Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Materna, Amalie

MATERNA, Amalie, German singer, b. in St. Georgen, Austria, 10 July, 1847. Her first appearance was made in the Thalia theatre, in Gratz, about 1864, and she afterward married Karl Friedrich, an actor, and was engaged with him in suburban theatres near Vienna, where she sang in operettas. In 1869 she appeared in the Imperial opera-house, Vienna, as Selika in “L'Africaine” with signal success, and in 1876 earned a world-wide reputation by her impersonation of Brunhilde in the Niebelungen trilogy at the Wagner festival in Beireuth. She sang at the Wagner concerts of England in 1877, and came to the United States in 1882 to sing in the New York music festival of that year. Since that time she has sung in Wagner's operas in this country for several seasons with great acceptability.