Anneliese Rothenberger
The soprano Anneliese Rothenberger enjoyed a distinguished stage career and was also a greatly beloved figure on German television. She could have spent her entire artistic life singing operetta heroines and the light sopranos of Mozart and Strauss. She chose, however, to balance those areas of her repertoire with a good deal of contemporary opera, which played to her impressive strengths both musically and dramatically. Rothenberger’s reach as a communicator extended well beyond opera houses and concert halls, thanks to her own highly successful television show, which made her a household name throughout the German-speaking world.
Although she sang several coloratura roles (among them Oscar, Blonde, Olympia and Adele), her voice was more of a high lyric soprano. As such she was utterly at home in two definitive Strauss portrayals widely viewed as definitive, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Zdenka in Arabella. Enhancing Rothenberger’s artistry in all her roles were thoughtful musicianship, innate charisma and complete command of the stage.
The Mannheim native studied at her home town’s Musikhochschule with a well-known Strauss interpreter, Erika Müller. She began building her repertoire in Koblenz, where she made her debut in 1943. Oscar in Un ballo in maschera was her initial role at the Hamburg Staatsoper; she performed as a member of that company’s permanent ensemble from 1946 to 1959, thereafter making guest appearances until 1973. Other leading German houses heard her as well, and for more than two decades she was closely associated with the Vienna Staatsoper.
Among the modern works assigned to Rothenberger in Hamburg was Gottfried von Einem’s Der Prozess (the German premiere), and she travelled to Edinburgh with the company for Paul Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler (its British premiere). There were also two world premieres of works by Rolf Liebermann, both at the Salzburg Festival: Penelope (1954, Rothenberger’s Salzburg debut) and Die Schule der Frauen (1957). Well into her career, the soprano remained committed to contemporary opera — for example, Heinrich Sutermeister’s Madame Bovary, which she created in Zürich in 1967.
In Salzburg there were also performances as Mozart’s Papagena, Flaminia in Haydn’s Il mondo della luna, and in the above-mentioned Strauss roles. A more womanly repertoire came Rothenberger’s way in her mid-forties (most notably Konstanze and Fiordiligi in Salzburg), but she will be most fondly remembered for lighter roles — her effervescent Adele in Die Fledermaus and, of course, her Sophie and Zdenka. The latter two characters brought out different qualities in Rothenberger’s effortless upper register: she could “float” ethereally as Sophie, while her Zdenka showed a dazzling radiance when letting loose at full voice. As Arabella’s impulsive and lovesick sister, Rothenberger had an extraordinary youthful freshness and energy, creating a notable contrast when the opera’s heroine was portrayed by the matchlessly elegant Lisa Della Casa. This partnership, fortunately, has been preserved on commercial disc in a live Arabella recorded in Munich.
Arguably the finest Sophie since Elisabeth Schumann two generations earlier, Rothenberger was hailed by Europe’s most demanding Strauss audiences — those of Vienna and Munich — and she enchanted Glyndebourne in the role in 1959 and 1960.
La Scala and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires first heard her as Sophie, while at the Metropolitan Opera she made her debut there as Zdenka. Her other Met roles from 1960 to 1965 included Oscar, Musetta, Adele, Susanna, Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice, and, inevitably, Sophie. Rothenberger triumphed at the Met during the Hamburg Staatsoper’s 1967 guest engagement, portraying Berg’s Lulu. In New York, Hamburg and later in Munich, the public was repeatedly stunned by this portrayal from a singer previously known mainly for playing endearing ingénues.
Rothenberger’s operatic activities also included appearances at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Florence’s Maggio Musicale. She made ample time for concerts and recitals, having begun to tour internationally in the early 1950s with visits to North and South America. Subsequent tours would take her throughout Europe as well as to Russia and Japan.
A trim, exceptionally photogenic blonde, Rothenberger was a natural for the large and small screen. There were several opera and operetta roles on television, plus roles in two feature films: the Powell and Pressburger version of Die Fledermaus, entitled Oh ... Rosalinda!!; and Der Rosenkavlier, directed by Paul Czinner and conducted by Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg, with Rothenberger joined by Sena Jurinac and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.
In 1971, four years after Rothenberger’s initial television special, the German television channel ZDF presented the premiere of Anneliese Rothenberger gibt sich die Ehre. The show, which ran for a decade, found the singer entirely comfortable chatting and performing with celebrated artists from many different realms of music. On numerous occasions she also hosted ZDF programmes designed to present promising young operatic talent. Although she gave her final opera performances in 1983 and her final recital in 1989, Rothenberger seems never to have totally retired from public life, and was appearing on television as recently as 2009.
If you want to listen to these recordings write me at canariasesmusica@gmail.com and I will send you the link.
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