Elisabeth Schumann: A Biography

By Gerd Puritz

Written by her son, a biography of this great soprano which looks at the development of her technique, her career and her family life. Includes family photographs and a complete list of her... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0233987940
• ISBN13: 9780233987941
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Andre Deutsch
• Length: 375 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Elisabeth Schumann, by her son and grand-daughter.

I can't think of any category of readership who could find a disappointing page in this marvellous book. Elisabeth Schumann (1888-1952) proves to be a fascinating subject for a biography. Feted and adored by a music loving public, especially in Vienna between the two world wars, she established a lasting reputation firstly as the ideal Sophie in Richard Strauss's "Der Rosenkavalier", then for her roles in Mozart operas, and then for her lieder recitals and recordings. A woman who always wanted to be in love, her husbands included an architect, a conductor and a doctor. Although circumstances kept them apart for much of their lives, Elisabeth Schumann experienced her greatest joy in her relationship with her son, Gerd Puritz. "We were everything to each other", he comments. Sadly, just when Elisabeth Schumann was arranging to make her home in England with her son, his English wife and their three children, she died suddenly in New York in 1952. Gerd Puritz's biography of his mother did not appear until more than 40 years later. While I regret the delay, and the larger readership it might have attracted earlier, the belated biography emerges as a thoroughly researched, scholarly, sturdily constructed and neatly edited work. Included are many excellent photos and a fully detailed discography. There's an obituary notice also, provided by Lotte Lehmann, which will bring a tear to any reader's eye. It resulted from a forty year friendship, perhaps unique in the annals of the performing arts, which began unpromisingly when they both were being considered for the role of Sophie in "Der Rosenkavalier", and Elisabeth Schumann was chosen. Her voice, which I heard only once in London's Royal Albert Hall, was as beautiful as any singer ever had. Happily, it recorded well, and almost everything in her discography can still be heard in successfully remastered digital transfers. Many who hear them have said, "The dead soprano conveys more vitality and radiance than most who are still living". Thanks to the work of her son, and the additional work of her grand-daughter Joy Puritz, Elisabeth Schumann's life is worthily recorded also.