Maartje Offers (1892 – 1944)

Maartje Offers was born in Koudekerke on the Dutch Island of Walcheren. She studied singing with Arnold Spoel and Mrs. Hekking in The Hague, and in Rotterdam with the famous contralto Pauline de Haan-Manifarges. She started her career as an oratorio singer. To everyone’s surprise she was offered a contract by the Opéra Française in The Hague, making her debut as Dalila (1917). From 1919 she appeared with a series of shortlived Dutch opera companies as Dalila, Amneris, Azucena, Magdalene (Meistersinger), Adriano, and as Maria Magdalena in the Dutch premiere of d’Albert’s Die toten Augen. She debuted at the Grand Opéra of Paris as Dalila opposite the great Jacques Urlus . It was the baritone Lorenzo Conati who advised her to go to Italy. She auditioned at La Scala and was immediately engaged for the season 1924/1925, where she sang Fricka in Rheingold and Walküre. The Teatro La Fenice in Venice saw her in various roles. In 1927 she returned to The Netherlands and was invited by Sir Thomas Beecham for tours to Australia and England. In the meantime she was married with Mr. van Buuren, a lawyer and amateur conductor, who conducted some of her records. After a promising start she appeared only sporadically after 1928 (shortness of breath, lack of temperament on stage, heavy-weight figure?). Maartje Offers finished her career as one of the eight Valkyries for the Amsterdam Wagner Society in 1936. Her last concert took place in 1940. Until her death she worked as a singing coach. During Worldwar II she was evacuated from The Hague to the island of Tholen, where she died in 1944.

Maartje Offers was a Red Label star of ‘His Master’s Voice’, making several acoustic recordings. Her electric recordings under the Red Label date from the time of her years in London when she was singing under Sir Thomas Beecham. Waltraute’s scene “Seit er von dir geschieden” from Götterdämmerung, conducted by Albert Coates, shows the soprano character of her voice. I particularly like her in the French repertoire (Dalila, Mignon).