Rosl Schwaiger

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Rosl Schwaiger (5 September 1918 – 19 April 1970) was an Austrian operatic coloratura soprano. She sang at the Vienna State Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper and was especially known for Mozart roles such as Blonde, Susanna, and Zerlina. She appeared at major European opera houses and festivals, and was a beloved figure at the Salzburg Festival, where she performed in both opera and sacred concerts for many years.

Born in Saalfelden, Schwaiger received her first music instruction from her father, an organist, and studied piano and voice at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She made her debut in 1940 at the Salzburger Landestheater as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, then worked at Theater Basel and in Bregenz. She sang at the Volksoper from 1942 and at the Vienna State Opera from 1945 to 1952, with major roles including Susanna, Zerlina, Ännchen, Rosina, Norina, Olympia, Gilda, and Ninetta.

In 1952 she became first coloratura soprano for the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, where she performed with partners such as Harry Friedauer, Marianne Schech, Erika Köth, Martha Kunig-Rinach, and Sári Barabás. She appeared as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte (1956) and as Adina in L’elisir d’amore (1957). She remained a regular at the Salzburg Festival until 1965, and also sang Blonde, Barbarina, and Sophie at the festival in the mid-1940s. She gave sacred concerts at the Salzburg Cathedral in 1954 and performed in operetta, including Arsena in Der Zigeunerbaron.

Schwaiger toured North America in 1954 and sang at Glyndebourne in 1957 as Blonde, Papagena, and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos. She also gave lieder recitals in Greece and Turkey in 1958 and made a notable recording of Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro (1956) with Karl Böhm conducting. In 1966 she was named a Bavarian Kammersängerin and sang Maria at the premiere of Cesar Bresgen’s Salzburger Passion at the Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg. Rosl Schwaiger died in Munich in 1970 at the age of 51.