Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, soprano

VIENNA – Famed soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, a 20th century legend who won global acclaim for her renditions of Mozart and Strauss, died at her home in Austria.

She was 90. Schwarzkopf, who ranked alongside Maria Callas as a giant of the opera and concert stage, retired in 1975.She captivated audiences and critics alike during a career that spanned four decades.Her leading roles, ranging from Elvira in Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ to the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’ ‘Der Rosenkavalier’, were immortalised on records and CDs.So were her recitals of lieder – German songs of a lyrical, often popular character.Performing with an array of famous conductors, including Wilhelm Furtwaengler, Otto Klemperer, Vittorio de Sabata and Herbert von Karajan, the German-born soprano was what Italian opera aficionados would call a “diva assoluta” – an absolute star.”Perhaps never again will there be a recitalist like her,” wrote Andre Tubeuf, one of Europe’s most influential music critics and one of her many enthusiastic admirers.Schwarzkopf was born December 9 1915, in Jarotschin in what was then eastern Germany, but which became the Polish town of Jarocin in the redrawing of national boundaries after World War I ended three years later.Her family moved to Berlin, where she became a prize-winning student at the Berlin Hochschule fuer Musik, now part of the Berlin University of the Arts.Schwarzkopf made her operatic debut at the Berlin Municipal Opera as one of the flower maidens in Richard Wagner’s ‘Parsifal’ in 1938.Given short notice, she learned the part overnight.Two years later she already was singing prominent parts, including as Zerbinetta in Strauss’ ‘Ariadne on Naxos’.Tuberculosis forced her to rest for a year, just after she was signed by the Vienna State Opera.Following recovery in 1944, she could sing only a few weeks in Vienna before Allied air raids sent the curtains falling on all stages.American CARE parcels were her pay for entertaining US soldiers in the early post-war days.But when European opera houses reopened, her reputation grew rapidly with Vienna, Salzburg, Bayreuth and Milan’s La Scala among early milestones.The aging Arturo Toscanini, who heard her singing the Missa Solemnis at La Scala, greeted her with: “I never had the soprano so good.”It was through her that Arthur Rubinstein learned to love lieder, as he wrote in his memoirs.”She showed that the human voice can be as much an instrument of phrasing as the violin,” one enthralled critic gushed after her first appearance in London’s Covent Garden in 1947 with the Vienna State Opera Company.Her farewell to stage came in 1971 at the Brussels Opera in ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ before a gala audience including Belgium’s King Baudouin.Her recitals continued to draw capacity audiences until her last appearance in Zurich, three days before her husband died in 1979.Nampa-APSchwarzkopf, who ranked alongside Maria Callas as a giant of the opera and concert stage, retired in 1975.She captivated audiences and critics alike during a career that spanned four decades.Her leading roles, ranging from Elvira in Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’ to the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’ ‘Der Rosenkavalier’, were immortalised on records and CDs.So were her recitals of lieder – German songs of a lyrical, often popular character.Performing with an array of famous conductors, including Wilhelm Furtwaengler, Otto Klemperer, Vittorio de Sabata and Herbert von Karajan, the German-born soprano was what Italian opera aficionados would call a “diva assoluta” – an absolute star.”Perhaps never again will there be a recitalist like her,” wrote Andre Tubeuf, one of Europe’s most influential music critics and one of her many enthusiastic admirers.Schwarzkopf was born December 9 1915, in Jarotschin in what was then eastern Germany, but which became the Polish town of Jarocin in the redrawing of national boundaries after World War I ended three years later.Her family moved to Berlin, where she became a prize-winning student at the Berlin Hochschule fuer Musik, now part of the Berlin University of the Arts.Schwarzkopf made her operatic debut at the Berlin Municipal Opera as one of the flower maidens in Richard Wagner’s ‘Parsifal’ in 1938.Given short notice, she learned the part overnight.Two years later she already was singing prominent parts, including as Zerbinetta in Strauss’ ‘Ariadne on Naxos’.Tuberculosis forced her to rest for a year, just after she was signed by the Vienna State Opera.Following recovery in 1944, she could sing only a few weeks in Vienna before Allied air raids sent the curtains falling on all stages.American CARE parcels were her pay for entertaining US soldiers in the early post-war days.But when European opera houses reopened, her reputation grew rapidly with Vienna, Salzburg, Bayreuth and Milan’s La Scala among early milestones.The aging Arturo Toscanini, who heard her singing the Missa Solemnis at La Scala, greeted her with: “I never had the soprano so good.”It was through her that Arthur Rubinstein learned to love lieder, as he wrote in his memoirs.”She showed that the human voice can be as much an instrument of phrasing as the violin,” one enthralled critic gushed after her first appearance in London’s Covent Garden in 1947 with the Vienna State Opera Company.Her farewell to stage came in 1971 at the Brussels Opera in ‘Der Rosenkavalier’ before a gala audience including Belgium’s King Baudouin.Her recitals continued to draw capacity audiences until her last appearance in Zurich, three days before her husband died in 1979.Nampa-AP