Rita Streich

Rita Streich, a light lyric coloratura, was the kid of the Russian mom and a German prisoner-of-war dad. Circuitously, the family members made its method to Berlin where Streich was raised, and analyzed with Maria Ivogün, Erna Berger, and Willi Domgraf-Fassbänder (the daddy of Brigitte, and Germany’s leading Papageno between wars). She produced her debut in 1943 at Aussig (today Ústí nad Labem around the north border from the Czech Republic), performing Zerbinetta in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. In 1946, she joined up with the Berlin Staatsoper in the Unter den Linden, presented as Blonde in Mozart’s The Abduction from your Seraglio and Olympia in Offenbach’s The Stories of Hoffmann. There, until 1951, she also sang Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Gilda in Rigoletto, and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. During two following seasons in the Städtische Oper, briefly relocated in the Theatre des Westens, she sang Zerbinetta, Konstanze this time around in The Seraglio, as well as the Queen of the night time in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In 1952 – 1953 she was the Woodbird in Wagner’s Siegfried in the reopened Bayreuth Event, then became a member of the Vienna Condition Opera, where she continued to be an associate until her pension from your stage in 1972. Streich produced frequent guest looks at Munich, nevertheless, and in 1954 debuted at London (Zerlina and Susanna, in Mozart’s Don Giovanni as well as the Relationship of Figaro, respectively), the Salzburg Event (as Aennchen in Der Freischütz under Furtwängler), and Rome (Sophie once again). La Scala arrived down the road. The soprano produced her U.S. debut in 1957 at SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, performing two shows each as Despina in Mozart’s Così lover tutte, Zerbinetta in Ariadne, and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier. She came back in 1959 for just two more Zerbinettas, however in 1960 turned towards the Chicago Lyric Opera — a residence too capacious on her behalf voice. She made an appearance 3 x as Susanna in Figaro, and repeated the part in 1962, adding three even more shows as Amor in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. They were her last American opera looks. Her tone of voice was a little instrument for all your purity and specialized control, better suitable for a small theatre such as for example Glyndebourne, where she made an appearance for the very first time in 1958 as Zerbinetta. Through the 1950s, Streich became a best-selling name on recordings as Zerbinetta, Sophie, Susanna, Aennchen, Adele in Die Fledermaus, and Blonde, but specifically on recital discs that included coloratura stunt-fluff aswell as music by Mozart, Schubert, Wolf, Richard Strauss, also Milhaud — most thoroughly selected for the fach and size of her tone of voice, although not necessarily temperamentally ideal. In the 1960s ,she made an appearance in Viennese operettas aswell as operatic repertory, generously noted on German broadcast tapes of live shows. Streich retired through the stage in 1972 to instruct at Essen, but came back four years afterwards to Vienna, where she continuing to instruct, and where she passed away at age sixty-six. In the 1950s, and for a few years after, she was regarded the most important German coloratura of her era, frequently likened to her ageless instructor Erna Berger.