a child violinist of six, traveling with
her father, Johann Schmaeling, a respectable musician of Hesse-Cassel. In
London her musical gifts proved to include a phenomenal soprano voice,
which developed a compass from G to E altissimo, unrivalled portamento
di voce, pure enunciation and precise intonation. She became skilled in
harmony, theory, sight-reading and harpsichord playing. When she sang,
her glowing countenance, her supreme acting and the lights and shades of
her voice made people forget the plainness of her features and the
insignificance of her form and stature. Her rendering of Handel's airs,
especially "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth," was pronounced faultless.
Frederick the Great, who as soon expected pleasure from the neighing of
a horse as from a German songstress, vanquished on hearing her,
retained her as court singer. While in his service she became the wife
of Jean Mara, a handsome, dissipated court violoncellist, whom she loved
devotedly, but who led her a sorry life.
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