Above: Marta Fuchs as Kundry
Marta Fuchs began her career as a contralto in 1923; for the first five years, she sang only concerts. In 1928, at Aachen, she began singing such operatic roles as Gluck’s Orfeo, Verdi’s Azucena, and Carmen. Then, in 1930, Fuchs made the switch to dramatic soprano, though she retained parts of her old repertoire. At the Dresden Oper, she sang the world premieres of several now-forgotten operas.
In 1931, she debuted at the Deutschen Opernhaus, Berlin, as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier; she had a great success. From 1935, she was associated with both Dresden Oper and Berlin’s Staatsoper. Marta Fuchs became one of her generation’s foremost interpreters of the great Wagner roles. From 1933 to 1942, at Bayreuth, she was a celebrated Isolde (1938), Kundry (1933-1937), and Brünnhilde (1938-1942).
In 1936 she appeared as a guest with the ensemble of the Dresden State Opera at the Covent Garden Opera in London as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, as Marschallin in Rosenkavalier, and as Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos; and in 1938, she sang Isolde at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. 1942 brought successful guest appearances at the Maggio Musicale, Florence (as Leonore in Fidelio), and the Vienna State Opera, where she continued to appear until 1944.
An ardent Christian, Fuchs steered clear of the rising tide of National Socialism. Because Adolf Hitler was an ardent lover of Wagner, he had met Fuchs. In 1936, the soprano told Hitler: “Mr Hitler, you are going to make war!” After Hitler’s protestation, she replied, “I don’t trust you.” In May 1939 Hitler greeted her asking, “Now, have I made war?” Fuchs replied, “I still don’t trust you.”
Marta Fuchs fled the destruction of Dresden, eventually settling in Stuttgart and appearing with the opera company there. She retired from singing in 1954, and passed away some twenty years later.
Many years ago I had heard the Fuchs voice during a time when I was exploring singers of the past. But recently, I came back to her, and am much taken with the beauty and expressiveness of her singing in Brünnhilde’s pleading of her case to Wotan from Act III of Walkure:
Marta Fuchs – War es so schmählich ~ WALKURE
And here is her wonderful Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde:
Marta Fuchs – Liebestod ~ Tristan und Isolde
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 