Elisabeth Rethberg was born in Germany in 1894. She studied in Dresden, making her début there in the rôle of Arsena in the Johann Strauss opera Zigeunerbaron. After seven years with the Dresden Opera Company she was invited to Salzburg in 1922. In the same year she made her Metropolitan Opera début, in the title rôle in Verdi's opera, Aida. She returned there for twenty-one consecutive seasons.
She also continued to sing in Europe, with five seasons at Covent Garden and a repeat of her Aida success at La Scala, as well as creating the title r├┤le in Die Aegyptische Helena, by the other Strauss, Richard.
In Paris she sang Br├╝nnhilde in Wagner's Die Walk├╝re, but her Wagner performances were usually in youthful dramatic r├┤les. She was very successful in the Verdi spinto roles and she brought presence and intelligence to everything she sang.
Rethberg was a natural musician and her well-schooled, beautiful lirico-spinto voice was evenly produced throughout its range. In 1957 she married the Metropolitan baritone, George Cehanovsky. She died in New York in 1976.
