Missouri Classical Music News

Radiant was an adjective applied frequently to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf by critics and others. It was used with justification. The word well described the famed and inimitable Schwarzkopf interpretations of certain heroines in Strauss operas, such as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and the Countess in Capriccio. It was altogether appropriate to her performance in lieder, with Wolf and Strauss (again) to the fore, to which she turned when she gave up the stage.

And it was quite right for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf herself, with her mane of hair acting almost like a halo, which remained golden well into old age. She was totally professional in all that she did, right through to her personal appearance. She used to tell the story of her arrival, with her mother, in gloomy, bomb-torn Vienna. They had little or no money, but her mother insisted that their meagre luggage contained one impressive and expensive-looking dress for auditions.

Scholars charge that she ... became part of Joseph Goebbels` Reichstheaterkammer in the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and that she made films for Goebbels. She also often gave performances at Nazi events and sang for SS troops. Schwarzkopf asserted until the 1980s that she had never officially joined the party, and famously shrugged off her early involvement with the Nazis as a move "akin to joining a union."

However, her talents on both the opera stage and as a recitalist performing the art songs called lieder were legendary. The coloratura soprano was famed for her interpretations of Strauss (particularly for her turns as the Marschallin in his opera Der Rosenkavalier and Countess Madeleine in Capriccio), Mozart (including roles in Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte), Hugo Wolf and Franz Lehar, among others. Stravinsky wrote the role of Anne Trulove in his opera The Rake`s Progress for Schwarzkopf.