Emmy Destinn

Czech soprano Emmy Destinn's family name was Kittl, but she chose her stage name by adapting that of her voice teacher Marie Lowe-Destinn. In her later career, she used only the Czech form of that name, Destinnova. Her first musical studies were on the violin which she first played in a public concert at age eight. At 14, she started to study voice and at the age of 20 she made her debut at Berlin as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. She was immediately given a five-year contract with the Berlin Imperial Opera. In 1901, she sang Senta in Wagner's Fliegende Holländer to great a...