GLUCK, ALMA

born May 11, 1884, Iasi, Romania died Oct. 27, 1938, New York, N.Y., U.S. original name Reba Fiersohn Romanian-born American singer whose considerable repertoire and splendid performance skills and presence made her one of the most sought-after recital performers of her day. Reba Fiersohn was the daughter of Russian Jewish parents. In 1890 an elder sister who had gone to the United States sent for their widowed mother and the rest of the family. Fiersohn grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City, attended public schools through high school, and then worked as a stenographer until her marriage in 1902 to Bernard Glick. Although hers was a musical family, she received no formal training in music in childhood. By the age of 20, however, she had studied piano for some years and was herself giving lessons. In 1906 she began voice lessons under Arturo Buzzi-Peccia, who arranged for her to audition for Arturo Toscanini, and in 1909 she was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera Company. Under the name Alma Gluck she made her debut at the Met in November 1909 in the role of Sophie in Jules Massenet's Werther. A month later she attracted considerable attention for her singing of the Happy Shade in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, a production that starred Louise Homer. Over the next three years she sang a wide variety of lyric soprano roles, but opera proved less interesting to her than the recital stage. Her popular performances at the Metropolitan's Sunday evening concerts led to other concert engagements, and at the expiration of her contract with the Met in 1912 she left the operatic stage. She was divorced from her husband in that year. Gluck then sought further training in Europe, where she was probably the first American singer to arrive with an established reputation based on training primarily in the United States. She studied with Jean de Reszke for a time and was one of Marcella Sembrich's first pupils. In London in 1914 she married violinist Efrem Zimbalist. Until 1920 she toured the United States regularly, making 80 to 100 concert appearances annually. She was in great demand as an oratorio and festival performer as well, and she and her husband frequently appeared in joint recitals. Her popularity was matched by few other singers, and her voice, grace, and dark beauty gave her a commanding stage presence. Gluck's programs ranged from lieder to American folk ballads, and she was equally popular as a recording artist for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Her recording of Carry Me Back to Old Virginny sold nearly two million copies. After 1920 she reduced her concert work, and she gave her last public performance in 1925 at the Manhattan Opera House.