By Special Desire, Maria Edenska

Sobre el libro By Special Desire, Maria Edenska de Erika Ede publicado por Popurrit al 2017:

Erika Ede encuentra en su historia familiar a la contralto Maria Edenska. Nacida en Riga, triunfó en Europa entre 1859 y 1869. Abandonó los escenarios y se retiró al campo. Consiguió el permiso del Zar para poder vestirse como hombre, se hizo llamar Max y vivió como un terrateniente de su época. Este libro recopila las fotografías, documentos y lugares de su biografía.
Through this book, the artist Erika Ede delves into personal family history by entering into the world of one of her ancestors. She does it by bringing back to life the figure of Maria Edenska, a Russian singer born in Riga who triumphed in Europe between 1859 and 1869.?After ten years of great successes as a prima donna across the continent, ´The Edenska’, as she was known, left the stage to become a landowner in Livonia. After retiring to the countryside, Maria Edenska asked the Czar of Russia for special permission to dress as a man, and ´Maria´ became ´Max´ and lived the rest of her life as a nobleman of her time - a situation unheard of for its rarity and antiquity. The title "By Special Desire" refers to a term used for individual requests made by the patrons to the performers for specific pieces of music that they wished to be to include during a recital.
Erika Ede tells the story of this unique singer by using music, documents and photographs of the epoch to give the reader a tour of the places that marked the life of Maria Edenska.