Born Maria Mokrzycka in
Lviv (now Ukraine), she studied at the
conservatory of Lviv under . She made her debut at the
Lviv Opera in 1905. In 1908, she first performed at the
Warsaw Opera in
Franz Doppler's
Wanda. At the time, the Italian
baritone Mattia Battistini sang there as a guest and inspired her to pursue a career in Italy. They moved there in 1909, appeared together and made recordings in 1912. In 1913, she appeared as Elisabeth in Wagner's
Lohengrin at the Opera in Bologna and the
Teatro Real in Madrid and as Nedda in Leoncavallo's
Pagliacci at the Valencia Opera. She took part in a U.S. tour of the Western Metropolitan Opera Company the same year, appearing for example at the
San Francisco Opera as Violetta in Verdi's
La traviata and
Desdemona in
Otello. A review by Anna Cora Winchell of the
San Francisco Chronicle described her as "the impersonation of grace and refinement", and her voice as "pure and birdlike", portraying the development of her character with flexible expression. In Italy, she performed in Genova, Turin and Bergamo, and in Europe, also in Vienna, Budapest and Barcelona. She was a leading singer at the Warsaw Opera from 1916 to 1932 where she performed in the world premiere of Zemlinsky's
Hagith on 13 May 1922. Her roles included Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's
Eugene Onegin, Mimi in Puccini's
La bohème, the title role in
Madame Butterfly and Sieglinde in Wagner's
Die Walküre. After retiring from the stage, she worked as a voice teacher at the
Warsaw Conservatory. She left recordings of five duets with Battistini, including from Verdi's
Rigoletto and
La traviata, and Donizetti's
Linda di Chamounix. with the Orchestra Carlo Sabajno. She died in
Skolimów-Konstancin at age 89. == References ==