SELMA KURZ Selma Kurz (soprano) was born in Biala, Silesia, in 1874. She studied music with Professor Ress, and debuted as Mignon in 1895 at Hamburg. She soon became widely successful, appearing in Vienna from 1899 and London from 1904, where she sang Juliette in Romeo et Juliette (Gounod), Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Elizabeth in Tannhäuser (Wagner), Gilda in Rigoletto (Verdi) and Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi). She created the role of Zerbinetta in the revised version of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos in Vienna. She retired in 1926 and died in 1933. Her voice was very pure and sweet, and was famous for her fast and closely controlled shake. 'D'AMOR SULL'ALI ROSEE ('Il Trovatore') (Verdi) Historic Masters HMB6 (modern vinyl pressing of HMV 053279) (1911) (2.2MB) Her voice, and the famous rapid shake, is well caught in this recording which benefits from the lower surface noise of the vinyl pressing. If you would like to download this recording you can do so from this page. A CD of Kurz's later recordings (1923-4) have been issued on Preiser 89504. I have not heard this CD and list it here simply for information. I can't guarantee it is still available.