Irma de Keukeleire

Keukeleire, Irma de, Soprano, * 24.02.1905 Ghent, † 08.12.1977 Antwerp. She sang in French under the name of Hermette and / or Anne Clairy. This dramatic soprano was born in Ghent 24 February 1905. After completing her initial music education she debuted in Ghent in the season of 1929-30 as an operetta singer in the Royal Dutch Theatre, especially as the Princess Lisa in "Das Land des Lächelns". At the Royal french Opera House she was admired in "La Navarraise" and as Santuzza in "Cavalleria Rusticana". She continued her studies with Mev. de Preter, the wife of the first conductor of the Opera, Maurice de Preter. (He was to serve as first conductor for more than fifty years.) Gifted with a fine dramatic voice and a magnetic personality, Mme. De Keukeleire made rapid strides in her career. She sang at the Ghent Opera during the seasons of 1933-34 and from 1937-39 through the season of 1939-40. She sang at the Kursaal in Ostend in the 1930s. She made her debut as a dramatic soprano in Antwerp in 1939 singing the Elsa in "Lohengrin" and Elisabeth in "Tannhäuser". She enjoyed tremendous successes in this repertoire, especially as Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde" through the 1940s and 1950s. She had to cancel an important engagement at the Opéra-Comique in Paris just at the outbreak of World War II. In Paris she had been scheduled to sing in several important productions with Georges Thill. After the war she sang primarily as a guest artist: in Ghent 1946-47, 1952-53 and 1957-58; and at Antwerp 1939-44, 1945-46 and 1947-48 through 1954-55. Some of her famous portrayals: Isolde in "Tristan und Isolde", Eva in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", Elsa in "Lohengrin" by Richard Wagner, the principal role in "Aida" by Giuseppe Verdi and "Tosca" by Giaccomo Puccini. And in such lesser known works as: "La Fiamma", "Romeo and Julia" (by Sutermeister), "The Rape of Lucretia". She dead in Antwerp on 08 December 1977.