Ernest van Dyck and Marie Renard by Adèle (1)

Ernest van Dyck (1861-1923); Belgian tenor.
In 1883 he made his debut in Paris as a concert singer in Vidal's cantata "Le Gladiateur". His stage debut was in 1884 in Antwerp. In Germany (Karlsruhe) he studied with Felix Mottl how to sing "Wagner" and in 1888 he was very successful as Parsifal at the Bayreuther Festspielen. He continued singing Parsifal at Bayreuth every year until 1901 and again in 1911 and 1912. From 1888/98 he was engaged at the "Wiener Hofoper" where in 1892 he created the role of Werther at the première of Massenet's eponymous opera. He also sang at the Viennese premières of Massenet's "Manon" (1890), Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" (1893) and Kienzl's "Der Evangelimann" (1896). In France he created several Wagner roles in their Paris premières; Siegmund in "Die Walküre" (1892), Siegfried in "Götterdämmerung" (1908) and the re-performance of "Tannhäuser" (1895) after the debacle in 1861. He made guest appearances at London (Covent Garden), St. Petersburg, Moscow, Bukarest, Prague, Marseille and Budapest. From 1898/1902 he was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera New York. From 1906 on he was also working as a singing teacher at Brussels and Antwerp. His daughter Isolde van Dyck was a well known concert singer.

Marie Renard, born Marie Pölzl (1864-1939); Austrian mezzo-soprano/soprano.
In 1882 she made her debut at Graz as Azucena in “Il Trovatore”. From 1882/85 she was engaged at the “Deutschen Theater” in Prague and from 1885/88 at the “Hofoper Berlin”. In 1888 she was contracted by the “Wiener Hofoper” where she remained until her retirement from the stage in 1900.
Here she sang in 1890 the title role in the first Viennese performance of Massenet's “Manon”. In 1892 she created the role of Charlotte in Massenet’s “Werther”, with the tenor Ernest Van Dyck in the role of Werther. For this Viennese premiè the opera was translated into German. Also in 1892 she sang Eva in the world premiere of “Ritter Pázmán” by Johann Strauss II. Further on she created the role of Frau Dot in the première of Goldmark's “Das Heimchen am Herd” (1896) and Tatjana in the first Viennese performance of Tchaikovsky's “Eugene Onegin” (1897). Her farewell performance to the Viennese public (1900) was as Carmen, one of her star roles.

On the photo they are seen as Des Grieux and Manon in Massenet's opera "Manon".