Elisabeth Höngen

Elisabeth Höngen ( born December 7, 1906 in Gevelsberg, Westphalia, † 6 August 1997 in Vienna) was a German singer (mezzo- soprano).

Life

Höngen entered the age of 15 years as a violinist. She studied German literature and musicology in Berlin, later singing. In 1932 she completed her studies as a singing teacher.

She made her debut in 1933 at the Opera House in Wuppertal. From 1940 to 1943 she sang at the Semperoper in Dresden, including Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten and Elektra, as well as Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth. Even as a song and oratorio singer she worked. With her ​​appearance on July 9, 1943, she verabschiedetet with the Carmen of Dresden and went to Vienna. There she was also on 30 June 1944 during the last performance before the destruction of the old Vienna State Opera in the bombing as Walt diamond in Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung on stage.

In a German sung black and white studio production of ORF 1959 Elisabeth Höngen occupied the role of abbess in the one-act opera Suor Angelica in Il trittico ( The Triptych ) by Giacomo Puccini.

From 1957 to 1960 she was a professor at the Vienna Academy of Music. The conductor Karl Bohm called it the "greatest tragic actress of the world."

Höngen was buried on Neustift cemetery in Vienna.