Murska, Ilma di

1836-1889

Operatic soprano; born in Croatia. She studied with the Marchesis in Vienna, and made her debut in Florence in 1862. After singing at Pesth, Berlin and Hamburg she obtained a position in Vienna, where she sang until 1865, when she made a London debut at Her Majesty's Theatre as Lucia, and sang at the Philharmonic Society concerts. She sang at Her Majesty's, Drury Lane and Covent Garden, in London, and in Paris and other European cities until 1873, when, under M. de Vivo, she came to America, and also visited Australia between 1873 and 1876, returning to London in 1879. She was married many times; one of her husbands was General Eider, by whom she had a daughter upon whom she lavished all her earnings. She was very eccentric and always had many pets which always traveled with her. While in Australia in 1876 she was married to Alfred Anderson, a musician of the company, and five months after his death to Mr. John T. Hill. Some years after her tour she returned to the United States and obtained a position as teacher in New York, but in this line of work she was not successful, and since her ability to sing in concerts had left her she became very poor. Musicians of New York supplied money to send her home. She died in Munich. Among the roles she sang were Lucia, Astrofiammente, Isabella, Martha, Dinorah, Ophelia, Gilda and Marguerite de Valois. She had a voice of three octaves range and sang easily and brilliantly.