Anneliese Rothenberger facts for kids
Anneliese Rothenberger (born June 19, 1924 – died May 24, 2010) was a famous German opera singer. She was known as a soprano, which is a female singer with a very high voice. Anneliese sang in operas all over the world from 1942 to 1983. She was especially good at singing the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Strauss.
Contents
Anneliese Rothenberger's Singing Journey
Anneliese Rothenberger was born in a city called Mannheim in Germany. She studied singing with a teacher named Erika Müller. Her first singing job was in Koblenz in 1942. In 1946, she joined the Hamburg Opera House. There, she sang in a famous show called Lulu by Alban Berg. She also performed this role at the Munich Opera Festival.
Performing Around the World
In 1954, Anneliese sang for the first time at the important Salzburg Festival. Three years later, she appeared in Rolf Liebermann's Schule der Frauen. From 1954, she often sang as a guest at the Vienna State Opera.
People in New York City first heard her amazing voice in 1960. She sang at the Metropolitan Opera in a show called Arabella. She later performed in many other operas there. These included Le nozze di Figaro, Un ballo in maschera, Orfeo ed Euridice, Die Fledermaus, and La bohème.
She also sang in Der Rosenkavalier. Her performance in that opera was so good that another famous singer, Lotte Lehmann, called her 'the best Sophie in the world'. A famous conductor, Herbert von Karajan, even chose her to be in a filmed performance of Der Rosenkavalier at the Salzburg Festival.
Changing Roles
When Anneliese started her career, she mostly sang light, high-pitched parts. But by the mid-1960s, she began to sing roles that needed more dramatic acting and stronger voices.
Some of these new roles included Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. She sang this in 1965 with Fritz Wunderlich at the Salzburg Festival. She also played Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Zdenka in Richard Strauss's Arabella. Other important roles were Marie in Berg's Wozzeck and Violetta in La traviata. She also sang in many modern operas by composers like Henze and Britten.
Later Life and Retirement
In the 1970s, Anneliese Rothenberger became very popular on television. She stopped performing in 1983. Her husband passed away in 1999 after they had been married for 45 years. After that, she moved to Switzerland, near Lake Constance.
In 2003, she received a special award called the Echo Klassik Award for her lifetime achievements in music. She also wrote a book about her life in 1973, called Melodie meines Lebens (which means 'Melody of my Life').
Anneliese Rothenberger passed away in May 2010 in Münsterlingen, Switzerland. She was 90 years old. There is even a type of rose named after her, called the Anneliese Rothenberger rose.
Famous Recordings
Anneliese Rothenberger made many recordings of her opera performances. These recordings let people listen to her beautiful voice even today. Some of the operas she recorded include The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Arabella, Die Fledermaus, and The Marriage of Figaro.
She sang with many other famous singers on stage and in her recordings. Some of these partners were Lisa della Casa, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Fritz Wunderlich, and Nicolai Gedda. She also recorded many operetta songs and other classical songs.
