Elisabeth Rethberg

The German soprano Elisabeth Rethberg (22 September 1894 – 6 June 1976) was an opera singer active from the period of the First World War through to the early 1940s, who was regarded as some the greatest soprano of her day. While she did not break any new ground dramatically or vocally, Rethberg was just as much at home singing in Italian or German. She employed her lyric voice with such focus that she never seems obscured in old recordings by either loud orchestras or larger-voiced partners.