Herta Talmar
Herta Talmar (4 July 1920 – 24 June 2010) was an Austrian operetta singer (soprano) as well as an actress. Life. Born in Salzburg, Talmar first stood on a theatre stage at the age of eleven; in the operetta "Die Kaiserin" by Leo Fall at the Salzburger Landestheater. She received her singing training at the Salzburg Mozarteum. In 1952 she appeared at the Landestheater Salzburg as a guest in the operetta "Ballnacht in Florenz" by Edwin Burmester (music based on motives by Johann Strauss II); after that she was engaged there permanently. From 1952 to 1957 Talmar was then  a member of the ensemble at the Salzburg Landestheater. There she appeared in numerous operetta productions, among others in "" (1953), "Abschiedswalzer" by Ludwig Schmidseder. (1953, with Hubert Marischka as partner), "Marietta" by Walter Kollo (1953), "Her Last Waltz" by Oscar Straus (1954) and in August 1956 with Johannes Heesters in Franz Lehár's operetta "The Merry Widow". From 1957 Talmar worked as a freelancer, gave guest performances and sang mainly for radio. Her repertoire mainly consisted of operetta, but also musicals, folk songs, popular Viennese songs and schlagers. Talmar became known especially for her numerous operetta cross sections, which were  created in the 1950s and 1960s and published exclusively on Polydor records. Almost the entire popular operetta repertoire was recorded, including "Wiener Blut", "Der Bettelstudent", "Gasparone", "Der Vogelhändler", "The Merry Widow", "The Count of Luxembourg", "Der Zarewitsch", "The Land of Smiles", "Paganini", "Die Csárdásfürstin", "Countess Mariza", "The Circus Princess", "The Dollar Princess", "A Waltz Dream", "The Cousin from Nowhere", "Schwarzwaldmädel", "Im weißen Rößl", "", "Viktoria und ihr Husar" and "The Flower of Hawaii". In these recordings Talmar always sang the soprano part under the musical direction of the operetta conductor Franz Marszalek, with changing tenor partners such as Sándor Kónya , Fritz Wunderlich, Franz Fehringer and Reinhold Bartel; further performers were often Peter Alexander, , and Renate Holm. In addition, Polydor produced a series of so-called "composer pictures" in the 1950s. Here Herta Talmar often formed a singing couple with Herbert Ernst Groh. With the orchestra Kurt Edelhagen a cross-section of the musical "My Fair Lady" was also produced, in which Talmar, however, only sang lady "Eliza", while the flower girl "Eliza" was sung by the cabaret artist and monologist Talmar made numerous complete recordings of operettas and musical comedies on radio in the 1950s and 1960s, mostly on Westdeutscher  Rundfunk with Franz Marszalek. Under the musical direction of Marszalek, complete operetta recordings such as "Der fidele Bauer" (1954), "Die Försterchristl" (1955) were made, "A Waltz Dream" (1954), "Adrienne" (1956), "Gasparone" (1956) and "" by (1959). Because of her pleasant speaking voice and her acting talent Talmar always took over the speaking role of the respective part; often in comparable productions for singers and actors separate interpreters were engaged. In addition, countless single titles from operettas were recorded. Among them there are many rarities. Talmar's radio recordings at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk, as far as they have survived, have been released  extensively in recent years on CDs, in some cases on several labels (Line Music, Membran, Hamburger Archiv für Gesangskunst). In 1958 a recording of Lehár's "Die Lustige Witwe" was made with Talmar at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk with Fred Liewehr as "Danilo". In February 1955 a radio recording of the musical comedy "Das kleine Café" by Robert Stolz was made at the Bayerischer Rundfunk, in which Talmar sang alongside Christl Mardayn and Peter Alexander. In July 1955 followed also at the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich, a musical potpourri with Talmar with music from the film ""; under the musical direction of  Robert Stolz, the tenors Herbert Ernst Groh and Ferry Gruber. At the end of 1955 a recording of the operetta "Venus im Grünen" by Oscar Straus was made in Vienna at the Österreichischer Rundfunk, in which Waldemar Kmentt was Talmar's tenor partner. In the 1960s Talmar took part in several operetta adaptations ("The Empress", "The Cousin from Dingda", "The Beggar Student", "Gasparone", "Paganini", "A Night in Venice") which were made for television. She lent her singing voice to actresses Gerlinde Locker, Birgit Bergen and Gardy Granass. After ending her singing career in the mid-1960s, Talmar appeared as an  actress, among others at the Münchner Volkstheater in 1968. Talmar last lived in Salzburg, where she died in June 2010 shortly before her 90th birthday.