Evening star., 1936-11-18

Lucio Godino, right, In bed,
1Uent to bed. Visiting them In
side her husband. The t,Uins a,
June IS, 1861. She attracted attention
as a child musical prodigy and was
still in her teens when she became a
prima donna.
Perhaps her greatest roles were In
the Wagnerian operas, climaxed by
her appearances at Bayreuth. She sang
in Berlin, then New York, finally max
ing her home in the United States in
1904.
She was married three times.
When Europe plunged into war In
1914 she endured the suffering COM
mon to the mothers of soldiers. 1t
was more poignant, however, with
Americas entrance, for then she had
sons on both sides.
She was loyal to the country Of her
adoption. touring military training
recitals for my beloved boys"
At the age of IS. her vigor unwav-
ering, she returned to the Metropoli-
tan Opera Co. in 1926, singing in
Wagner's "Das Rheingold"
In April, 1919, her first great
grandchild was born while the diva
was contemplating her debut in
vaudeville.
Offered to Sing at '9S Salary.
When the Metropolitan, like her
self, was experiencing difficulties in
the depression in 1882, she offered to
sing minor roles at her 1898 salary
rate.
AS she reached the 7Os she knew
age had taken its toll of her golden
gift of song, but she explained "the
real music" comes from the heart,
not the throat.
Besides her four children here, two
others survive. They are Walter
Schumann of Chicago, expected to
fly to Hollywood to attend the flu
neral, and Mrs Charlotte Greif of
Leipzig, Germany.
Acclaimed as probably the worlds
greatest Wagnerian contralto, Nine.
Schumann-H Heink, achieved riches as
an operate and concert prima donna
and, in the twilight of life, won huge
popular following in vaudeville, radio
and moving picture theaters as
singer of simple German 'lieder."
In the heyday of her career she was
reputed to earn $l35,000 a year from
concert work alone. while royalties on
machine records of her voice brought
in an additional $4,000. Thrifty in
vestments, mostly in Chicago and Cali
fornta real estate, were made and man
aged by her with skill that brought
steadily increasing values and she be-
came one Of the wealthiest singers of
her day.
But her own generosity to numerous
friends and relatives and the worlds
turn from high prosperity to acute
economic depression shrank her for
tune to the vanishing point. When
she was past 70 she was glad to take
engagements which paid for week
less than half what she had received
earlier for single performances.
Voice Became Compressed.
Her voice by then had become COM
pressed to little more than half its
former range and she was limited to
such numbers as Brahms Lullaby"
the traditional Christmas hymn Holy
Night" and similar songs of short
range and brief phrases. But the
artistry of the singer, plus the ma
ternal character of her personality
and undimmed stage presence, over
came the effects of obvious shortcom-
ings and she remained q drawing
card.
Also in these late years she took
few pupils, but this work was limited
more to coaching than to vocal
training.
She was q star in her own right,
backed by 20 years experience on
German operate stages when she made
her first appearance in America on
November 7, 1898, singing Ortrud
in presentation of Wagner's 'Johen-
grin" at the Auditorium Theater in
Chicago. Her impresario was Maurice
Grau of the firm Of Abbey, Schoeffel &
Grau, predecessors Of the Metropolitan
Opera Co. of New York.
Bought Up Contract.
She had just signed a 10-year con-
tract with the Berlin opera and was
on a four-year leave of absence from
the German capital, but her success
was SO great that she bought her way
out Of the home contract, paying first
10000 marks (then $2,50O) for an ex-
tension of two years in her leave and
finally $4,000 marks to cancel the Ber-
lin agreement.
In 1904 she made a concert tour Of
the United States. travelling 10000
miles. In the latter year also she ap-
peared in an American comic opera,
Loves Lottery" Her health broke in
1905 and her voice was reported ruined,
but she went back to Germany for q
"rest," accepted engagements there
and came back to the United States for
129 appearances in opera and concert
in 1906-7.
The next season she gave 113 con-
certs and then went to Europe for q
year, where she created one Of the
principal parts in Strauss new opera,