Herta Glaz (also spelled Hertha; [1] September 16, 1910 in Vienna – January 28, 2006 in Hamden, Connecticut [2] ) was an Austrian-born American operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher, and opera director of Austrian birth. She became a United States citizen in 1943. From 1942 to 1956, she was a fixture at the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang in more than 300 performances. She was also highly active with the San Francisco Opera between 1944 and 1951. Some of the roles she portrayed on stage were Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro , Annina, Siegrune in Die Walküre , Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung and Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg . [3]
In her later years, Glaz became a celebrated voice teacher and opera director. She taught voice at the Manhattan School of Music from 1956 to 1977, University of Southern California from 1977 to 1994, the Aspen Music Festival between 1987 and 1994, and privately from her homes in New Haven and Los Angeles. Her notable pupils included sopranos Susan Davenny Wyner and Sally Sanford, and mezzos Gail Dubinbaum, Jacalyn Kreitzer, and Cynthia Munzer. In 1963 she founded the New Haven Opera Society which later became the New Haven Opera Theater (NHOT). She served as NHOT's director until the company disestablished due to financial reasons in 1976. With the company she presented 12 seasons of fully staged opera productions, as well as a highly active schedule of opera performances for school children. [3]
Glaz was trained at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna and the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. She married several times during her life: first to conductor Joseph Rosenstock and then to Viennese composer Paul August Csonka. Her third and last marriage was to Viennese psychiatrist Frederick Redlich which lasted nearly fifty years. Redlich was notably the Dean of the Yale University School of Medicine. [4]
Christa Ludwig was a German mezzo-soprano and sometime dramatic soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, lieder, oratorio, and other major religious works like masses, passions, and solos in symphonic literature. Her performing career spanned almost half a century, from the late 1940s until the early 1990s.
Hans Ferdinand Redlich was an Austrian musicologist, writer, conductor and composer who, due to political disruption by the Nazi Party, lived and worked in Britain from 1939 until his death nearly thirty years later.
Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf, was a German-born Austro-British lyric soprano. She was among the foremost singers of lieder, and is renowned for her performances of Viennese operetta, as well as the operas of Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss. After retiring from the stage, she was a voice teacher internationally. She is considered one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century.
Frederick Carl Redlich ("Fritz") was a psychiatrist and academic administrator. He was dean of the Yale School of Medicine from 1967 to 1972.
Giulietta Simionato was an Italian mezzo-soprano. Her career spanned the period from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966.
Gundula Janowitz is an Austrian lyric soprano singer of operas, oratorios, lieder, and concerts. She is one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century and was pre-eminent in the 1960s and 1970s.
Célestine Galli-Marié was a French mezzo-soprano who is most famous for creating the title role in the opera Carmen.
Srebrenka "Sena" Jurinac was a Bosnian-born Austrian operatic soprano.
Anna Bellschan von Mildenburg was an eminent Wagnerian soprano of Austrian nationality. Known as Anna Bahr-Mildenburg after her 1909 marriage, she had been a protégé of the composer/conductor Gustav Mahler during his musical directorship at the Hamburg State Opera. In 1898, Mahler took her to the Vienna State Opera, where she established herself as one of the great stars during his celebrated tenure there as music director.
Selma Kurz was an Austrian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her brilliant coloratura technique.
Marie Gutheil-Schoder was an important German soprano.
Gail Dubinbaum is an American operatic coloratura mezzo-soprano and co-founder and Creative Director of the Phoenix Metropolitan Opera.
Marie Renard was an Austrian operatic mezzo-soprano, later soprano.
Edyth Walker was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the 1890s through the 1910s. She began her career performing roles from the mezzo-soprano repertory, but later successfully added several soprano parts to her repertoire as well. While she did perform in Italian and French language operas, she had a clear affinity for works in the German language. She particularly excelled in the operas of Richard Wagner. After retiring from the stage, she was active as a voice teacher in both France and the United States. Her voice is preserved on several gramophone recordings, made mainly for His Master's Voice, between 1902-08.
Hertha Töpper was an Austrian contralto in opera and concert, and an academic voice teacher. A member of the Bavarian State Opera, she appeared in leading roles at major international opera houses and festivals.
Hermine Haselböck is an Austrian mezzo-soprano in opera, concert and lied.
Hertha ('Hati') Natzler (1911–1985) was a stage and film actress in Austria active from 1928 until 1936.
Piroska Anday known as Rosette Anday, was a leading Hungarian mezzo-soprano.
Hertha is a feminine given name which may refer to:
Linda Watson is an American dramatic soprano and academic voice teacher. She made her career based in Germany where she studied and began as a mezzo-soprano at the Theater Aachen. She has performed worldwide, including at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera and the Bayreuth Festival. She focused on dramatic roles by Wagner, including Brünnhilde and Isolde, and Strauss, including Ariadne and the Dyer's Wife. She was awarded the title Kammersängerin in Germany in 2004 and in Austria in 2020.