Rita Streich

Known for

Acting

Born

December 18, 1920

Birthplace

Barnaul, Altai Governorate [now Altai Krai], Russia

Died

March 20, 1987 (aged 66)

Biography

Rita Streich (18 December 1920 – 20 March 1987) was one of the most admired and recorded lyric coloratura sopranos of the post-war period.

Rita Streich was born in Barnaul, southern Siberia, in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), to a German father who had been a prisoner of war there, and a Russian mother. She moved to Germany with her parents during her childhood. She grew up speaking both German and Russian fluently, something that was extremely helpful during her later career. Among her teachers were Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, Erna Berger and Maria Ivogün.

She made her debut in opera during the Second World War at the Stadttheater of Aussig, now Ústí nad Labem in...