Lisa Della Casa

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Lisa Della Casa (born in Burgdorf on February 2, 1919) is a Swiss soprano who was famous for her interpretation of works by Mozart and Richard Strauss.

Born to an Italian-Swiss father (a doctor) and Bavarian-born mother, she studied singing under Margarete Haeser at Zurich Conservatory and made her operatic debut as the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Zoloturn-Biel Municipal Theater in 1940. She joined the ensemble of Zurich Municipal Opera House in 1943 (stayed there until 1950) and sang various parts; from the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte to Dorabella in Così fan tutte. In 1947, she married Yugoslavian-born journalist Dragan Debeljevitch.

Della Casa sang the part of Zdenka in the performance of Richard Strauss' Arabella at Zurich Municipal Opera House to 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 performance, Richard Strauss himself commented: "Miss Della Casa will become new Arabella some day."

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 and then sang 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 in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bayreuth Festival in 1952.

It might be said that she made three key debuts in her career.

1) When she sang the part of Arabella in the Bavarian State Opera Company's performances at Covent Garden.

2) When singing the part of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier for the first time in her life - at the Salzburg Festival.

3) Her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House of New York (the Met) as Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. (She sang at the Met regularly until 1968.)

In 1955, she sang the part of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier for the first time; it was a performance 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' Elektra and Countess Almaviva in 1957 (she also made a recital at the Festival in the same year), Arabella in 1958, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in 1959. 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's Octavian and Hilde Gueden's Sophie.

She surprised the audience by singing the title role in Salome at the Bavarian State Opera House in Munich in 1961. From the time of this performance onwards, she tried a few more dramatic parts in Italian operas such 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 1963, when the famous German soprano (and her colleague at 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.

From the mid-1960s her voice began to decline and she gave fewer performances. In 1974, she sang Arabella at the Salzburg Festival. It was after this performance that she surprised everyone by announcing that it was to be her last and subsequently retired.

Della Casa's delicate, silvery-toned beautiful lyric voice fitted ideally the heroines of Mozart and Strauss operas. Some commentators have claimed that although she lacked the brilliant vocal technique that Elisabeth Schwarzkopf had, it was the naturalness in her singing that gave it another kind of charm. She was a critical and reflective person admitting that she did not like "music business" with its intrigues and vanities.

She has left several complete opera recordings mainly for the Decca label; her interpretations of Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro (Erich Kleiber conducting) and the title role in Arabella (Georg Solti conducting) are still regarded as amongst the finest ever recorded. She made the first commercial recording of Richard Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder (Karl Böhm conducting) in 1953 for Decca, and many classical music lovers claim this recording to be the greatest available.