Hungarian-born American singer-actress Marta Eggerth has maintained her performing career for over 70 years. She starred in over 40 films, and recently performed a New York concert in 2007, aged 95.
Born as Márta Eggerth on April 17 1912 in Budapest, she began singing at age 11. Very popular in Europe, she and her husband (who both had Jewish mothers) were forced to flee Europe and settled in the United States. She appeared in MGM films, but never achieved the fame she enjoyed in Europe. After her contract was not renewed she and her husband, Polish actor-singer Jan Kiepura, moved to New York, where they raised two sons. She enjoyed a lengthy run opposite her now-deceased husband in The Merry Widow on Broadway.
Eggerth is a whirlwind advocate for operetta, a lighter and more playful form of opera. "In opera, everybody dies. In operetta, everybody is flirtatious", says Eggerth of the art form that peaked in the 1940s, but which has always been her signature calling .
