Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf DBE
The soprano around 1950
Born	Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf (1915-12-09)9 December 1915 Jarotschin, Prussia, Germany (now Poland)
Died	3 August 2006(2006-08-03) (aged 90) Schruns, Austria
Occupation	Classical soprano Voice teacher
Organization	Deutsche Oper Berlin Vienna State Opera Salzburg Festival
Awards	Lilli Lehmann Medal Edison Award Kammersängerin Honorary member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Honorary member of the Vienna State Opera Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres UNESCO Mozart Medal

Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, DBE (9 December 1915 – 3 August 2006) was a German-Britishsoprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and was renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta. After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher internationally.

Schwarzkopf was born on 9 December 1915 in Jarotschin in the Province of Posen in Prussia, Germany (now Poland) to Friedrich Schwarzkopf and his wife, Elisabeth (née Fröhlich). Schwarzkopf performed in her first opera in 1928, as Eurydice in a school production of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice in Magdeburg, Germany. In 1934, Schwarzkopf began her musical studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, where her singing tutor, Lula Mysz-Gmeiner, attempted to train her to be a mezzo-soprano. Schwarzkopf later trained under Maria Ivogün, and in 1938 joined the Deutsche Oper.

In 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's father, a local school headmaster, was dismissed from his position by the new ruling authorities for having refused to allow a Nazi party meeting at his school. He was also banned from taking any new teaching post. Until Friedrich Schwarzkopf's dismissal, the probability was that the 17-year-old Elisabeth would have studied medicine after passing her Abitur; but now, as the daughter of a banned schoolteacher, she was not allowed to enter university and she commenced music studies at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Schwarzkopf made her professional debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (then called Deutsches Opernhaus) on 15 April 1938, as the Second Flower Maiden (First Group) in act 2 of Richard Wagner's Parsifal. In 1940 Schwarzkopf was awarded a full contract with the Deutsches Opernhaus, a condition of which was that she had to join the Nazi party.