Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Opera Singer, Dies at 90

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, left, in “Der Rosenkavalier” in the early 1960’s. She specialized in Strauss heroines.

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Published: August 4, 2006

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, the German-born soprano whose interpretations of Strauss and Mozart made her one of the most dazzling artists of her time, died yesterday at her home in Austria. She was 90.

 Her death was reported by Austrian state television. Citing a funeral home director, the broadcaster, ORF, said Miss Schwarzkopf had died in the town of Schruns in Austria’s westernmost province, Vorarlberg. No cause of death was given.

To her legions of admirers, Miss Schwarzkopf was a peerless interpreter of Strauss’s Marschallin, Mozart’s Donna Elvira and other operatic roles. But her image was tarnished in her later years by revelations that she had lied about the extent of her association with the Nazis during World War II.

Not only had she performed for the Nazis, it was learned, but she had also been a member of the party. In her defense, she said that for an artist needing work, joining the party had been “akin to joining a union.”

For a singer of such unquestionable stature, Miss Schwarzkopf’s work was controversial. In her prime, she possessed a radiant lyric soprano voice, impressive technical agility and exceptional understanding of style. From the 1950’s until the 1970’s, she was for many listeners the high priestess of the lieder recital, a sublime artist who brought textual nuance, interpretive subtlety and elegant musicianship to her work.

But others found her interpretations calculated, mannered and arch (the “Prussian perfectionist,” one critic called her), and complained that in trying to add textual vitality, Miss Schwarzkopf resorted to crooning and half-spoken dramatic effects.

Connoisseurs and critics could be surprisingly divided about her basic vocal gifts.

Will Crutchfield, reviewing some live recordings of Miss Schwarzkopf in recital, wrote in The New York Times in 1990: “It was always clear that she had a superior voice (a smooth, glamorous lyric soprano) and superior technical command.” Yet Peter G. Davis, writing in The Times in 1981, described her career as “a triumph of intelligence and willpower over what was basically an unremarkable voice.”

The consensus, however, was that in roles like the Marschallin and other Strauss heroines (Ariadne in “Ariadne auf Naxos,” the countess in “Capriccio”), as well as Mozart’s Fiordiligi and Countess Almaviva and Wagner’s Eva and Elsa, she could sing incomparably, with shimmering tone and richness and charismatic presence.

She was an uncommonly beautiful woman, despite a visible gap between her two front teeth that she never bothered to correct, with light hair and deep-set gray eyes. For a time in her younger years she pursued a career as a film actress and might have succeeded had she continued.

A hard-working, self-challenging singer, she performed 74 roles in 53 operas, including Anne Trulove in the world premiere of Stravinsky’s “Rake’s Progress” in Venice in 1951. Her lieder repertory included hundreds of songs by Schubert, Schumann, Mozart and Strauss, and she was a pioneering champion of the songs of Hugo Wolf, which she sang with insight and affecting beauty.

优秀的歌剧演唱家去世,深表遗憾!

我是多么的热爱她啊……

前几天还说，这老太太也许能活过100

结果……真快。今年是收人年么？

哦。。。天哪。。。。。。

才看到这么不幸的消息。。。今天还在听她的《最后四首歌》。。。。。。

............看来岁月不饶人啊.......

默哀>>