Elisabeth Grummer

Meeting Herbert von Karajan changed the course of Elisabeth Grümmer’s career. Born in 1911 in Niederjeutz, Alsace-Lorraine, the German soprano seemed set for a life as a wife and mother. But, after encouragement from the conductor, then music director of Aachen’s Stadttheater, she started singing lessons. Grümmer made her operatic debut at Aachen in 1940 as a Flowermaiden in Parsifal, returning as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier the following year. Roles by Strauss and Wagner, along with Mozart, would become the focus of a career that soon took her to Vienna, Covent Garden, Salzburg, Bayreuth and the Met, though Berlin always remained her musical home. Pearly purity and warmth, together with impeccable diction and musicality, give Grümmer’s performances their quality, whether singing a Bach Passion, lieder or a Wagner opera. Her impressive discography, featuring most major Mozart roles, Strauss’ Marschallin and Octavian, and Wagner’s Eva, includes recordings with many of the great conductors such as Georg Solti, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Karajan and Erich Kleiber.