Ella Némethy

Ella Némethy (5 April 1891 – 14 June 1961) was a Hungarian mezzo-soprano who had an active international career in operas and concerts from 1919 to 1948. Music historian writes in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians that "she was the leading mezzo-soprano in the interwar years, especially in Wagnerian roles such as Brünnhilde, Isolde and Kundry. Her interpretations were characterized by vocal amplitude, rich colouring and grand declamation." She was the mother of author Baba Macnee, who would marry actor Patrick Macnee in 1988.

Life and career Born in Sátoraljaújhely, Némethy studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and privately with Ettore Panizza in Milan. She made her professional opera debut in 1919 as Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila at the Hungarian State Opera House.

Némethy appeared as a guest artist with several major opera houses around the world, including the Berlin State Opera, the Teatro Colón, and leading opera houses in Italy, Spain, and the United States. In May 1938 she performed the role of Judith in the Italian premiere of Béla Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Upon her retirement from the stage in 1948, Némethy was named a lifelong member of the Hungarian State Opera House. Her performance of Ortrud in Lohengrin is also preserved on a 1948 recording with conductor Otto Klemperer.