Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Geoffrey Parsons

A world renowned opera singer, Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE, was born Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf in Jarotschin in 1915. Technically a German born vocalist -- her hometown would become part of Poland in 1919 -- she made her first real waves in Vienna, and was extremely well received in Great Britain. Her first performance took place in 1928, in Magdeburg, Germany. That role, as Eurydice in a school production of Orfeo ed Euridice, soon led to a formal musical education in 1934, when Schwarzkopf moved to Berlin to pursue her operatic goals. While her early ye...