Ernestine Schumann-Heink

Born Ernestine Ršssler in what is now part of Czechoslovakia, Schumann-Heink had an uncommonly opulent, powerful voice that made her ideal for Wagnerian roles, and for other dramatic parts. She made her stage debut, astonishingly, as Azucena in Dresden at the age of seventeen. Despite this remarkable debut, she then had to pay her dues for about a decade as she learned roles and stage-craft by singing small parts. However, there were triumphant moments, none more satisfying as when she was personally selected by the great conductor Hans von BŸlow to sing in Brahms' Alto Rhapso...