In Memorium, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Master Singer And Master Teacher

Olga Maria Elisabeth Frederike Schwarzkopf was born in Jarotschin, Prussia (now part of Poland). She trained at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, before launching her operatic, and lieder, career in Berlin, and later Vienna. She was best known for her intense concentration on the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, R. Strauss, and all of the great German lieder composers including H. Wolf. She also sang limited Handel, Gounod, Verdi, and Puccini, and Debussy's Mélisande .

At Igor Stravinsky's request, she took the leading role of Anne Trulove in the September 11, 1951 world premiere of his English-language based ''The Rake's Progress'' in Venice, Italy.

Though her operatic and lieder performances in the United States were more limited than on the Continent or in England, she later emerged as a highly prominent recording artist, a demanding vocal master teacher including at the Juilliard School in New York City, and an outspoken anti-modernist and post-modernist.

Photo credit: www.genarians.com. With thanks.