Sembrich-Kochańska Marcelina, Sembrich Marcella, actually Prakseda Marcelina Kochańska, married to Stengel (surname Sembrich she took after her mother), *15 or 18 February 1858 Wiśniowczyk (near Tarnopol), †11 January 1935 New York, Polish singer (soprano). She learned to play the piano and violin with her father Kazimierz, an amateur musician, clarinettist, organist and cellist. At the age of 12, she made her first public appearance. In 1870–73, she studied at the conservatory in Lviv in the violin class of Z. Brückmann and the piano of Wilhelm Stengel (1846–1917), her future husband and impresario. Supported by a small scholarship from the Galician Parliament and funds from private sources, in 1875, with a diploma as a pianist and violinist, she went to Vienna for further studies at the conservatory (piano with J. Epstein, violin with J. Hellmesberger I). In 1875, she began systematic singing studies with V. Rokitansky in Vienna, and after a year she continued her studies in Milan with G.B. Lamperti; later she also took lessons from his father, F. Lamperti, and worked on the German opera repertoire with R. Löwy in Vienna. On 3 June 1877, she debuted in Athens as Elvira in Bellini’s Puritans, achieving great success. In 1878–80, she sang at the Hofoper in Dresden, still under the vocal supervision of G.B. Lamperti, who moved to Dresden. On 8 December 1879, she appeared for the first time in Warsaw at the Resursa Obywatelska hall, and then twice at the Grand Theatre in the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and as Isabella in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable. After performances in Dresden and Vienna, in April and May and in the autumn of 1880, she sang again in Warsaw on the stage of the Grand Theatre (including Bellini’s La Sonnambula, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s Traviata and Rigoletto, Meyerbeer’s Huguenots) and at concerts. At the end of 1880 and 1882, she performed with great success in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Her debut as Lucy at the Covent Garden Theatre in 1880 was a triumph. In 1882, Sembrich-Kochańska performed for the first time in Madrid (14 performances); in the 1880s she returned several times to Dresden, St. Petersburg (28 performances) and London. She began her great American career on 24 October 1883 at the Metropolitan Opera House in her spectacular role of Lucia in Donizetti’s opera; in the same year, she was the first to perform the role of Violetta (La Traviata) in the United States; In total, she gave 54 performances in New York, and then sang in many other American cities. She achieved enormous success, which opened the way for her to appear on the stages of subsequent European theatres – in Paris (1884), Lisbon (1885), Berlin (1886), Hamburg, Wrocław (concerts and stage performances in 1887, 1891, 1893, 1896, 1898), Oslo (1893), Madrid (1884–85 and 1890) and Monte Carlo (1893–94). She constantly visited Poland, performing in Warsaw (1886 and 1895), Lviv and Kraków (1886), Vilnius and Lviv (1898) and Łódź (1889 and 1911). For 11 seasons (1898–1909) she enjoyed the title of prima donna of the Metropolitan Opera House, during which time she took part in over 250 performances in New York and over 150 in 33 other American cities; In the winter and spring of 1902, she performed the role of Ulana in Paderewski’s Manru in six cities in the United States. She was a guest star at Covent Garden Theater for 17 years. She left the opera stage in 1912 (she performed in Warsaw for the last time on 30 April 1909), the concert stage in 1916, and then lived in Chamblandes in Switzerland. She soon took up a singing class at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, and from 1924, she headed the vocal department at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia; her students included: M. Jeritza and D. Giannini. Shortly before her death, she built an opera studio at Bolton Landing on Lake George, now a museum dedicated to her memory.
In 1914, Sembrich-Kochańska established the Committee to Aid Polish Victims of War in New York, allocating fees from her concerts for this purpose; working with Paderewski, in 1915 she expanded the activities of this committee to the entire country. She always showed great generosity to Poland, leaving her huge fees and providing scholarships to poor students of the conservatory in Lviv (one scholarship was awarded to J. Korolewicz-Waydowa in 1895). Sembrich-Kochańska received numerous awards, including the Order of Polonia Restituta for outstanding contributions to the Polish cause in the United States.
Comprehensive musical education, a huge repertoire performed in 7 languages, excellent technique, masterfully combined with the suggestiveness of the artistic message, made Sembrich-Kochańska a serious rival of A. Patti, with whom she was often compared. Her voice, covering the c1–f3 scale, was widely considered one of the most beautiful and strongest sopranos at the turn of the century, perceived by many as “tearful” and “elegiac.” Sembrich-Kochańska was an excellent performer of roles in Old Italian operas and Mozart parts, especially Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, as well as dramatic roles (including Paderewski’s Manru). She achieved great triumphs, playing mainly roles in Delibes’s Lakmé, Bellini’s Norma and Puritans, Puccini’s La bohème, Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Flotov’s Marta, Rossini’s Semiramide, and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger de Nuremberg (Eve); she aroused the greatest admiration in the madness scenes in Lucy of Lammermoor and The Puritans. Sembrich-Kochańska’s partners, especially in American theatres, were E. Caruso, J. and E. Reszke, A. Didur, F. Szalapin, A. Bandrowski (in Manru), and W. Mierzwiński. Her performances under the direction of A. Toscanini were memorable. Sembrich-Kochańska gave many stage concerts, including songs by Schubert, Schumann, Grieg, Brahms, R. Strauss, as well as Chopin, Moniuszko, Zarzycki, Noskowski, Żeleński, often with her own piano accompaniment. In 1884, at a concert conducted by J. Benedict at the Albert Hall in London, she performed the violin concerto by Ch.-A. Bériot. Sembrich-Kochańska recorded a lot, initially (1902–08) on Edison’s phonograph (1890, probably the oldest) and Mapleson recordings “live” – during performances, mainly famous opera arias and numerous songs. Until 1918, she made 105 recordings on rollers and records for the Gramophon, Bettini labels (including the waltz Sounds of Spring by J. Strauss in her own arrangement), Columbia, Victor, and HMV. Some of her recordings are available in reissues: «Stars of Polish Opera 1900–1939» (Polskie Nagrania, 1961), «Marcella Sembrich Collection» (Sunday Opera Records, 1983), «The 1903 Grand Opera Series» (Sony Classical, 1996). The original Mapleson Rolls are also preserved in the New York Public Library (Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound).
Literature: J. Kleczyński Polska Patti, “Echo Muzyczne” 1880 No. 1; A. Poliński Z muzyki, “Kurier Warszawski” 1909 No. 119 (review of Sembrich-Kochańska’s last concert in Waraw 30 April 1909); M. Sembrich-Kochanska Początki mej pracy artystycznej, “Muzyka” 1930 No. 3; I. Kolodin The Metropolitan Opera, New York 1940; H.G. Owen A Recollection of Marcella Sembrich, New York 1950, new ed. 1982; J. Kański Polka primadonną Opery Metropolitan. Marcelina Sembrich-Kochańska, in: Mistrzowie sceny operowej, Kraków 1974, 21998; I.J. Paderewski Pamiętniki 1912–1932, written down by M. Lawton, Polish translation A. Piber, Kraków 1992; W. Panek Marcelina Sembrich-Kochańska. Najsłynniejsza śpiewaczka polska, in: Kariery i legendy, part 3, Warsaw 1994; M. Komorowska Marcelina Sembrich-Kochańska w świecie dawnej opery, «Zeszyty Naukowe Akademii Muzycznej we Wrocławiu” No. 64, 1995.
