Wilt, Marie

1833-1891

Marie Liebenthaler was born in Vienna in 1833. She did not begin the serious study of music until after she became the wife of Franz Wilt, a civil engineer. Her teachers were Gansbacher and Wolf and under their guidance she developed a rich, powerful soprano voice of great compass. Her first stage appearance was in Gratz, where she appeared in 1865 as Donna Anna. Before that time she had sung in concerts. After her success in Gratz she appeared the following year in Vienna and Berlin, for two years in London and then for the next ten years she sang both in opera and concert at Vienna, with a brief visit to London. In 1877 she went to Leipsic, then to Pesth, Brünn and other cities and afterwards appeared on the stage at Vienna. For a number of years a family contract had kept her from singing operatic roles in her home city. She committed suicide in Vienna in 1891.