Mimi Coertse

Coertse, born in Durban on 12 June 1932, matriculated at the Helpmekaar Girls High School in Johannesburg. Her first vocal coach in Johannesburg was Aimee Parkerson. Her debut performance in South Africa was singing Handel's Messiah at the Johannesburg City Hall on 11 December 1951. In July 1953 she married broadcaster and composer Dawid Engela. She left South Africa in September 1953 for London, and then went via The Hague to Vienna. In January 1954 she started training with Maria Hittorff and Josef Witt. ==Opera career==

Coertse made her debut in January 1955 as the "first flowermaiden" in Wagner's Parsifal at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, with Karl Böhm conducting. On 17 March 1956 she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte by Mozart and remained with the Vienna State Opera until 1978. In 1958, Coertse and Fritz Wunderlich again worked together at the Aix-en-Provence festival in Die Zauberflöte. In 1966, Coertse was honoured by the President of Austria with the title Österreichische Kammersängerin, for her ten years of work as a permanent member at the Vienna State Opera. • The Magic Flute (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) – Queen of the night • Il Seraglio (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) – Constance • Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss) – Najade, later Zerbinetta • Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi) – Gilda • The Tales of Hoffmann (Jacques Offenbach) – Olympia, Antonia, Giulietta, Stella • Palestrina (Hans Pfitzner) – the Angel • Carmen (Georges Bizet) – Frasquita • Martha (Friedrich von Flotow) – Martha • Mignon (Ambroise Thomas) – Philine • La traviata (Giuseppe Verdi) – Violetta • I Pagliacci (Ruggiero Leoncavallo) – Nedda • Arabella (Richard Strauss) – Fiaker-Milli • Bastien und Bastienne (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) – Bastienne • The Merry Widow (Franz Lehár) – Hanna Glawari • Lucia di Lammermoor (Gaetano Donizetti) – Lucia • Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss II) – Rosalinde • ''L'heure espagnole'' (Maurice Ravel) – Concepcion, staging Otto Schenk • Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) – Donna Elvira • La bohème (Giacomo Puccini) – Musetta • Norma (Vincenzo Bellini) – Norma • Così fan tutte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) – Fiordiligi • Falstaff (Giuseppe Verdi) – Mrs. Alice Ford • Turandot (Giacomo Puccini) – Liu, a young slave • Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) – Donna Anna • Die schweigsame Frau (Richard Strauss) – Aminta, Timida 1968 Premiere Vienna State Opera, staging Hans Hotter • Die ägyptische Helena (Richard Strauss) – Aithra • Daphne (Richard Strauss) – Daphne • Don Carlos (Giuseppe Verdi) – Elisabeth von Valois ==Later years==

After returning to South Africa in 1973, she was a regular guest on South African stages and also a frequent broadcaster on radio and television. She returned to the Vienna State Opera for a single farewell performance as Elisabetta in Don Carlo on 14 December 1978. In later years, she devoted her time to exposing young South African singers to the neglected art of Lieder singing, which is comparable to opera in terms of technical and interpretive demands. Her support for her fellow South African musicians was significant, including the Mimi Coertse Bursary. In 1996, Austria's Federal Ministry for Science and Art awarded her the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (Austrian Honour, first class), the highest honour an artist can receive in that country. == Personal life and death ==

Coertse was married three times. Her first marriage, to South African composer Dawid Engela in 1953, ended in divorce in 1957. ==Honours and awards==

• 1966: Title of Kammersängerin • 1998: Honorary Doctor of Philosophy (h.c.) from the University of Pretoria, South Africa • 2002: Golden "Rathausmann" • In 2008: Mimi Coertse Museum van Afrikaans opened at HAP – Huis van Afrikaanse Poësie in Capital Park, Pretoria. ==References==

• Helmuth Furch, "Die Wiener Jahre von Kammersängerin Mimi Coertse", ("The Viennese Years of Kammersängerin Mimi Coertse"), Bulletin of Museums- und Kulturverein Kaisersteinbruch No. 41, 20–56, March 1996: also "Mimi Coertse, die hochgeschätzte Konzert- und Liedsängerin" ("A Reverence for a Great Concert- and Lieder-singer"), Bulletin of Museums- und Kulturverein Kaisersteinbruch No. 52, 33–54, December 1998. • Helmuth Furch, Eva Hilda Smolik and Elfriede Werthan, Kammersängerin Mimi Coertse, eine Wienerin aus Südafrika (Kammersängerin Mimi Coertse, a Viennese Woman from South Africa; with a preface by Marcel Prawy), Vienna, 2002. ==Further reading==