Tragedy Fails to Halt Margie Mayer Début
By Herman Devries, Chicago American, 12/1938.
Margie Mayer, contralto recently engaged by the Chicago Civic Opera Company for the coming season, effected her Début at Kimball Hall last evening under the most trying circumstances. Her teacher and accompanist, Zerline Muhlman Metzger, had gone through the tragic ordeal of attending the burial of her beloved father, Adolf Muhlman, the great Wagnerian baritone of the golden age in opera.
The plucky Mme. Metzger’s consideration for her pupil lent her sufficient courage to mask her sorrow and she went through with her part of the program like a true Spartan, worthy daughter of a Wotan, a part her late father so
often portrayed here at the Auditorium Theater and in many metropolitan opera houses.
Début Successful
Miss Mayer, whose voice is of rich and sensuous beauty and who is further endowed with dramatic instinct, shone especially in songs requiring emotional surge and demanding greater temperamental display than most of the lieder chosen for her initial appearance in recital. Excellent musicianship and artistic phrasing, coupled with an exceptionally clear diction, to say nothing of her magnificent voice, are at present her most outstanding qualities.