Irmgard Seefried

Within the 1940s and early 1950s, Irmgard Seefried was a paragon among German lyric sopranos, her voice fresh and crystalline, her stage presence vital and attractive. Although she was a smart and well-prepared musician, the impression she produced was among significant spontaneity. Her Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte had been very different masterpieces, the very first piquant and cunning, the last mentioned immediate and innocent, though under no circumstances the pallid character others have enforced upon her. Her Composer in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos was a determining interpretation, ardently sung and passionately acted. It had been captured in live show in 1944 and, once again, in the studio room a decade afterwards when her tone of voice was at its zenith. With the past due 1950s, an early on drop, which some possess attributed to performing too past due into being pregnant and time for the stage too early after childbirth, stole an excellent measure of independence from her performing although she continued to be a strong musician dramatically. Seefried started her teaching with her dad who experienced urged a qualification in music in the case she had to create her personal living. She analyzed at Augsburg University or college, 1st with Albert Meyer and, later on, with Paola Novikova (with whom she continuing to work lengthy after her profession was founded). Her stage debut occurred at Aachen in 1940 when she sang the Priestess inside a creation of Aida. After Nuri in d’Albert’s Tiefland, she was surprised to find that this theater’s music movie director, Herbert von Karajan, experienced planned her for Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. As she recognized later on, she “got aside” using the role because of the theater’s little size and an extremely lyric method of the extremely dramatic part. After 3 years in Aachen, Seefried relocated to Vienna where she became a member of that theater’s ensemble of remarkable Mozart performers. Her wartime shows were achieved under conditions of utter privation: small heat, little meals, repeated outings to shelters during both rehearsals and shows. Seefried’s Eva under Karl Böhm founded her as an designer with an unlimited long term and she quickly became a popular using the Vienna general public. She was honored when you are chosen to seem because the Composer in Ariadne to celebrate Richard Strauss’ 80th birthday and in 1946 produced her 1st appearance at Salzburg where her Pamina became famous. London noticed her in 1947 when she performed Susanna and Fiordiligi using the going to Vienna Opera. Susanna offered on her behalf debut part at La Scala in 1949. Although her Susanna was well-received in the Metropolitan Opera in November 1953, Seefried didn’t go back to that theatre, but do make memorable looks with Chicago’s Lyric Opera from 1961. Chicago noticed her Zerlina and Marzelline in her debut season and her still-wonderful Composer in 1964. Furthermore to opera, Seefried was a first-rank interpreter of Lieder along with a concert vocalist much popular. In her leading years, her performing from the soprano single servings of Bach’s St. Matthew Interest, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and, most importantly, Haydn’s Creation was unparalleled. She performed all three of the works together with Wilhelm Furtwängler, an important guide and coach. Seefried’s recitals at Salzburg and somewhere else had become treasured events. A lot of her previous Lieder recordings support the status she loved among connoisseurs of gorgeous and communicative performing.