Helena Forti
Helena Forti (April 25, 1884 – May 11, 1942) was a dramatic soprano active 1906 – 1924, closely associated with the Dresden royal court opera, known for her beauty, voice and strong stage presence. She sang all Wagner's opera heroines, in Dresden, Bayreuth and internationally. Other repertoire included the title role in Verdi's Aida, Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria and contemporary works such as Marietta in Korngold's Die tote Stadt. She created the role of Myrtocle in d'Albert's Die toten Augen. Her Sieglinde in Die Walküre in Braunschweig was described by the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik as "Equally endowed with youth, beauty and vocal means... (Forti) immerses herself so intensely in her role that one believes the transformation of the virgin-Goddess into a human form." After retiring from the stage she taught voice and acting in Gera, Düsseldorf and Vienna. She died in Vienna, where she lived with her stage director and Intendant husband, Walter Bruno Iltz. Family Helene Minna Antonie Therese Fiedler in Berlin, on April 25, 1884. An alternative birth date is 25 April 1886. Forti was "a true stage child" to theater-parents. Her father Anton Johann Fiedler, born August 29, 1838, "so called Forti", was an operatic tenor in Düsseldorf who retired from singing and by the 1880s was an "academic painter" who ran a shop renting out paintings and etchings Anton Forti died February 14, 1920. "Forti" appears to have been the family's stage name, and her last name in the personnel file at the Dresden court theater was like her father's, "Fiedler, so-called Forti". Her mother was the Dresden-Residenztheater actress and operetta singer, Minna Amalie Forti-Hänsel (before 1853 – 1925). Minna Hänsel was "one of the best soubrettes ever", according to the Die deutsche Schaubühne, and played in the "second theater" in Dresden in 1869. After the loss of Gottfried Semper's "first court opera" due to fire, her theater closed as well, (it was deemed a fire hazard: the loss of Semper's court-theater prompted reevaluation in all theaters). Minna Hänsel moved to Berlin. Semper would go on to rebuild the theater to its current form, where Minna Hänsel's daughter would sing for many years. Hänsel sang the title role in Offenbach's Helena at the Imperial German Court Theater (Kaiserlich-Deutsches Hoftheater) in St. Petersburg, in 1874, becoming a well-known soubrette who sang in Chemnitz, Görlitz, Hannover, Stuttgart (summer theater in Berg), Stettin and in Dresden, later a fine comic character-actress. By 1872 the Residenz theater in Dresden was built in the Zirkusstrasse, and Hänsel became one of its main artists. The family's apartment in Dresden was in Zeughausstrasse 2, adjacent to the Synagogue (also designed by Gottfried Semper, the court opera architect). The Jewish local community had its offices in this building as well. Apart from participation in a 1916 concert in the synagogue, it is not known if Forti had any specific connection to the Jewish community or if she was Jewish – later, in 1933, her husband would be accused by the Nazi party of