Elizabeth Schwarzkopf was born in Jarotschin, Russian Poland in 1915. She commenced studies at the Berlin Hochschule with Lula Mysz-Gmeiner in 1934. Unhappy with her classification as a contralto she then studied with Maria Ivogun. She joined the Berlin Stadtische Oper in 1938 singing a number of lighter, coloraturo rôles and then moved to the Vienna State Opera at the invitation of the conductor Karl Böhm. It was with that company that she visited Covent Garden in 1947, a year which also marked her Salzburg début as Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. She later added Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Fiordiligi in Cosi van tutte, both by Mozart.
Always popular in the UK, she was a regular member of the Covent Garden company 1947-1953 singing a variety of parts in English. Her début at La Scala in Milan was in 1948, and she returned there regularly until 1963. In 1951 she created the rôle of Anne Trulove in The Rakes Progress by Stravinsky, in Venice. In the same year she made her Bayreuth début as Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Her Metropolitan Opera début was as the Marschallin in the Richard Strauss Die Rosenkavalier in 1964. Her 1955 San Francisco and 1962 Paris débuts were in the same part.
She retired from opera in 1972 and from concerts in 1975. She was an outstanding lieder singer and gave concerts worldwide. She identified with the Viennese tradition and indeed her voice had a certain Viennese quality. Elizabeth Schwarzkopf made a vast number of recordings and in 1953 married Walter Legge, artistic director of E.M.I. records. Since her retirement she has conducted master classes in Europe and America. She was created a Dame of the British Empire in 1992.
