Melanie Kurt (originally Kohn; she legally changed her name to Kurt in 1902) first studied to become a pianist in her native city of Vienna before starting to take singing lessons. Her teacher was the famous Polish pianist
Theodor Leschetizky, who had been a pupil of Carl Czerny's. She was successful at the piano, winning the coveted Liszt Prize. Later she went to Berlin, where
Marie Lehmann, sister of the great soprano
Lilli Lehmann, became her teacher. From 1897 to 1900 she only appeared as a pianist, before she gave her début at the civic theatre in
Lübeck as Elisabeth in
Richard Wagner's
Tannhäuser in 1902. From 1903 to 1904 she was engaged at
Oper Leipzig, after further studies in Berlin she worked in
Braunschweig from 1905 to 1908 before returning to Berlin where she sang at the
Berlin Hofoper (today's
Staatsoper Unter den Linden), then (from 1912 to 1915) at the
Städtische Oper in
Charlottenburg (today's
Deutsche Oper Berlin). From her Berlin base, Kurt started her international career, giving successful guest performances at the
Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London (since 1910), and during the Salzburg
Mozart-Fest in 1910 (which would become the
Salzburg Festival later). Later she added
La Scala in
Milan, the
Vienna State Opera, the
Dresden Hofoper (the
Semperoper) and the
Münchner Hofoper (today's
Bavarian State Opera) to the list. Her career reached its peak when she joined the
Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1915 where she succeeded
Olive Fremstad as the company's leading Wagner soprano for three seasons. She appeared in 85 Met productions in that time. Her contract ended when the USA joined World War I in 1917 and Wagner operas were banned as being to German. Though the situation was difficult for Kurt she didn't return to Europe at once but stayed in the US until 1919 before returning to Germany. In the following years she sang mainly in Berlin again, in Leipzig,
Stuttgart, Dresden, Vienna and at the famous Wagner Festival in
Zoppot (1922), then a serious rival to the
Bayreuth Festival. Around 1930 the singer retreated gradually from stage and started working as a teacher in Berlin. After 1933 Kurt had to emigrate to Vienna. In 1938, when the Nazis took over Austria Kurt left the continent for good and returned to the US, arriving in New York in November 1939. Until her death in 1941 she lived and taught in New York City. == Repertoire ==