Elsa Stralia

Elsa Stralia (1 March 1881 – 31 August 1945) was an Australian soprano with an international reputation in Europe and America. She was born Elsie Mary Fischer.

Biography

After appearing in Sydney, she studied in Milan and London. She made her Covent Garden, London debut as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni in 1913, under the professional name of Elsa Stralia (after Australia, like Florence Austral). She appeared at Covent Garden, and in Milan, Paris, South Africa and New York. She toured in South Africa, and in a number of American cities, once singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" while dressed as the Statue of Liberty. She recorded for the Columbia Graphophone Company, and toured Australasia in 1925 and 1934.

Personal

She was born in Adelaide, to Hugo and Annie Fischer. The family moved to Melbourne in 1899, and she was convent-educated there. She married William Mountford Moses in 1908 in Sydney. She divorced him and married Adolph Theodor Christensen in Sydney in 1935. They lived in Patea, New Zealand until he died in 1943. She then moved to Melbourne where she died, childless, at Belgrave. Her estate was used to establish a scholarship for young Australian female singers.

References

• The Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 12 1891-1931, edited by John Ritchie (1990, Melbourne University Press).
• The Australian Dictionary of Biography