From Australia’s Jewish past

Marianne Helene Mathy – distinguished teacher of opera and classical singing

Marianne Helene Sara Mathy was born on 23 June 1890 in Mannheim, Germany.  She was the only child of Richard Kahn, a lawyer, and his first wife, Martha.  Interestingly, Marianne was baptised a Lutheran in 1896, although her father belonged to a wealthy Jewish family with members including Robert Kahn, a composer and friend of Brahms, and Otto Hermann Kahn, a banker who financed the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.  The family home was a centre of Mannheim’s musical and intellectual life, giving Marianne the opportunity to meet many musicians.

By the time she was eight, she was learning the piano and attending concerts with her father, a passionate music lover.  It was his wish that Marianne become a pianist, and her preference was to become a singer.  She commenced singing lessons at the secondary school she attended.  Marianne also attended classes in acting, including deportment, breathing, and voice projection, at the Städtische Hochschule für Musik and the Theatre Mannheim. She was impressed by her teacher, Professor Max Friedländer, and the importance he stressed for the text and its contribution to the music’s emotion, which she later emphasised in her teaching.

One of her earliest concert experiences was in September 1910 when she sang in the chorus at the première performance of Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, which he conducted at Munich.  Marianne married Colonel Erich Mathy of the Imperial German Army in 1912, and when the First World War broke out in 1914, he was sent to the frontline.  Marianne trained as a nurse and was able to care for him at the field hospital when he was seriously wounded. He was later killed in action.

Marianne was known as a coloratura soprano – a voice type characterised by a high range, exceptional agility, and the ability to execute rapid runs, trills, and vocal leaps.  She made her operatic début in 1918 as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel.   Before long, she was singing roles such as the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte) and Gilda (Rigoletto) at Wiesbaden.   She was most interested in the English composer Henry Purcell, and would write out her own performing copies from material in the Berlin State Library, and authentically sing his music, with harpsichord and strings. As well as standard German songs, she added works by less familiar composers to her repertoire.

In Berlin on 12 August 1921, Marianne married Franz Friedenstein, a Jewish architect and amateur violinist from Poland. They lived comfortably in Berlin, and she continued her career as Marianne Mathy until the Nazis invaded in 1933.  Whilst being protected by her husband, they lived under surveillance, and she was not allowed to perform. Her students were eventually told that they would not be engaged if they took ‘lessons from the Jewess, Mathy’. Through the intervention of Sir Thomas Beecham’s secretary, Dr Berta Geissmar, Franz was finally permitted to leave Germany.

On (Sir) Malcolm Sargent’s advice, who was the Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the time, the couple decided to emigrate to Australia.  Franz reached Sydney in April 1939, and Marianne later that year. The couple settled in Sydney.  Malcolm introduced Marianne to members of the Anglican hierarchy with musical connections, which led to her first concert, at the Australia Hotel on 29 November 1939. A critic noted her ‘highly schooled style’ and found her ‘charmingly fluent’ in the ‘more florid pieces’. Engagements with the Australian Broadcasting Commission followed, including a concert of Schumann’s music and as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah.  The Australian government then banned broadcasts of spoken or sung German.

Despite restrictions on their movements, the couple were naturalised in December 1944 and changed their name by deed poll to Frisdane in February 1945.  They had moved into a cottage at 45 Manning Road, Double Bay (which would be her home and studio until her death). The couple divorced in 1952.

Marianne became known professionally as Madame Mathy, building her music and singing with students who, in time, became very distinguished, including June ‘Bronhill’ – Australian soprano and opera singer;  Alan Light – foundation principal baritone of the Australian Opera; and (Dame) Joan Sutherland, widely-regarded as one of the most famous sopranos of all time.  Marianne taught fifteen students who were to win the Sun Aria competition.  She became a council member of the short-lived New South Wales National Opera in 1950, which was the predecessor of the Australian Opera (now Opera Australia).   She went on to establish the Mathy Opera Group in 1952 to give her students experiences, with the first performance being Hansel and Gretel with June Bronhill as Gretel. In 1963, she was commissioned by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust to make a new English translation of Charles Gounod’s opera Faust.   Marianne remained an active participant in the ongoing development of opera and classical singing in Sydney and Australia for several decades.

(Sir) Eugene Goossens, an internationally acclaimed conductor and composer, was one who enthusiastically lobbied for a new major performing arts theatre, which ultimately led to the creation of the Sydney Opera House.  Eugene conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and was the Director of the NSW Conservatorium of Music.  It was he who convinced Marianne to teach voice production at the Conservatorium, which she did from 1954 to 1972.  She also taught briefly at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).  In 1965, she published The Singer’s Companion and long described herself as a ‘Professor of Singing’.

‘Madame Mathy’s students spoke of her ‘grasp of style, and of her skills with which she conveyed her knowledge.’   She was very affectionate to her favourites: June Bronhill called her ‘my second mother’.  Marianne was very impatient with talented people who did not want progress as fast as possible, and she was sometimes impulsive, manipulative and ruthless.  In her view, nothing, not even marriage, should stand in the way of a career.  Werner Baer, another Jewish refugee, often accompanied her performances.  She considered it disloyal when he played for others.

Not only was Marianne an excellent cook, but also an elegant hostess who took great pains over her make-up and dress. At the age of seventy-three, fearful of old age and death, she visited the Privat-Klinik Bircher-Benner, Zürich, Switzerland, for ‘rejuvenating’ injections of ‘monkey-glands’. She died on 15 October 1978 in her Double Bay home.  She left in her will a bequest from which the Marianne Mathy Scholarship for young opera and classical singers was established through the efforts of Roland Gridiger OAM.  The Scholarship, also known as The Mathy, is one of the longest-running, recognised and respected scholarships of its type in Australia and New Zealand.  It was agreed that the scholarship be awarded to both young opera and classical singers, and a separate contemporary section for singers of other singing genres. Winners of both sections are recipients of The Mathy Statuette, which has become synonymous with the Scholarship.  This featured award is presented within the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition annually.

 A one-hour documentary – The Legacy of Madame Marianne Mathy – premiered in 2022 at the Jewish International Film Festival in Sydney.

The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:

The National Dictionary of Australia – John Carmody; Wikipedia; Music and Opera Singers Trust; IMDb; IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition’ International Jewish Film Festival

From Australia’s Jewish past is edited by Ruth Lillian

 

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