American Soprano Alma Gluck
Celebrated Vocalist of the Early Twentieth Century
A brief look at the life and career of Alma Gluck, one of the most famous sopranos of the early twentieth century.
Alma Gluck was born Reba Fiersohn in Bucharest, Romania, in 1884 and died of a liver disease in New York City on October 27, 1938. Her career was relatively short, but in that time she became one of the most celebrated sopranos of the early twentieth century.
During the years 1909-1912 she sang at the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York City. In 1914 she married the violin virtuoso Efrem Zimbalist and became the mother of the noted actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and the grandmother of the TV actress Stephanie Zimbalist. A daughter from her first marriage became the respected author Marcia Davenport.
Although Alma Gluck did not start out to become a singer, during her first marriage she began to study and was very disciplined about her art. Later she would study with Marcella Sembrich and in Europe with Jean deReszke. During her very short career (just over ten years), Gluck made one hundred and forty records.
In those days a recording artist had to go to Camden, New Jersey to the Victor Talking Machine Company, where he or she would sing into a black box. Technicians had many tasks to do and the project often took a day to record one piece. Alma Gluck said that "A day making records was more exhausting than a week of concerts."
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
"Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" was the most famous of all Gluck's recordings and she was often asked to do it as an encore if it was not on her program. This was also one of the pieces where Efrem Zimbalist joined her in a lovely violin obbligato, which he often did on her recordings. Her career began to slow in 1921 because of illness, and she sang her final recital in 1924.
During the First World War Gluck often entertained the troops and at Fort Wright she was asked if she would like a copy of the National Anthem. "General," she replied, "I have known all three verses of the Start Spangled Banner since I was six years old and I am going to sing them now." On one of these troop visits to Camp Lewis in Washington state in 1917, she sang to 40,000 men in an outdoor area.
Alma Gluck never complained about her illness (cirrhosis of the liver), and soldiered on to the end, attending one of her husband's recitals just four days before she died. Alma was an expert needleworker and finished a set of chair covers she was embroidering the day before she passed away.
Her favorite recording was Reynaldo Hahn's "L'Heure Exquise."
For further reading about great singers see: Dramatic Soprano Gerda Nielsen and Singer and Composer Maria Malibran.
Source
"Too Strong for Fantasy," by Marcia Davenport, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1967
