Signe Hebbe by Florman

Signe Hebbe (1837-1925); Swedish soprano.
Besides an opera singer she was also a successful actress and theatre pedagogue. From 1852/54 she studied at the conservatory in Berlin. She debuted in a dramatic part at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in 1855, but did not succeed in spoken drama and continued to study singing. In 1856 she was accepted at the Conservatoire National Paris, where she became the first singer from Scandinavia to receive a medal. In Italy Francesco Lamperti developed her singing further and Adelaïde Ristori and Ernesto Rossi her dramatic talent. In the season 1861/62 she sang at Lyon, debuted in Germany at Frankfurt and was engaged at the National Theater at Mannheim. In the years 1864/79 she toured Europe and appeared at Stockholm, Karlsruhe, Copenhagen, Paris, Warsaw, Geneva, Milan, Palermo, Helsinki and Oslo. Her most memorable roles were Valentine in "Les Huguenots", Fidelio, Alice in "Robert le Diable", Susanna in "Le nozze di Figaro" and Violetta in "La Traviata".
As an actress she was criticized for her way of acting, because she did not like to interpret the female part as weak. She wanted to give them a more independent interpretation than the Victorian Age wanted to view women. In 1871 her contract at the Royal Swedish Opera stipulated that she should teach. From then on she was very active as an instructor until her death in 1925. She opened her own school in 1877 where she taught technique in speech, singing, plasticue and role analysis. She had been instructed in deep breathing by Delsartes and took this technique with her to Sweden. She had students from all Scandinavia, Europe and the USA. Two of her notable pupils were John Forsell and Carolina Östberg.