Maria Jeritza – born Marie Jedličková  (6 Oct. 1887 – 10 July 1982)
  – The Opera Legend who helped to rebuild the Wiener Staatsoper after the WW II.

Maria Jeritza‘s Vienna Home in Max Emanuelstrasse 17, on a perfect (frosty) winter morning on 2 January 2017.　Villa Schapira.

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(1) Maria Jeritza set the eternal standards on how to sing/act the role of Puccini’s opera TOSCA.
Here is a photo of Puccini visiting Maria in the above Villa in Vienna. 

From Maria Jeritza’s autobiography “Sunlight and Song”. Inside Villa Schapira.

Maria Jeritza set the eternal standards on how to sing/act the role of Puccini’s TOSCA. Here is a photo of her in that role.

This is what the “Neues Wiener Journal” writes on  21 Januar 1922, after the news of Jeritza’s overwhelming triumph in the Metropolitan Opera’s Tosca production in New York had spread.
“Even the noble Ladies could not help but stand up from their balcony seats and join in the outbursts of excitement and pleasure. This went on for several minutes…”
The article is in German. For a full translation please contact me through my translation page. 

Neues Wiener Journal, 1922/1 “anno”, Austrian National Library;

(2) At the height of her success, Maria Jeritza received her title “K.K Hofopernsängerin” “Imperial Court Opera Singer” signed by Emperor Franz Joseph himself. She was the last singer to receive such Imperial honour.

The Villa in the Spring of 2016. A busy and slightly rainy day, and the 10A bus is on its way down the hill towards Gersthof. Opposite the road is the beautiful Türkenschanzpark, with the wooden Pavillion (left), rebuilt just a few years ago.

This view was probably photographed from the balcony of Jeritza’s villa,  around 1910. You can see the same Pavillion as in the above photo from 2016. In the background there is the ‘Paulinenwarte’, the observation tower that could also be seen from the Cottage Sanatorium, which is focused in a series of blog entries. 

Let‘s go back to the Spring of 2016. Here is a photo series of the Villa in the gentle sunlight of a Spring morning.

Villa Shapira

Villa Schapira, Max Emanuel-Straße 17

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Stucco Head at Villa Shapira, Vienna

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Finally one more step back in time to the 1950‘s, when the house was used as a location spot for an Austrian film. The photo below is taken from a house that had not been built yet.

Maria Jeritza sings in a live broadcast via shortwave radio from Vienna to the USA, on 29 September 1935. She sings: “I Love You Truly”  by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, and then the aria “Liebe du Himmel auf Erden” from the Operetta “Paganini”  by Franz Lehar. She is accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.