Irmgard Seefried

Born October 9, 1919 in Germany, Irmgard Seefried, the accomplished lieder and opera singer, started developing her singing skills at a very early age. Her musical instructor was her father in those years. She first sang in public at age 8. At the young age of 11 she sang Gretel in the opera Hansel and Gretel by Englebert Humperdinck.She began singing at the Aachen Stradttheater in 1939. Her first performance at the Stradttheater was as Priestess in Aida. While employed at the Aachen Stradttheater by Herbert von Karajan, she sang (being led by Theodor Rehmann) for the cathedral. As three years went by she left the Aachen Stradttheater and went on to sing at Vienna State Opera. Led by Karl Böhm, she sang as Eva in Der Meistersingen. As she stayed under the membership of the Vienna State Opera for many years, she began to make various appearances at places such as, the Convent Garden Opera in London, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Milan, Edinburgh, and Salzburg.She became noted for her performances as Fiodiligi, Cleopatra, Eva, Susanna, Giulio Cesare. She was key in the rediscovery of Mozart's Lieder. Although there is only a small collection of Schubert lieder in her body of work, it remains some of the most beautiful in her entire collection. Her colleague Elisabeth Schwarzkopf noted her naturalness as saying "Singing just came easily to her".