Onse Mimi - SIGNED BY MIMI COERTSE

SIGNED BY MIMI COERTSE, Perskor-Uitgewery, 1776, hardcover, Afrikaans text, illustrated, 242 pages, condition: very good.

Mimi made her debut in January 1955 as the "first flower girl" in Wagner's Parsifal at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Karl Böhm conducting. She also sang in Basel at the Teatro San Carlo. On 17 March 1956 she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte by Mozart and remained with the Vienna State Opera until 1978.  Her Covent Garden debut was in 1956, in the same role. Her roles were limited in the United Kingdom as the Equity boycott of South Africa due to Apartheid, prevented its members from having anything to do with South Africa's entertainment industry.

Coertse sang the soprano part in Bach's Matthäus-Passion at Fritz Wunderlich's first appearance in Vienna in 1958, when he performed the tenor arias with Julius Patzak singing the Evangelist. In 1958, Coertse and Fritz Wunderlich again worked together at the Aix-en-Provence festival in Die Zauberflöte. In 1965, she sang Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Vienna State Opera which also featured Fritz Wunderlich as Belmonte. In 1966, Mimi was honoured by the President of Austria with the title Österreichischer Kammersänger, for her ten years of work as a permanent member at the Vienna State Opera.