[Women – Music]. [Judaism]. Grand Concert Cecilian Club Souvenir Programme: Madame Julie Rosewald and Prof. J.H. Rosewald, Saturday, July 4th, 1891. N.p.
Single fold program with vintage tipped-in photograph of Julie Rosewald, sheet: 7-1/8 x 10-1/4 in., photo: 5-1/2 x 3-3/4 in.; paper toned with minor foxing and edgewear not affecting photo, buckling around photograph from orig. adhesive; good.
Julie Eichberg Rosewald (1847-1906) was the first woman cantor in America. She held this role at Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco from 1884-1893, leading services and signing the cantorial solos, as well as directing the synagogue’s choir. Born in Germany, Rosewald had a long and successful career as an opera singer and soloist in the US and Europe before (and after) accepting her position at Temple Emanu-El. She often performed with her husband, the violinist Jacob Rosewald, who is credited on this program.
Her lifelong musical career was a highly unusual accomplishment for a nineteenth-century woman, and this concert attests to her secular and religious artistic activities. The photograph shows Rosewald in an unidentified operatic role, possibly Prascovia in Meyerbeer’s L’Étoile du Nord.
See Judith S. Pinnolis, “‘Cantor Soprano’ Julie Rosewald: The Musical Career of a Jewish American ‘New Woman,’” American Jewish Archives Journal, Vol. 62, No. 2 (December 2010), pp. 1-53.
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