Mártha Eggerth

Marta Eggerth (17 April 1912 – 26 December 2013) was a Hungarian actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her.

Personal life Eggerth was married to the Polish tenor Jan Kiepura.

Mártha Eggerth Opera Singer - Born April 17, 1912 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]

Died December 26, 2013 in Rye, New York, USA (undisclosed)

Birth Name Márta Eggert

Nickname The Callas of Operetta

Mini Bio (1) From the day she was born Martha lived in a world of music. For sure her father was a banker but he was also an amateur pianist. As for her mother, she was a housewife but also a very talented opera singer who had given up her career for the joys of matrimony and motherhood. It does not come as a surprise, under such circumstances, that the little girl's singing capacities were soon discovered. At eight she was already on a scene singing an aria from "The Barber of Seville". A critic attended the show and was impressed by her performance. He introduced her to the director of the Magyar Theater, where she landed her first contract. As of the age of 10 she was hailed as Hungary's "national idol". And it was not long before her triumph became international. An operetta, "Pogasza", was written specially for the crystal-clear-voiced little singer. Among others, she played the role of the doll in "Tales of Hoffmann" and starred in "Das Veilchen vom Montmartre" by Kalman. With the advent of sound films, she found herself very much in demand in the 1930s, bringing her beautiful voice and looks to yet more delighted viewers. It is on the set of "Mein Herz ruft nach dir" that she met Jan Kiepura, another successful opera and operetta singer. Although it was not love at first sight, Jan and Martha gradually fell in love, married two years later, had two sons and were separated only by death with the demise of Jan in 1966. In 1938, the couple fled Austria after its annexation by Hitler and settled down in the South of France first then in the USA. Martha made fewer movies but kept on singing. For instance she co-starred in "The merry Widow" in Broadway for three years with Jan Kiepura. She became an American citizen in the fifties and currently lives in Rye, new York.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Guy Bellinger

Spouse (1) Jan Kiepura (31 October 1936 - 15 August 1966) his death 2 children M1. Jan Tadeusz Sharbek AKA Jan Tadeusz Kiepura (aka John Thade; born 1944), singer M2. Marjan Wiktor Kiepura (born 1950), producer and pianist.

Mother of Jan Tadeusz Sharbek (born 1944), singer, and Marjan Wictor (born 1950), producer and pianist.

Still living at her home in Rye, New York, USA. She has released a new album of earlier recordings, "Marta Eggerth: My Life My Song" (Patria Productions), produced by her son, Marjan Kiepura. [August 2005]

Singer and actress.

Her last performance was at age 99 in 2011.

In 2001, Eggerth returned to London for "An Interview-in-Concert" at an absolutely sold-out Wigmore Hall, accompanied by conductor-pianist Alexander Frey and hosted by British author and critic, Brendon Carroll. She also sang at the annual Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation concerts at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall to much fanfare.

Martha Eggerth worked again in Europa after the war but she wasn't able to gain a foothold again in the German film business.

The actress Martha Eggerth especially made a global career as a singer, and thanks to her huge popularity and her acting talent she also took part in many movies of the 30's.

Martha Eggert's career began very early and because of her wonderful voice she soon was called a child prodigy who filled concert halls.

Eggerth was awarded many major artistic decorations from Austria, Germany, Poland, and Italy in recognition of her accomplishments in operetta, theatre and film. Her final recognitions included the Knights Cross of the Order of the Merit of the Republic of Hungary, her native land's highest honour, and the Erwin Piscator Life Achievement Award for her legendary achievements.

Eggerth was married to the Polish tenor Jan Kiepura and they had two sons, Jan and Marjan. The latter is a concert pianist in New Hampshire and is married to Jane Knox-Kiepura, who helps run his company Patria Music.

Highlights in 2006/2007 have included two concerts with interviews at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; sold out shows at the Café Sabarsky in Neue Galerie entertaining audiences with her great pre-war Viennese/Berlin cabaret style of wit, artistry and song; a concert and discussion held as part of New York University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes; an appearance at the Austrian Cultural Forum as part of their Mostly Operetta series; operetta master classes at the Manhattan School of Music; as well as an appearance at the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged (JASA).

Because Martha Eggerth was of Jewish extraction, the political situation in Germany became more and more uncomfortable. She eventually emigrated to the USA with Jan Kiepura where both could continue her career without any difficulties because her names already conquered the world before. Both triumphed on Broadway with plays like "The Merry Widow" and "Polonaise".

Kiepura died in 1966. Eggerth stopped singing at this time for several years. Finally, persuaded by her mother, she decided to revive her career. In the 1970s she began to make regular television appearances, and to actively perform concerts in Europe. In 1982, she returned to the American stage to co-star in the Tom Jones/Harvey Schmidt musical Colette opposite Diana Rigg in Seattle and Denver, and later in Stephen Sondheim's Follies in Pittsburgh.

She practiced her main activity on different stages, and this till her old age.

During the shooting for "Mein Herz ruft nach dir" in 1934 she met singer and actor Jan Kiepura. They got married two years later, acted together in other movies and belonged to the most dazzling pairs in Germany.

In 1999, at the age of 87, she sang on the stage of the Vienna State Opera in a special televised matinée concert hosted by opera impresario and historian Marcel Prawy, to mark that opera house's first production of Lehár's The Merry Widow. She sang a medley from the operetta in four languages and received a spontaneous standing ovation. She repeated this medley in 2000, at a gala to mark the 200th anniversary of Vienna's Theater an der Wien.

Her real film career blossomed into life with the talkies. In the golden era of German musical movies she took part in operetta movies and became a very popular star in no time at all.

She had a little comeback on television in 1999 when she impersonated a chamber singer in the serial "Tatort: Nie wieder Oper" (1999).