Eggerth, Martha (EN)

Eggerth Martha, Marta Eggert, *12 or 17 April 1912 Budapest, †26 December 2013 New York, wife of Jan Kiepura, Hungarian singer (soprano) and film actress. She began studying singing from an early age and, at the age of 11, performed the role of Olympia in J. Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, and shortly afterwards the title role in E. Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel. Between 1934 and 1936 she lived in Hollywood; after the war she performed at the Paris Opera, then returned to the USA, where she and her husband sang on Broadway for several years, including in F. Lehár’s The Merry Widow. She lived in the USA. She was a renowned performer of operetta and comic roles, and above all of musical film roles, including in Leise flehen meine Lieder (Unfinished Symphony, 1933, a film about the life of F. Schubert) and with J. Kiepura in Mein Herz ruft nach dir (My Heart Calls You, 1934), Zauber der Bohème (Magic of La Bohème, 1937; French version 1949), Valse brillante (1949), and Das Land des Lächelns (The Land of Smiles 1952).

Literature: J. Waldorff Jan Kiepura, Krakow 1974.