Recorded on 27. December 1916.
Music: Kornelije Stanković (1831.-1865.)
Words: Isidor Ćirić (1844.-1893.)
Sonja Simić (Simitch) was a Serbian opera and concert singer. The only substantial information I was able to find about her, came from “Napisi o muzici u Carigradskom glasniku (1895.-1909.)”, by Dragana S. Novičić, Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon, and from various articles about her American tour.
She was born as Sofija Sedmakova, in Petrovaradin, on 15. May 1875. Some sources indicate that she was of Russian origin. She studied solo singing for two years in Budapest and then from 1898.-1901. at the Vienna conservatory under Rosa Paumgartner (1859.-1932.) She graduated from Vienna with the best grades in the subjects taught (voice, piano, dance, facial expressions). Immediately upon graduation, she received a five-year contract at the Frankfurt opera. She also performed in the Strassbourg theater, as Amneris in Verdi's Aida, about which the "Straßburger neueste Nachrichten" published an article. Other than Frankfurt and Strassbourgh, she was also engaged in Heidelberg. She also performed in Belgrade and Novi Sad several times. She especially stood out as Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana), Amneris in Verdi’s Aida, and Carmen of the eponymous opera by Bizet. During an appearance in Belgrade in 1914, she sang the lead role in Petar Krstić's dramatic piece with singing (komad sa pevanjem) “Koštana”. In concerts in Austria and Germany she performed songs by modern composers such as P. I. Tchaikovsky, H. Wolf, J. Brahms and R. Strauss.
On July 25, 1909, she married Stojan Simić (1871.-1909.), a son of the great Serbian diplomat, Đorđe S. Simić, with whom she had a daughter, Ruža (Ružica) Simić, born in 1910 (apparently, after her father's death. Such a child is called posmrče in Serbian, literally, one who was born after a death). She (Ružica) lived in Italy and had two daughters of her own.
The birth of her daughter caused her to temporarily retire from the stage. Under the name Sonja Simitsch she resumed her activity as a singer in 1913. In autumn she got an engagement at the Volksoper Vienna, where she appeared in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana (as Lucia), in J. Offenbach's Hoffmann's Erzählungen (as Nikolaus), in G. Bizet's Carmen (as Mercedes) as well as in the Wagner opera Der fliegende Holländer (as Wet Nurse Mary) and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (as Magdalene) as well as in O. Straus’ Die himmelblaue Zeit (as Countess Sophie Dorothea). In addition, she had some concert performances in Vienna and Plzeň (Pilsen). She was able to implement the plan to reach America during the First World War in 1916. Before that, she had settled with her father-in-law and daughter in Nice.
Her tour in the USA had a good media coverage, as can be illustrated by several articles from the period, which I am prevented from quoting by the space allotted to this description.
From those same articles, we can conclude, with reasonable certainty, that Madame Sonja Simić’s grand tour lasted at least six months (from October 1916., until March 1917.) It is likely that it lasted even longer, perhaps even an entire year, but there are no articles to be found, which would confirm that hypothesis.
I do not know, nor could I discover, where and when madame Sonja Simić died.
She made the following recordings for Victor Talking Machine company:
17. November 1916.
Trial, a Serbian folk song (unreleased).
21. December 1916.
B-18862 - Ungeduld,
B-18863 - Hab' ich nur deine Liebe,
27. December 1916.
B-18881 - Sunce jarko, ne sijaš jednako,
B-18882 - Prošlo je vreme borbe,
28. December 1916.
B-18883 - Volksliedchen,
B-18884 - Uz’o deda svog unuka,
B-18885 - Gradinom zlato hodilo,
B-18886 - More, na kraj sela (šarena češma).