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Marie Gutheil-Schoder (b. 10 February 1874, Weimar, Germany; d. 4 October 1935, Ilmenau, Germany), soprano/mezzo-soprano. Gutheil-Schoder was a member of the Vienna Court Opera, later State Opera, between 1900 and 1933. "Schoder sings Pamina – one of her most precious performances" (Gustav Mahler, letter to Carl Moll, stepfather of his future wife Alma Maria Schindler, December 1901). Gustav Mahler booked tickets for his future wife and her family to a performance of The Magic Flute on 8 December 1901. Mahler himself was conducting and the cast featured Marie Gutheil-Schoder as Pamina, Selma Kurz as Queen of the Night, Wilhelm Hesch as Sarastro and Leo Slezak as Tamino). Marie Gutheil-Schoder was one of the pillars of the Court Opera ensemble, and Mahler held her in extraordinarily high esteem. "I am beside myself over little Schoder, and view her good fortune as a calamity for our institution,” Mahler noted in a letter to Misa Gräfin Wydenbruck on 21 June 1902, shortly after Gutheil-Schoder took a break from signing due to her pregnancy. Gutheil-Schoder had a wide-ranging repertoire including coloratura roles, lirico-spinto and dramatic parts. Under Mahler, for example, she assumed the roles of all three of the main female characters in the premiere of Jacques Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann on 11 November 1901 (alongside Fritz Schrödter as Hoffmann), having previously played the title role in on the restaging of Bizet’s Carmen on 26 May 1900 (with Franz Naval in the role of Don Jose). Along with Leo Slezak and Anna von Mildenburg, Marie Gutheil-Schoder was one of the shining stars of Mahler’s ensemble. Mahler’s commitment to securing appropriate remuneration for his top performers was reflected in their pay. All three received around 36,000 Austro-Hungarian Krone in fees during 1905. Franz Naval (real name: Franz Pogacnik. b. 20 October 1865, Ljubljana, Slovenia; d. 9 August 1939, Vienna), tenor. Member of the Vienna Court Opera, 1898 – 1903. Franz Naval’s performances under Mahler were many and varied. They included singing in the Viennese premiere of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta on 22 March 1900 (alongside his ensemble colleagues Kurz and Demuth), playing Don José in the restaging of Georges Bizet’s Carmen on 26 May 1900 (alongside Gutheil-Schoder as Carmen), and performing in a new production of Così fan tutte on 4 October 1900 (alongside Hilgermann as Dorabella, Demuth as Guglielmo, Hesch as Alfonso and Gutheil-Schoder as Despina).