Selmar Cerini – the Polish/Jewish Jan Kiepura from Breslau

After several adventures Cerini was accepted into the Royal College of Music in Berlin. But his stay in Germany proved to be illegal and he was threatened with deportation. He was forced to hide from the police for several months and it looked as if things would end in catastrophe. But fate took a surprising turn. Patrons came to his aid, including the two brothers, Louis and Gustav Sachs and their brother-in-law Adolf Ginsberg. They were all so captivated by Selmar’s voice that this helped him recover his optimism. He was given a passport and brought his family to Berlin, where his voice aroused increasing public interest. 

He began to receive offers to sing. He quickly made a name for himself as a choir soloist in one of the Berlin synagogues, and sang his first opera aria in the Victoria Theatre. This was when he adopted the Italian-sounding name of Cerini, which he soon made his official name. But he never decided to assimilate completely and retained his Jewish faith. During this time he was invited to appear in several opera houses and worked for five years in the opera house in Leipzig. At the start of the 1990s he was offered a fixed contract by the Breslau Opera House where he was received enthusiastically by the audiences there. Performances in all the operas he sang were quickly sold out, and he made several guest appearance in other major towns in the Reich, and abroad.