20th-century German women opera singers

Meta Seinemeyer (September 5, 1895 – August 19, 1929) was a German opera singer with a spinto soprano voice.
Seinemeyer was born in Berlin, where she studied at the Stern Conservatory with Ernst Grenzebach. She made her debut at the Deutsche Opernhaus in 1918. She joined the Dresden Semperoper in 1924, and began appearing at the Vienna State Opera in 1927.
On the international scene, she sang at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, as Agathe in Der Freischütz, Sieglinde in Die Walküre, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1926, and at the Royal Opera House in London in 1929, as Eva, Elsa in Lohengrin and Sieglinde.
Besides the great Wagner heroines, she also played an important role in the renaissance of Verdi's operas in Germany, winning considerable acclaim as Leonora in La forza del destino, Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos, and the title role in Aida. She was also admired as Marguerite in Faust, Maddalena in Andrea Chénier, and the title role in Tosca.
She took part in the creation of Ferruccio Busoni's Doktor Faust in Dresden in 1925.
Her voice is notable for her flawless management of register breaks, resulting in a seamless stream of tone from top to bottom. The voice has a very rich, enveloping sound, discernable even despite the limitations of the extant acoustic recordings. In some of these she partners the tenor Tino Pattiera, with whom she often appeared on stage.
One of the greatest German singers of her generation, her career was cut short when she died of leukemia in Dresden a few weeks short of her 34th birthday. Very shortly before her death, she married the conductor Frieder Weissmann(1893–1984). She is buried at the Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery close to Berlin.

Erna Dorothea Luise Sack (née Weber; 6 February 1898 – 2 March 1972) was a German lyric coloratura soprano, known as the German Nightingale for her high vocal range.

Margarethe Arndt-Ober (b. Berlin, April 15, 1885–d. Bad Sachsa, March 17, 1971) was a German opera singer who had an active international career during the first half of the twentieth century. A highly skilled contralto, Ober enjoyed a particularly long and fruitful association with the Berlin State Opera from 1907 to 1944. She also was notably a principal singer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City between 1913 and 1917.

Ottilie Metzger-Lattermann also formerly Ottilie Metzger-Froitzheim (15 July 1878 – February 1943) was a German contralto who was a famous performer of works by Wagner during the 1910s, and who after her retirement was murdered in Auschwitz.

Margarete Teschemacher (3 March 1903 – 19 May 1959) was a German operatic soprano, particularly associated with the German repertory, although she sang a wide range of roles. She possessed a warm lyrico-dramatic voice and a good stage presence.

Elisabeth Höngen (7 December 1906 – 7 August 1997) was a German operatic mezzo-soprano and singing-actress. She was particularly associated with Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss roles, and with Verdi's Lady Macbeth. From 1947 onward she was one of the Vienna State Opera's most prominent artists for nearly 30 years.

Erika Köth (15 September 1925 in Darmstadt – 20 February 1989 in Speyer) was a German operatic coloratura soprano, particularly associated with the roles of Zerbinetta and Zerlina.
Köth began a musical studies in Darmstadt with Elsa Blank in 1942, and after an interruption resumed them in 1945. She made her stage debut in Kaiserslautern as Philine in Mignon, in 1948, and then sang in Karlsruhe (1950–53). She made her debut at the Munich State Opera and the Vienna State Opera in 1953, and at the Berlin State Opera in 1961. She appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival (1955–64), as the Queen of the Night and Konstanze and Sophie, and in Bayreuth (1965–68), as the Woodbird. She also made guest appearances in Milan, Paris, London, etc.
Her repertory included: Susanna, Zerlina, Sophie, Despina, Queen of the Night, Lucia, Gilda, Stravinsky's Le Rossignol, and The Rake's Progress.
She had a small but piercing voice of great agility with a range extending remarkably high.
She can be seen on black-and-white video in the role of Rosina in a complete German performance of The Barber of Seville with Fritz Wunderlich, Hermann Prey, and Hans Hotter, and in a German performance of Don Giovanni, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Donald Grobe, Walter Berry, and Josef Greindl. Her discography also includes many operetta and lieder recordings.

Elisabeth Rethberg (née Lisbeth Sättler; 22 September 1894 – 6 June 1976) was a German operatic spinto soprano singer who was active from the period of the First World War through the early 1940s. After Richard Strauss assigned the role of the Empress in his Die Frau ohne Schatten to her at the Dresden Opera in 1919, she went on to perform as Verdi's Aida at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and La Scala in Milan, among others. She returned to Dresden often, including to appear in title role of Die ägyptische Helena in the world premiere.

Irmgard Seefried (9 October 1919 – 24 November 1988) was a distinguished German soprano who sang opera, sacred music, and lieder.
Maria Theresia Irmgard Seefried was born in Köngetried, near Mindelheim, Bavaria, Germany, the daughter of educated Austrian-born parents. She studied at Augsburg University before making her debut in Aachen as the priestess in Verdi's Aida in 1940. She began to sing leading parts in 1942 (Agathe in Weber's Der Freischütz in 1942, and the next year she made her debut at Vienna State Opera with Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg conducted by Karl Böhm). From then on, she remained with the State Opera until her retirement in 1976.
She sang at the Salzburg Festival every year from 1946 to 1964 (except 1955, 1961 and 1962) in operas (Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Marzelline in Fidelio and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos), concerts and recitals.
She appeared at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London from 1947 to 1949, and also La Scala in Milan, the Edinburgh Festival, etc. She made her Metropolitan Opera in New York City debut in November 1953 as Susanna in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro and appeared there for only one season (1953–54), in five performances, all as Susanna.
One of the outstanding singers to emerge immediately after the Second World War, she was noted for her Mozart and Richard Strauss roles. But she also sang in other composers' operas; the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Marie in Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Eva in Meistersinger, Blanche in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, and the title role in Janáček's Káťa Kabanová. She was also a noted lieder singer, and a number of her Salzburg Festival recitals were recorded. She left many recordings of oratorio and sacred music by Bach, Mozart, Haydn (including at least four different renditions of the Archangel Gabriel in Die Schöpfung), Brahms, Fauré, Beethoven, Dvořák, Verdi and Stravinsky.
Although she was a high soprano, she performed, and recorded, both the trouser roles of the Composer and Octavian in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier, respectively. These roles are usually associated with weightier voices, and today are usually sung by mezzo-sopranos.
She often sang with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who said in interview that Seefried was naturally able to achieve results effortlessly which other singers, including Schwarzkopf herself, had to work hard to produce.She can be seen singing Mahler on a DVD from EMI, with Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.
She was married to Austrian violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan, one of the concertmasters of the Vienna Philharmonic, from 1948 until her death. They had three daughters, one of whom is actress Mona Seefried (born 1957).After retirement, she taught students at the Vienna Academy of Music (Wiener Singakademie) and Salzburg Mozarteum. She died at 69 in Vienna in 1988.

Charlotte "Lotte" Pauline Sophie Lehmann (February 27, 1888 – August 26, 1976) was a German-American lyric soprano noted for her successful performances with international opera houses, on the recital stage and in teaching.: 5 She gave memorable appearances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart, and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Sieglinde in Die Walküre and the title-role in Fidelio are considered her greatest roles. During her long career, Lehmann also made almost five hundred recordings in both opera and art song.