Lisa Della Casa
Encyclopedia
Lisa Della Casa is a Swiss soprano
most admired for her interpretations of major heroines in major operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and Richard Strauss
, of German lieder, and for her great beauty. She was dubbed “the most beautiful woman on the operatic stage”. A colleague, lyric soprano, the late Anneliese Rothenberger, said: "She was like Liz Taylor!" ("Sie war wie die Liz Taylor!") For costume artist and set designer Rolf Gerard, della Casa was quite simply: “perhaps the greatest and noblest of prima donnas, with one of the most beautiful voices and certainly the most beautiful person.” ("Sie war vielleicht die grösste und nobelste Primadonna mit einer der schönsten Stimmen und bestimmt der schönste Mensch.")
Born in Burgdorf, Canton of Bern, to Italian-Swiss father Francesco della Casa (an ophthalmologist and theatre man) and Bavarian-born mother Margarete Mueller, (restauranter) in Burgdorf, Switzerland, she studied singing, beginning at age 15, under Margarete Haeser at Zurich Conservatory and made her operatic debut as the title role in Puccini
's Madama Butterfly
at Solothurn-Biel Municipal Theater in 1940. She joined the ensemble of Zurich Municipal Opera House in 1943 (staying there until 1950) and sang various parts, from the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte to Dorabella in Così fan tutte
. Later, she sang Fiordiligi. After a first marriage to a man who did not share her passion for music, she married, in 1949, Yugoslavian-born journalist and violinist Dragan Debeljevic, with whom she had a daughter, Vesna Debeljevic. (See: Margrit Roth in "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin", German documentary film, 2008.)
Della Casa sang the part of Zdenka in the performance of Richard Strauss' Arabella
at Zurich Municipal Opera House to her revered soprano Maria Cebotari
's Arabella in 1946. Cebotari recognized her talent and introduced her at the Salzburg Festival
in 1947, where she sang Zdenka again in Arabella - starring Maria Reining and Hans Hotter
. After the premiere performance, Richard Strauss himself commented, "The little Della Casa will one day be Arabella!" e.g., "Die Kleine Della Casa wird eines Tages Arabella sein!", which prediction was so true that she has identified herself and been identified by others with this role ever since her debut in the title role. (See Bibliography: Debeljevic, Dragan, Ein Leben mit LISA DELLA CASA oder "In dem Schatten ihrer Locken", Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag Zürich, 1975, ISBN 3 7611 0474 X, p. 30.) In the same year, she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera
House, singing Gilda in Verdi
's Rigoletto. Soon she moved to Vienna and joined the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera House. In 1949, she made her debut at La Scala
Opera House in Milan as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier
and Marcelline in Beethoven
's Fidelio
. Victor de Sabata
, the musical director of La Scala at that time, tried to persuade her to move to La Scala, but she chose to remain in Vienna.
Della Casa made her British debut singing the part of Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival. It was at this festival, during a crisis involving Fritz Busch, that someone asked what her husband, who always accompanied her, did in life, and she replied matter-of-factly: "He loves me" e.g. "Er liebt mich." This story, according to her husband, made the tour of the world and followed della Casa to the end of her career. She then went on to sing the title role in Arabella (her signature role) for the first time in her life - at the Bavarian State Opera
House in Munich in 1951. She sang Eva with pleasure in Wagner
's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
at the Bayreuth Festival
in 1952, but she was never to sing the Bayreuth Festival again, preferring the summer Salzburg Festival.(See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin", German documentary film, 2008.)
In 1953, she sang the part of Arabella in the Bavarian State Opera Company's performances at Covent Garden
, and sang the part of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier for the first time, at the Salzburg Festival. On 20th November in 1953, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera
House in New York (the Met) as the Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. Since her debut, she sang totally 173 complete opera performances at the Met until her last performance there on 9th December, 1967 as Countess Almaviva. Her repertoire at the Met is as below:
In 1955, she sang the part of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier
for the first time; it was in a series of performances to celebrate the opening of the restored Vienna State Opera House. As a result, she had sung all three parts - the Marschallin, Octavian, Sophie - in Der Rosenkavalier.
The Salzburg Festival was one of the most important venues in her career. She sang Ariadne in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos
and Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni
in 1954, (once again) Donna Elvira in 1956, Chrysotemis in Richard Strauss's Elektra
and Countess Almaviva in 1957 (she also gave a recital at the Festival in the same year), Arabella in 1958. Colleague Inge Borkh stated emphatically: "She was THE Arabella!" e.g., "Sie war DIE Arabella!" (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
Della Casa sang Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in 1959, another performance she subsequently recorded. On 26 July 1960, the newly-built Salzburg Festspielhaus opened with a performance of Der Rosenkavalier under Herbert von Karajan
. Della Casa sang the part of the Marschallin in this performance with Sena Jurinac
as Octavian and Hilde Gueden
as Sophie. Originally, Karajan and film director Paul Czinner planned to make a film of the performance, they asked Della Casa to sing the part of the Marschallin in the film too and she gladly accepted. But by the interception of Walter Legge, well-known recording producer of EMI and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s husband, Della Casa was replaced by Schwarzkopf for the film. Shocked with being betrayed by this last-minute decision, although she sang the scheduled performances of the season(the Marschallin and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Della Casa decided never to sing there again. When asked several times subsequently to do so, she declined, replying: "No, sir, for me, Salzburg is dead”. e.g., “No, sir, Salzburg für mich ist gestorben.” See: ("Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
She surprised her audiences by singing the title role in Salome
at the Bavarian State Opera House in Munich in 1961. Colleague and the Elekra of her time, Inge Borkh said that della Casa was “very sexy,... because she did not seek to be so." e.g., “Sie war sehr sexy... unbewusst!” (See: Interview of Inge Borkh in "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.) From the time of this performance onwards, she took on a few more dramatic parts in Italian operas, succeeding notably as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello
and the title role in Puccini's Tosca
, but finally returned to lyric parts in Mozart and Richard Strauss operas. In 1964, when the above-mentioned German soprano (now both her colleague and rival at the Vienna State Opera House) Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
made her debut at the Met as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Della Casa sang Octavian to her Marschallin. Anneliese Rothenberger and Rolf Gerard attested that contrary to Bing's and the public’s desire for scandal, there showed no hard feelings between the two sopranos during this period. Gerard who was working at the time with famous Met director Rudolph Bing called the latter a “publicity genius".(See: Interview of Lisa Della Casa with Heinz Fischer-Karwin, ORF TV, 1967.)
In the mid-1960s, the 'Kammersängerin's' taste for the operatic stage began to decline and she gave fewer performances. As film excerpts show, her singing was still functioning at its best. However, in 1970, her daughter Vesna, then 20, suffered an aneurysm. Della Casa valiantly kept to her engagements, notably in Handel’s Agrippina
in Zürich. Vesna, between life and death, had to be operated on immediately. She survived the operation, but there were complications. She begged her mother to continue singing, as it made her feel healthier, but Della Casa devoted more and more time to her daughter’s recovery, even buying a house in Spain where the family could gather undisturbed most of the year, and gave fewer and fewer performances until finally, in 1974, she sang her last Arabella at the Wiener Staatsoper. It was after a television interview in the same year that she shocked opera lovers the world over by announcing that it was to be her last public appearance of any kind, and she subsequently retired. She was 55. She was then considered to be at the height of her career and left her fans jaw-slung open: "no explanations, no comeback, no masterclasses, no interviews, no private appearances". Vesna spoke movingly of her mother’s “unceasing, limitless love” e.g., "...eine Liebe ohne Ende," towards her during this very difficult period. (See: Interviews with both husband Dragan Debeljevic and daughter Vesna Debeljevic in "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
And it wasn’t to be the last. Quite a few years later—perhaps a result of the shock at having almost lost her only child, then her sudden retirement from a profession chosen for her by her father originally but which, according to della Casa, became, “Gott sei Dank” a prevailing passion for her—she herself suffered a kind of stroke, but recovered from it after four years. (See interviews with brother, Dr Franz Della Casa and Prof Dr Martin Krause, Kantonsspital Muensterlingen, 2007.) Her daughter Vesna expressed her happiness at being able to repay her mother some of the loving care that she had herself received after her aneurysm. Of the career she'd quit from one day to the next, her husband Dragan put it very succinctly: “She lived her private life. Onstage, she didn’t live, she worked.” Yet her daughter attested that her mother “ had never acted her roles, she had lived them.” e.g., "Sie spielte nie ihre Rolle auf der Bühne, sie wohnte sie." (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
Della Casa's deceptively delicate-sounding, silvery-toned lyric voice (to be compared with Anneliese Rothenberger's lighter soprano) ideally fit the heroines of Mozart and Strauss operas. Some commentators have claimed that although she lacked the brilliant vocal technique of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, it was the naturalness in her singing that gave her performances so much charm. Others have argued that she was the greatest (coloratura) Mozartian and Straussian soprano of her day. (See Andre Tuboeuf, "Le Festival de Salzbourg", June,1989, pgs 132-33.)
Having acted in several films, the earliest recorded document of her singing, at the age of 20, reveals that her talent was already all there—beauty of tone, control of the voice (breathing, placement), the inimitable phrasing, the unassuming yet unerring knowhow, all that made her famous. (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
Lisa Della Casa was a critical and reflective person, admitting that she did not like the "music business" with its intrigues and vanities. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau said of her that after hearing a performance he was astonished and wanted to congratulate her, but she was still so involved in her role that she never heard his compliments. She also smoked during her career and smokes today, with defiance: "Why not?" e.g., "Warum nicht?" In a much earlier BBC television interview conducted in English (BBC, 1963) when the soprano was in mid-career, she was asked if smoking were not bad for her health. Smilingly she replied: "You know, while in Vienna, I went to a special singers' doctor and asked him...., and he answered....'it is the singing which is more dangerous than the smoking,' and I smoke longer than I sing." (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
She has left several complete opera recordings mainly for the Decca
label: her interpretations of Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Erich Kleiber
) and the title role in Arabella (Georg Solti
) are still regarded as amongst the finest ever recorded. She made the first commercial recording of Richard Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder (Karl Böhm
) in 1953 for Decca, and many classical music lovers claim this recording to be the greatest available. Her Elvira sung to perhaps the greatest Don Giovanni of his time, Cesari Siepi, is available both on CD and DVD. (See: Mozart - Don Giovanni, Furtwängler, with Siepi, Grümmer, Dermota, Edelmann, Berry, Berger, DGG, 1954.) She also recorded a memorable Countess under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf during her years at the Met, starring the bass-baritone Georgio Tozzi in the title role and others of the Met’s top Mozart interpreters of that period, along with Pamina in Die Zauberflöte Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (Fritz Reiner
), Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben, The Merry Widow
(highlights) in English seconded by one of the great Don Giovannis of the time, Eberhard Waechter, as well as other lieder albums, most of which are available today.
As an interpreter of lied
er, she often performed with the German pianist Sebastian Peschko
and Hungarian Arpad Sandor. She also made several appearances in the acclaimed US television edition of the Bell Telephone Hour and appeared regularly on Swiss television, giving interviews and performances, as well as participating in game shows. (See Bibliography.)
In October 2007 and November 2008, Lisa della Casa, members of her family (her husband, Dragan Debeljevic, daughter, Vesna Debeljevic, brother, Dr Franz Della Casa and cousin, Margrit Roth) and colleagues (Inge Borkh, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Anneliese Rothenberger, Rolf Gerard...) agreed to being interviewed as part of a German documentary film by Thomas Voigt and Wolfgang Wunderlich on the soprano’s life and career. She was approaching 90. This film was last shown 5 April 2010 on the German television channel 3SAT and has ample footage of della Casa's career, as well as rare television footage. Best of all perhaps is Della Casa herself, very alive, even feisty, still a warm radiant ray of sun in the winter of her days. (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
most admired for her interpretations of major heroines in major operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, of German lieder, and for her great beauty. She was dubbed “the most beautiful woman on the operatic stage”. A colleague, lyric soprano, the late Anneliese Rothenberger, said: "She was like Liz Taylor!" ("Sie war wie die Liz Taylor!") For costume artist and set designer Rolf Gerard, della Casa was quite simply: “perhaps the greatest and noblest of prima donnas, with one of the most beautiful voices and certainly the most beautiful person.” ("Sie war vielleicht die grösste und nobelste Primadonna mit einer der schönsten Stimmen und bestimmt der schönste Mensch.")
Born in Burgdorf, Canton of Bern, to Italian-Swiss father Francesco della Casa (an ophthalmologist and theatre man) and Bavarian-born mother Margarete Mueller, (restauranter) in Burgdorf, Switzerland, she studied singing, beginning at age 15, under Margarete Haeser at Zurich Conservatory and made her operatic debut as the title role in Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
at Solothurn-Biel Municipal Theater in 1940. She joined the ensemble of Zurich Municipal Opera House in 1943 (staying there until 1950) and sang various parts, from the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte to Dorabella in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
. Later, she sang Fiordiligi. After a first marriage to a man who did not share her passion for music, she married, in 1949, Yugoslavian-born journalist and violinist Dragan Debeljevic, with whom she had a daughter, Vesna Debeljevic. (See: Margrit Roth in "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin", German documentary film, 2008.)
Della Casa sang the part of Zdenka in the performance of Richard Strauss' Arabella
Arabella
Arabella is a lyric comedy or opera in 3 acts by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, their sixth and last operatic collaboration. It was first performed on 1 July 1933, at the Dresden Sächsisches Staatstheater....
at Zurich Municipal Opera House to her revered soprano Maria Cebotari
Maria Cebotari
Maria Cebotari was a celebrated Moldavian soprano and actress born in Bessarabia, Russian Empire , who made her career in Germany & Austria.-Biography:...
's Arabella in 1946. Cebotari recognized her talent and introduced her at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
in 1947, where she sang Zdenka again in Arabella - starring Maria Reining and Hans Hotter
Hans Hotter
Hans Hotter was a German operatic bass-baritone, admired internationally after World War II for the power, beauty, and intelligence of his singing, especially in Wagner operas. He was extremely tall and his appearance was striking because of his high, narrow face, wide mouth, and big, aquiline nose...
. After the premiere performance, Richard Strauss himself commented, "The little Della Casa will one day be Arabella!" e.g., "Die Kleine Della Casa wird eines Tages Arabella sein!", which prediction was so true that she has identified herself and been identified by others with this role ever since her debut in the title role. (See Bibliography: Debeljevic, Dragan, Ein Leben mit LISA DELLA CASA oder "In dem Schatten ihrer Locken", Atlantis Musikbuch-Verlag Zürich, 1975, ISBN 3 7611 0474 X, p. 30.) In the same year, she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
House, singing Gilda in Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Rigoletto. Soon she moved to Vienna and joined the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera House. In 1949, she made her debut at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
Opera House in Milan as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
and Marcelline in Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
. Victor de Sabata
Victor de Sabata
Victor de Sabata was an Italian conductor and composer. He is widely recognized as one of the most distinguished operatic conductors of the twentieth century, especially for his Verdi, Puccini and Wagner. He is also acclaimed for his interpretations of orchestral music...
, the musical director of La Scala at that time, tried to persuade her to move to La Scala, but she chose to remain in Vienna.
Della Casa made her British debut singing the part of Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Glyndebourne Festival. It was at this festival, during a crisis involving Fritz Busch, that someone asked what her husband, who always accompanied her, did in life, and she replied matter-of-factly: "He loves me" e.g. "Er liebt mich." This story, according to her husband, made the tour of the world and followed della Casa to the end of her career. She then went on to sing the title role in Arabella (her signature role) for the first time in her life - at the Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
House in Munich in 1951. She sang Eva with pleasure in Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
at the Bayreuth Festival
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th century German composer Richard Wagner are presented...
in 1952, but she was never to sing the Bayreuth Festival again, preferring the summer Salzburg Festival.(See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin", German documentary film, 2008.)
In 1953, she sang the part of Arabella in the Bavarian State Opera Company's performances at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, and sang the part of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier for the first time, at the Salzburg Festival. On 20th November in 1953, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
House in New York (the Met) as the Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. Since her debut, she sang totally 173 complete opera performances at the Met until her last performance there on 9th December, 1967 as Countess Almaviva. Her repertoire at the Met is as below:
- Le Nozze di Figaro : Countess Almaviva (47 performances)
- Don Giovanni : Donna Elvira (34 performances)
- Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg : Eva (23 performances)
- Der Rosenkavalier : Die Feldmarschallin (17 performances) and Octavian (8 performances)
- Der Zigeunerbaron : Saffi (17 performances)
- Arabella : Arabella (16 performances)
- Ariadne auf Naxos : Ariadne (4 performances)
- Lohengrin : Elsa (4 performances)
- Madama Butterfly : Cio-Cio-San (2 performances)
- La Bohème : Mimì (1 performance)
In 1955, she sang the part of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier
Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Louvet de Couvrai and Molière’s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac...
for the first time; it was in a series of performances to celebrate the opening of the restored Vienna State Opera House. As a result, she had sung all three parts - the Marschallin, Octavian, Sophie - in Der Rosenkavalier.
The Salzburg Festival was one of the most important venues in her career. She sang Ariadne in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos
Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Bringing together slapstick comedy and consuming beautiful music, the opera's theme is the competition between high and low art for the public's attention.- First version :The opera was originally...
and Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
in 1954, (once again) Donna Elvira in 1956, Chrysotemis in Richard Strauss's Elektra
Elektra (opera)
Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, which he adapted from his 1903 drama Elektra. The opera was the first of many collaborations between Strauss and Hofmannsthal...
and Countess Almaviva in 1957 (she also gave a recital at the Festival in the same year), Arabella in 1958. Colleague Inge Borkh stated emphatically: "She was THE Arabella!" e.g., "Sie war DIE Arabella!" (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
Della Casa sang Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in 1959, another performance she subsequently recorded. On 26 July 1960, the newly-built Salzburg Festspielhaus opened with a performance of Der Rosenkavalier under Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
. Della Casa sang the part of the Marschallin in this performance with Sena Jurinac
Sena Jurinac
Sena Jurinac Sena (Srebrenka) Jurinac Sena (Srebrenka) Jurinac ([juˈrinats] (24 October 192122 November 2011) was a Bosnian Croat/Austrian operatic soprano.Born in Travnik, Bosnia-Herzegovina, she studied at the Zagreb Academy of Music, and also with Milka Kostrenčić (whose other well-known...
as Octavian and Hilde Gueden
Hilde Gueden
The Austrian soprano Hilde Gueden, or Güden was one of the most appreciated Straussian and Mozartian sopranos of her days...
as Sophie. Originally, Karajan and film director Paul Czinner planned to make a film of the performance, they asked Della Casa to sing the part of the Marschallin in the film too and she gladly accepted. But by the interception of Walter Legge, well-known recording producer of EMI and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s husband, Della Casa was replaced by Schwarzkopf for the film. Shocked with being betrayed by this last-minute decision, although she sang the scheduled performances of the season(the Marschallin and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Della Casa decided never to sing there again. When asked several times subsequently to do so, she declined, replying: "No, sir, for me, Salzburg is dead”. e.g., “No, sir, Salzburg für mich ist gestorben.” See: ("Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
She surprised her audiences by singing the title role in Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
at the Bavarian State Opera House in Munich in 1961. Colleague and the Elekra of her time, Inge Borkh said that della Casa was “very sexy,... because she did not seek to be so." e.g., “Sie war sehr sexy... unbewusst!” (See: Interview of Inge Borkh in "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.) From the time of this performance onwards, she took on a few more dramatic parts in Italian operas, succeeding notably as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
and the title role in Puccini's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, but finally returned to lyric parts in Mozart and Richard Strauss operas. In 1964, when the above-mentioned German soprano (now both her colleague and rival at the Vienna State Opera House) Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE was a German-born Austrian/British soprano opera singer and recitalist. She was among the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf.-Early life:Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike...
made her debut at the Met as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Della Casa sang Octavian to her Marschallin. Anneliese Rothenberger and Rolf Gerard attested that contrary to Bing's and the public’s desire for scandal, there showed no hard feelings between the two sopranos during this period. Gerard who was working at the time with famous Met director Rudolph Bing called the latter a “publicity genius".(See: Interview of Lisa Della Casa with Heinz Fischer-Karwin, ORF TV, 1967.)
In the mid-1960s, the 'Kammersängerin's' taste for the operatic stage began to decline and she gave fewer performances. As film excerpts show, her singing was still functioning at its best. However, in 1970, her daughter Vesna, then 20, suffered an aneurysm. Della Casa valiantly kept to her engagements, notably in Handel’s Agrippina
Agrippina
Agrippina may refer to:In people:* Vipsania Agrippina , daughter of Caecilia Attica and first wife of the Emperor Tiberius* Vipsania Marcella Agrippina , daughter of Claudia Marcella Major and first wife of general Publius Quinctilius Varus* Julia the Younger or Vipsania Julia Agrippina , daughter...
in Zürich. Vesna, between life and death, had to be operated on immediately. She survived the operation, but there were complications. She begged her mother to continue singing, as it made her feel healthier, but Della Casa devoted more and more time to her daughter’s recovery, even buying a house in Spain where the family could gather undisturbed most of the year, and gave fewer and fewer performances until finally, in 1974, she sang her last Arabella at the Wiener Staatsoper. It was after a television interview in the same year that she shocked opera lovers the world over by announcing that it was to be her last public appearance of any kind, and she subsequently retired. She was 55. She was then considered to be at the height of her career and left her fans jaw-slung open: "no explanations, no comeback, no masterclasses, no interviews, no private appearances". Vesna spoke movingly of her mother’s “unceasing, limitless love” e.g., "...eine Liebe ohne Ende," towards her during this very difficult period. (See: Interviews with both husband Dragan Debeljevic and daughter Vesna Debeljevic in "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
And it wasn’t to be the last. Quite a few years later—perhaps a result of the shock at having almost lost her only child, then her sudden retirement from a profession chosen for her by her father originally but which, according to della Casa, became, “Gott sei Dank” a prevailing passion for her—she herself suffered a kind of stroke, but recovered from it after four years. (See interviews with brother, Dr Franz Della Casa and Prof Dr Martin Krause, Kantonsspital Muensterlingen, 2007.) Her daughter Vesna expressed her happiness at being able to repay her mother some of the loving care that she had herself received after her aneurysm. Of the career she'd quit from one day to the next, her husband Dragan put it very succinctly: “She lived her private life. Onstage, she didn’t live, she worked.” Yet her daughter attested that her mother “ had never acted her roles, she had lived them.” e.g., "Sie spielte nie ihre Rolle auf der Bühne, sie wohnte sie." (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
Della Casa's deceptively delicate-sounding, silvery-toned lyric voice (to be compared with Anneliese Rothenberger's lighter soprano) ideally fit the heroines of Mozart and Strauss operas. Some commentators have claimed that although she lacked the brilliant vocal technique of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, it was the naturalness in her singing that gave her performances so much charm. Others have argued that she was the greatest (coloratura) Mozartian and Straussian soprano of her day. (See Andre Tuboeuf, "Le Festival de Salzbourg", June,1989, pgs 132-33.)
Having acted in several films, the earliest recorded document of her singing, at the age of 20, reveals that her talent was already all there—beauty of tone, control of the voice (breathing, placement), the inimitable phrasing, the unassuming yet unerring knowhow, all that made her famous. (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
Lisa Della Casa was a critical and reflective person, admitting that she did not like the "music business" with its intrigues and vanities. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau said of her that after hearing a performance he was astonished and wanted to congratulate her, but she was still so involved in her role that she never heard his compliments. She also smoked during her career and smokes today, with defiance: "Why not?" e.g., "Warum nicht?" In a much earlier BBC television interview conducted in English (BBC, 1963) when the soprano was in mid-career, she was asked if smoking were not bad for her health. Smilingly she replied: "You know, while in Vienna, I went to a special singers' doctor and asked him...., and he answered....'it is the singing which is more dangerous than the smoking,' and I smoke longer than I sing." (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
She has left several complete opera recordings mainly for the Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
label: her interpretations of Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor.- Biography :Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague...
) and the title role in Arabella (Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
) are still regarded as amongst the finest ever recorded. She made the first commercial recording of Richard Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder (Karl Böhm
Karl Böhm
Karl August Leopold Böhm was an Austrian conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century.- Education :...
) in 1953 for Decca, and many classical music lovers claim this recording to be the greatest available. Her Elvira sung to perhaps the greatest Don Giovanni of his time, Cesari Siepi, is available both on CD and DVD. (See: Mozart - Don Giovanni, Furtwängler, with Siepi, Grümmer, Dermota, Edelmann, Berry, Berger, DGG, 1954.) She also recorded a memorable Countess under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf during her years at the Met, starring the bass-baritone Georgio Tozzi in the title role and others of the Met’s top Mozart interpreters of that period, along with Pamina in Die Zauberflöte Mahler’s Fourth Symphony (Fritz Reiner
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin “Fritz” Reiner was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century.-Biography:...
), Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben, The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
(highlights) in English seconded by one of the great Don Giovannis of the time, Eberhard Waechter, as well as other lieder albums, most of which are available today.
As an interpreter of lied
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
er, she often performed with the German pianist Sebastian Peschko
Sebastian Peschko
Sebastian Peschko was a German classical pianist specialised in the art form of lieder and as such was partner to some of the foremost lyrical singers of the 20th century....
and Hungarian Arpad Sandor. She also made several appearances in the acclaimed US television edition of the Bell Telephone Hour and appeared regularly on Swiss television, giving interviews and performances, as well as participating in game shows. (See Bibliography.)
In October 2007 and November 2008, Lisa della Casa, members of her family (her husband, Dragan Debeljevic, daughter, Vesna Debeljevic, brother, Dr Franz Della Casa and cousin, Margrit Roth) and colleagues (Inge Borkh, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Anneliese Rothenberger, Rolf Gerard...) agreed to being interviewed as part of a German documentary film by Thomas Voigt and Wolfgang Wunderlich on the soprano’s life and career. She was approaching 90. This film was last shown 5 April 2010 on the German television channel 3SAT and has ample footage of della Casa's career, as well as rare television footage. Best of all perhaps is Della Casa herself, very alive, even feisty, still a warm radiant ray of sun in the winter of her days. (See: "Lisa della Casa: Liebe einer Diva, Porträt der Sopranistin”, German documentary film, 2008.)
External links
- With several pictures
- To listen to sound samples
- Discography (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)