Sept 20, 1955. German opera singer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf makes her American debut in San Francisco, starring in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf DBE (December 9, 1915 – August 3, 2006), was a German opera singer (who later took British citizenship). She was one of the leading soprano of the post-World War II period, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Strauss and Hugo Wolf. .
She was born in Jarotschin in Prussia (now part of Poland) to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Elisabeth Fröhling. Christened Olga Maria Elisabeth Frederike Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf showed an interest in music from an early age.
In 1928, she performed in her first opera as Eurydice in a school production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in Magdeburg, Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her musical studies at the Berlin Hockschule für Musik. At the suggestion of the baritone Karl Schmitt-Walter, she switched teachers and started working with the celebrated coloratura soprano Maria Ivogün as well as with her husband, the noted pianist Michael Raucheisan. Ivogün's advice to her new pupil was, "Be noble, my child!"
Resources:
Elisabeth Schwarskopf (Soprano). Bach Cantatas Website. Accessed September 20, 2008.
Kennedy, Michael & Joyce & Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Eds. (2012). Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford University Press.
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