FIRST GREAT CARMEN

Southland Times, Issue 20788, 31 May 1929, Page 8

FIRST GREAT CARMEN

MINNIE HAUK DEAD. During the Civil War a girl of nine years was singing in New Orleans in benefits for the wounded. Her talent was regarded so highly that music-lovers arranged to send her to New York in a Confederate warship, bearing letters of introduction to notables. She was Minnie Hauk, who died in her villa in Lucerne early in March, having achieved fame as America’s first Carmen. At the age of fifteen she was watching a rehearsal of Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliette” at the New York Academy for its premier performance in America. The Italian prima donna was temperamental and lazy, and did not know her part. Minnie volunteered to sing it. "Nonsense,” said Maretzek, the impresario. “Wc cannot wait for you to learn the part.” “But I know it, and (he tenor’s part as well,” said Minnie. She got the part of Juliette and caused a sensation. Then she went to Europe to study. There she had to wear down a prejudice that opera was not for Americans. She went to Brussels, and it was there, in 1878, that she first sang the part of the Bizet heroine. Henceforth “Carmen” meant Hauk, and Hauk meant "Carmen” till she retired from the stage. Some critics said there was no greater “Carmen.” She was afflicted with blindness during the World War and anther great "Carmen” heard of her plight. Geraldine Ferrar raised a fund for Minnie Hauk. In 1922 Minnie Hauk underwent an operation, but her sight was never restored. She passed away in a villa bequeathed by her husband, a Viennese author, who died in the ’nineties.