Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

For more information on Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, visit Britannica.com.

(b Jarotschin, 9 Dec 1915). German soprano. After study at the Berlin Hochschule she made her stage début at the Städtische Oper in 1938, then studied further with Ivogün. She joined the Vienna Staatsoper in 1942, made her Salzburg début in 1947 and that year joined the Covent Garden company, remaining for four seasons. She made her La Scala début as Mozart's Countess in 1948, created Stravinsky's Anne Trulove in 1951 and made her Met début as the Marschallin in 1964. Her lustrous lyric soprano and her fine musicianship (supported by her husband, Walter Legge) made her the leading Mozart and Strauss opera singer of her day; she was also the foremost female singer of lieder, performing Schubert and Wolf with beauty of tone and line and great musical intelligence.

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During an international singing career that stretched from the 1940s into the 1970s, German singer Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (born 1915) was one of the most celebrated sopranos of all time. In the 1950s and 1960s, she was a fixture on the worldwide opera circuit, performing regularly in the great concert halls of Europe and the United States and making immortal recordings of many important operas and German lieder. Her delivery of some of operas classic roles, particularly the Marschallin in "Der Rosenkavalier",set the standard for generations of sopranos to come. While her stature as one of the great singers of her time is secure, Schwarzkopf's activities in Germany during the Nazi era have cast a shadow of scandal on her otherwise sterling career.

Olga Maria Elisabeth Frederike Schwarzkopf was born on December 9, 1915, in Jarocin, Poland to German parents, Friedrich Schwarzkopf and Elisabeth Fröhling. Like so many musical superstars, her drive and talent were obvious from an early age. Her first opera performance, at the age of 12, was in the role of Eurydice in a school production of Orfeo et Euridice in Magdeburg, Germany, where the family had relocated. In 1934 she was accepted as a student at the Berlin High School for Music, where she stood out even in such a competitive atmosphere, surrounded by other highly talented youths.

Made Professional Debut in Parsifal

Schwarzkopf's first voice instructor, Lula Mysz - Gmeinter, pegged the young singer as a mezzo - soprano, but Schwarzkopf's mother, attuned to the career implications of one's vocal range, demanded a coaching switch. Schwarzkopf eventually transferred to the care of a Dr. Egonolf, who saw a future for her as a coloratura soprano, the operatic sub - category with the very highest range. She studied with Egonolf for over a year before making her professional debut with the Berlin Deutsche Oper as the Second Flower Maiden in Act II of Wagner's Parsifal in 1938.

Schwarzkopf sang exclusively with Berlin's Deutsche Oper for four years. Shortly after joining the group, she joined the Nazi party, a move she viewed at the time as a reasonable career advancement strategy, but which would stir considerable controversy later. Biographer Alan Jefferson actually traced Schwarzkopf's Nazi association to an even earlier point, with a stint as leader of the party's student association in 1935. In 1939 she was admitted to the Reichstheaterkammer, the Nazi propaganda ministry's performing arts outpost that sought to maintain the ideological purity and patriotism of Germany's actors and musicians. During her tenure with the Deutsche Oper, Schwarzkopf performed outside of Berlin only once, in 1941, when she sang the role of Adele in Die Fledermaus when the company went on tour to the Paris Opera.

While at the Deutsche Oper, Schwarzkopf was noticed by the Hungarian soprano Maria Ivogun, who became her coach and mentor, and taught her to sing lieder, or traditional German songs. One of the fringe benefits of studying with Ivogun was that her husband, Michael Raucheisen, happened to be one of the best accompanists in the business. Schwarzkopf gave her first recital as an interpreter of German lieder in 1942 in Berlin. Shortly afterward, she contracted tuberculosis, and spent about a year in 1943 and 1944 recuperating at a sanatorium in the Tatra mountains. Her absence sparked all sorts of crazy rumors, perhaps the most absurd being that she had gone off to bear Adolph Hitler's love child. Schwarzkopf left the Oper in 1946 and joined the Vienna State Opera, and - once she managed to convince examiners, falsely, that she had not been an active Nazi party member - her career began to accelerate. With the Vienna troupe, she toured the top opera houses of Europe. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni in September of 1947. Just over a year later she appeared at La Scala in Milan, Italy, for the first time, in the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. On the strength of her success in London - and the brisk sales of her recordings - Schwarzkopf was engaged as a guest member of the resident company at the Royal Opera House, also known as Covent Garden.

Teamed Up With Legge

Meanwhile, and perhaps not coincidentally, Schwarzkopf's social life also kicked into high gear around this time. In 1946 she was invited to audition for English record company executive and London Philharmonic co - founder Walter Legge, an extremely powerful figure in the classical music industry. Legge signed her to an exclusive recording contract with the EMI label, and became her manager as well. She quickly became a fixture in high - profile performances both on the stage and on vinyl. The business partnership between Schwarzkopf and Legge soon blossomed into a romance. Schwarzkopf moved to London in 1947, and the pair married in October of 1953. Working with Legge, Schwarzkopf went on to record the major operas of Mozart, the songs of Richard Strauss, and various works by Bach, Brahms, Mahler and other important composers.

With the Vienna State Opera, Schwarzkopf was the principal coloratura soprano during the second half of the 1940s. She was a regular at Covent Garden in London, at La Scala, and at the Bayreuth (Germany) and Salzburg (Austria) opera festivals. The warmth and flexibility of her voice made her a natural for such diverse roles as Mimi in La Boheme, Pamina in The Magic Flute, and the title role in Madame Butterfly, all of which were among the parts she sang between 1948 and 1951.

Schwarzkopf remained with the Vienna State Opera until 1950. The following year, she created the role of Anne Trulove in Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. In October of 1953, she made her American debut, singing lieder in New York to launch a year - long tour of the United States. Her prior association with the Nazis continued to hound her, and her New York debut was greeted by anti - Nazi protestors. Schwarzkopf's first American opera performance was as Marschallin - considered by many her signature role - with the San Francisco Opera Company in October of 1955. While her career prospered in America, she remained a regular visitor to such renowned Opera capitals as Salzburg and Milan through the rest of the 1950s.

Debuted at the Met in 1961

During most of the 1960s, Schwarzkopf focused almost exclusively on a small handful of operatic roles: Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni; the Countess in Nozze di Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro); the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier; Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte; and Countess Madeleine in Capriccio. In 1961 she appeared in a film of Der Rosenkavalier made from a Salzburg stage production. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1964, once again in the role of the Marschallin, and remained with New York's premier opera company for two seasons.

Schwarzkopf announced her retirement from opera in 1971. Her final performance was in Brussels, Belgium on New Year's Eve that year, fittingly in Der Rosenkavalier. She continued as an active performer for several more years, however, giving recitals of German lieder across the globe. In 1975 she undertook a "farewell" recital tour of the United States. While this marked the end of her concert career as a steady performer, she continued to give the occasional recital. In March of 1979, Legge had a major heart attach. Disregarding his doctor's instructions, he attended his wife's final recital two days later in Zurich, Switzerland; he died less than a week afterward.

In her "retirement," Schwarzkopf maintained a busy schedule of master classes, initially together with Legge until his death, and she oversaw the remastering and re - release of old recordings. As a teacher, Schwarzkopf by all accounts fit the stereotype of the demanding - some would way bordering on sadistic - taskmaster. A couple years into her retirement, Schwarzkopf's past Nazi involvement again became a matter of public debate among opera aficionados. In 1981 a Viennese music historian named Oliver Rathkolb published a doctoral thesis that revealed, based on documents found in the National Archives in Washington, that Schwarzkopf had underplayed her affiliation with the Nazis. During the period after World War II, Schwarzkopf had repeatedly denied that she had been a party member, eventually admitting only a "temporary" affiliation in the early 1940s. Rathkolb's research showed otherwise, and Schwarzkopf finally conceded in a 1983 letter to the New York Times that she had indeed been a member, though she asserted that jointing the party was strictly a career necessity, akin to obtaining a union card.

Biography Renewed Controversy Over Nazi Past

In spite of the controversy, Schwarzkopf's reputation as one of the great sopranos of all time remained intact. As of the mid - 1990s, she was EMI's third best selling artist, trailing only violinist Itzhak Perlman and fellow diva Maria Callas. On January 1, 1992, Queen Elizabeth II, of England, dubbed Schwarzkopf Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf continued to teach master classes, still ruthlessly, through the 1990s. In 1996 the first full - blown biography of Schwarzkopf was published. The unauthorized biography was written by British musicologist Alan Jefferson, who had already published acclaimed studies of several prominent German musicians, including Richard Strauss. Jefferson's book steered clear of lurid gossip, focusing primarily on the details of Schwarzkopf's performing and recording career. He did not, however, shy away from the troubling details of Schwarzkopf's past association with the Nazi party. While this issue made up only a small portion of the book, it went into far more detail than Rathkolb had earlier.

Among the new information unearthed by Jefferson was evidence that Schwarzkopf's political affiliations and unnamed friends in high places contributed as much to her rapid advancement early in her career as did her estimable talent. Jefferson also noted that shortly after arriving in Berlin, Schwarzkopf had an acting career that spanned at least five films, some of which could best be described as Nazi propaganda. She also did her part for the war effort, touring the Eastern Front to bolster the morale of German troops. Jefferson leaves it to the reader to determine whether these facts are serious indictments or merely a product of the unique situation confronting a young woman whose only real interest was in advancing her artistic career.

By the beginning of the 21st century, Schwarzkopf was living a quiet life in Zurich, Switzerland, where she still received the occasional student and made periodic public appearances. Schwarzkopf was by all accounts an utter perfectionist, as hard on herself when she was performing as she was on her students when her singing career had ended. Opera buffs point to the purity and precision of her voice as the quality that set her apart from her peers. In recent years, she viewed the modern opera world with some disdain. "It's a kind of prostitution now," Schwarzkopf was quoted as saying in a 1995 Opera News profile. "There's a disintegration of integrity of our profession. We have a generation of singers who have vanished, because they're forced to sing beyond their capacity." Future generations of listeners will determine how much irony is inherent in such comments from a giant of opera who made the kinds of decisions Elisabeth Schwarzkopf made in the name of pleasing the music industry.

Books

International Dictionary of Opera, St. James Press, 1993.

Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth, On and Off the Record: A Memoir of Walter Legg, Scribner, 1982.

Periodicals

New Yorker, August 26, 1996.

Opera News, December 9, 1995; August 1996.

Online

"Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf," http://sopranos.freeservers.com/elisabet.htm (December 27, 2004).

Oron, Aryeh, "Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Soprano," http://www.bach-cantatas.com (December 27, 2004).

• Period: Modern (1910-1949)
• Country: Germany
• Born: December 09, 1915 in Jarotschin, Germany
• Died: August 04, 2006 in Schruns, Vorarlberg province, Austria

Biography

The daughter of a teacher, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf began to study voice in 1934 at the Berliner Musikhochschule with Lula Mysz-Gmeiner and with Maria Ivogun. She also studied lieder interpretation with Michael Raucheisen, Ivogun's husband. In 1938, Schwarzkopf debuted in Berlin as a Flower Maid in Parsifal. She remained in Berlin until 1944 when she joined the Vienna State Opera making her debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. Her first international appearances were in 1947 at London with the Vienna State Opera on tour as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Marzelline in Fidelio. She became a regular guest at Covent Garden. That same year she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival and she appeared there nearly every year until 1964. At Salzburg she was best known for her Mozart roles of Donna Elvira, Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, but also had great success as Alice Ford in Falstaff and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. Her recitals with Gerald Moore as accompanist at Salzburg were always highly regarded, but in 1953 the great conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler accompanied her in an all Wolf recital. Her Teatro alla Scala debut in 1949 as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro was a great success and she sang there until 1964 in a variety of roles including Melisande, Carmina burana, Catulli Carmina, and Il Trionfo of Orff, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Elsa in Lohengrin, Anne in The Rake's Progress, Iole in Handel's Hercules, as well as her Mozart and Strauss roles. She made her San Francisco Opera debut in 1955, but did not sing at the Metropolitan Opera until 1964. Her belated debut there is attributed to her ties to the National Socialist regime in Germany and Austria.

As great as her reputation as an opera singer was, her work on the recital and concert stage had even higher acclaim. Her fame as a recitalist was matched only by that of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Her appearances were eagerly awaited around the world. In particular, her interpretations of the songs of Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf were admired. She is one of the few singers who was able to fulfill all of the requirements of an evening devoted to the songs of Wolf. On the concert stage she was often heard in cantatas and Passions of Bach, as well as the Verdi Requiem and symphonies of Mahler.

The voice of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf in her very early career was a light high soprano with excellent control of fioritura and breath control. As she matured, the middle and lower registers became much stronger and she began to sing more dramatic scores while giving up the lighter roles. By the late 1950s, she concentrated her operatic appearances on five or six roles to which she devoted great energy developing her interpretations to their highest level. This attention to detail and constant probing for added interpretive depth is the reason some writers find her performances too mannered and studied. In the recording studio, where she would work for hours perfecting one phrase, she was aided by her husband, record producer Walter Legge, in finding the perfect vocal color and phrasing to illuminate each piece. Even her most vocal critics stand in awe of the hard work that she brought to bear on even the simplest of songs. It is as a Mozart, Strauss and Wolf interpreter that Elisabeth Schwarzkopf will always be remembered. ~ Richard LeSueur, All Music Guide

Discography

Wolf: Lieder-Recital Buy this CD	Wolf: Lieder-Recital Buy this CD	Lieder Recital, Salzburg 1956 Buy this CD	Lieder Recital, Salzburg 1956 Buy this CD	Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Sings Operetta Buy this CD
Franz Schubert: Lieder Buy this CD	Richard Strauss: Four Last Songs/Capriccio/Arabella Buy this CD	Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Songbook Buy this CD	Richard Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder; Orchesterlieder Buy this CD	Schubert, Schumann, R. Strauss: Lieder Buy this CD

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