Gertrude was born in
Kassel, the daughter of a poor musician, Johann Schmeling. From him she learnt to play the
violin, and while still a child, her playing at the fair at Frankfurt was so remarkable that money was collected to provide for her. She took singing lessons under
Pietro Domenico Paradisi. She was helped by influential friends, and studied under
Johann Adam Hiller in Leipzig for five years, alongside
Corona Schröter, proving to be endowed with a wonderful soprano voice. She began to sing in public in 1771, and was soon recognized as the greatest singer that Germany had produced. She was permanently engaged for the
Prussian court in Berlin, but her marriage to a debauched
cellist named Mara created difficulties, and in 1780 she was released. After singing in
Vienna (where she was heard twice by
Mozart), Munich and elsewhere, she appeared in Paris in 1782, where her rivalry with the singer
Luísa Todi split the public into
Todists and
Maratists. In 1784, she went to London and continued to appear there with great success, with visits at intervals to Italy and to Paris until 1802, when for some years she retired to Russia, where she lost her fortune at the time of the
French invasion. She visited England again in 1819, but then abandoned the stage. She went to
Livonia, where she became a music teacher in
Reval, and died there in 1833 in extreme poverty; she was buried at
Kopli cemetery. == References ==