Rita Streich

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

Speaker 20:05

For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1978 and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:32

This week, our castaway is the soprano Rita Strike.

Presenter0:36

Miss Dryke, what are you doing in London on this visit?

Rita Streich0:39

On this visit I have a little recital which includes the song by Schubert, but also the first time in my life a group of the cycle of Schumann Fraun, Lieber and Lehm.

Presenter0:50

You come here pretty regularly, that you several times a year.

Rita Streich0:52

Several times a year. Oh, yes, I love to sing in London. I love the audience here, and I really enjoy to work here.

Presenter0:59

We're moving you to a much smaller island than this, to a desert island, and you have just eight records, a very small ration. What's the first one?

Rita Streich1:07

I think on wings of song it's more of a childish idea of of this title, but includes also this lovely Mendelssohn melody to round up the sense of

Rita Streich1:21

singing happily.

Speaker 31:23

Out of Esther

Speaker 31:36

All environments

Presenter2:25

Your own recording of Mendelssohn's On Wings of Song with Geoffrey Parsons at the piano. And he's playing for you at your present concert in England.

Rita Streich2:32

Oh yes, he's playing quite often for me, I love him.

Presenter2:35

I've been looking up some cuttings about you. Although your father was German, you were born in Siberia. How was that?

Rita Streich2:40

Yeah.

Rita Streich2:43

And um my father and my mother had to escape to Siberia.

Presenter2:48

They escape to Siberia. That this was during the First War.

Rita Streich2:50

But this was

Rita Streich2:51

Yes.

Presenter2:52

Yeah.

Rita Streich2:52

Yes. And my my um mother tells me in her still broken German, tells me that, uh, shortly after my birth,

Rita Streich3:02

Uh the white Siberia snow landscape about taking me in the schlitten, in the in the in the troika true in the sledge.

Presenter3:11

Uh the triker in the sledge.

Rita Streich3:14

holding me in her arms and then

Rita Streich3:17

One moment uh she told me they heard voices of the loops, loops coming nearer, wolves. Then she took me very, very, very strong in her arms, because in danger, probably they sometimes throw babies away. But she said, No, I hold you

Speaker 33:23

Wolves, yes.

Presenter3:35

Glad you did it. Your father, of course, wa was a prisoner of war in Russia, wasn't he?

Rita Streich3:38

Yeah.

Presenter3:39

So it's a little bit more.

Rita Streich3:40

Oh, it was a very, very uh you say, so uh one of the very romantic marriages. My my parents were so happy, happy, happy marriage. And the thing is that my father spoke Russian very well and they sang Russian songs. And so in my time of my young um young years I heard so much of Russian songs, so I started to sing with my parents together.

Rita Streich4:03

How are we?

Presenter4:03

How old were you when you left Russia?

Rita Streich4:05

Oh, this was just Isabebaby some months. But later then my mother was longing to see my grandmother again.

Presenter4:07

The baby saw.

Rita Streich4:14

And um we could get with difficult um to see my my family, my grandmother, my grandfather didn't live in my mom, and my uncle and aunt, in uh Mahatzkala, which is a city on the Kazbishemeyer.

Presenter4:29

A casket.

Rita Streich4:29

And this i was a very exciting time for me as a young, young uh girl. Then I learned Russian very quick. I had always the other girls to to to play with, and it was a marvelous time of hospitality. And as it was three months, I have very

Rita Streich4:48

Lovely remembrance of that time.

Presenter4:50

Well, you have a Russian record among your eight, so this seems the place to put that in, doesn't it?

Rita Streich4:56

Yes. I would love to take with me then the Lord's Prayer Choir of the of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, Paris.

Presenter6:02

The Lord's Prayer in the Khedrov setting by the choir of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Paris.

Presenter6:09

When did you start having singing lessons? In Germany at school?

Rita Streich6:09

And it was

Rita Streich6:12

Oh, very early. I had a m piano teacher, uh, Elisabeth Braun. She one time surprised me in my my um having lesson with her. Uh she invited a singer to hear me, you know, opera singer to hear me. I couldn't build up much fear because I didn't know about it. So suddenly there was someone and I had to sing for her in s in in school time. Actually this lady became my first teacher. She was a pupil of Marie Evgen herself. It was Paula Kloze. And I started to study uh singing with her, then came later to Anneberg and then

Rita Streich6:48

to marry Ivogun herself.

Presenter6:51

Yeah. Your original ambition had been to be a physician before that.

Rita Streich6:54

There is my dream in school time. Yes, yes.

Rita Streich6:58

Absolutely had a ambition for that. But I sang in school very much because my

Rita Streich7:06

French teacher and also my who the whole class always asked me in intervals when they had their eating their bread and um and um fruit, and they said read a sing, so I had to to entertain them already.

Presenter7:20

So you started with two great names, Maria Ifogun and Erna Berger, and I believe Lotta Lehmann helped you with interpretation later.

Rita Streich7:27

Yes, I was very happy about that because when I went for my uh American tour for leader recital with Paul Ulanowski, who was also the um accompanist for Lotter Lehmann,

Rita Streich7:41

In his younger years

Rita Streich7:44

One time we had a concert in Stanford University, we visited Lottleiman in Santa Barbara. Since then really a great friendship started and coming back from my first Australian tour I had uh the joy to stay some days um at her ranch, at Lota Lima's ranch.

Rita Streich8:04

And there, really, this was a marvellous time of getting good advisors for interpretation.

Presenter8:10

I'm sure. But back to your early student days. You you started, I believe, in Berlin. This was during the war, wasn't it?

Rita Streich8:17

We'll

Presenter8:17

Were you there when the Russians came?

Rita Streich8:19

Yes, I was there. We were mostly in the cellar, you know, because

Rita Streich8:23

Everything was happening. But I must say

Rita Streich8:27

I went mostly on on on uh clouds because I was happy that Anneberger was uh helping me, that she was my teacher. So when the sign of of the Serene came in and we we wished to go this the cellar, she said, You run first, you are a suc successor.

Speaker 38:40

System

Presenter8:40

But

Rita Streich8:47

And there, down in the cellar, she had a little pipe.

Rita Streich8:50

And she did and went, I get my lesson got my lessons.

Presenter8:54

So you sang while the whole city shook.

Rita Streich8:56

I really, I really was was uh uh very protected in a better world.

Presenter9:03

Life must have been very grim. But I believe that the musical life of Berlin got going very quickly.

Rita Streich9:08

Very quickly, and this was my big chance, because then, you see, as a beginner,

Rita Streich9:14

I was then in a group of famous singers who were so happy to make music again. Every rehearsal was a was a feast. It was such an atmosphere of marvelous, thankful working and

Rita Streich9:32

I as a little sponge took all the advices around me. And but who was around me? It was besides Anne Berger, it was Margareta Close, Peter Anders, Willi Domgraf, Fassbender, and all really I mean, for me a most happy time and I'm thankful for that.

Presenter9:51

These were the stars of the State Opera where you were engaged.

Presenter9:55

What was the first roll you sang then?

Rita Streich9:57

Amor in um

Rita Streich9:59

Gluck or fail.

Presenter10:01

Oh yeah.

Rita Streich10:01

Yes. But my first big premiere was the Doll and Tales of Hoffman. This was the very uh great time of preparing and one of my

Rita Streich10:12

I would say the first successful. Then I g got

Rita Streich10:17

marvellous parts, all which came along, and I had the luck to sing in Berlin one time on all three opera houses. It was the Staats Opera, it was Walter Felsenstein's Comische Oper,

Rita Streich10:30

and the stadischoper.

Presenter10:32

The three opera houses very much working together.

Rita Streich10:33

But in

Rita Streich10:35

Yes, because later

Rita Streich10:38

After some years of the Staswar, we had to decide either we stay east or we go the other side of Berlin.

Presenter10:46

to the other side of what is now the wall.

Presenter10:49

In, what was it, 1953, I think, you you moved to the Vienna State Opera, and you're still there.

Rita Streich10:56

Yes, but this was my first uh just guest appearances, you know, as Gilda, because in the time in Berlin I had enormously luck to to get

Rita Streich11:06

Well big repertoire I sang all the Mozart rolls.

Rita Streich11:10

Besides one um offer I got from Frida Leider, the great Wagnerian soprano, she had a new uh production of um magic flute.

Rita Streich11:20

to arrange for the wedding staatsoper, and she told me Oh, your teacher is away, that is your chance, you sing the Queen of the Night. But there I really decided to say, Please, no, it's too early. I like to sing one of the three boys, so the first boy.

Speaker 311:34

Yeah.

Rita Streich11:34

And uh I did this two years later, sang few uh performances of um pavagena, and then came my great time of of Queen of the Night, which I did through all my my uh career. And only now, one and a half year ago, I sang my first Pamina, so it's really lines.

Presenter11:54

You must have sung all the colour theater rolls now in in in Vienna.

Rita Streich11:59

Oh, yes. In the meantime I I it was not easy with, for instance, in the opera of um in the Enfurung Ossm Serai. I remember that uh Ferenz Fritschei, he liked me he said, Oh, I would like very much to double you to sing the Blanchen and the Constanzo.

Presenter12:15

Block

Rita Streich12:15

Uh

Presenter12:15

Uh

Rita Streich12:15

Blonde and Constanze. How could you sing the two together? Yeah, not together, but I sang one time Blonde and one time Constanze, and had sometimes the funny feeling in the quartet where my other part was literally also worked out so much that I have to be very had to be very careful to stay that.

Presenter12:15

How could you sing the two together?

Presenter12:19

I think

Rita Streich12:36

I could switch very easy to the other.

Presenter12:39

Let's have your third record. What shall that be?

Rita Streich12:42

Oh, some more sad, please.

Rita Streich12:44

Lynn Symphony?

Rita Streich12:46

and perhaps a closing passage.

Presenter13:47

The closing passage of Mozart's Linz Symphony. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karigan. You've worked with Carigan in a number of opera houses, haven't you?

Rita Streich13:57

Yes, in in uh Vienna, in uh Rome, I did some recordings with him. Arianov Naxos is perhaps my uh most important work with him.

Presenter14:04

Yeah.

Rita Streich14:07

And uh Frieda Mauss, which we did also in in Vienna on the on the stage. Oh yes, I had also quite a number of of uh performances with him in the opera.

Presenter14:17

You've worked for many seasons at the Salzburg Festival.

Rita Streich14:20

For very many. Mm very many. Because um besides the lovely opera walls I could sing there like Cosie with um Karl Bohm and uh Magic Flute, um Queen of the Night with Schulte. I

Rita Streich14:36

did also then with Furtwengler sing the Enchin at Salzburg Festival. And actually this came because of my visiting the Bayreut Festival.

Presenter14:49

Byroid. Yes, I I know you've sung at Byroit. I was going to ask you about that because you're not really a a Byroit lady, are you?

Rita Streich14:54

Oh no, no, but as you see the two parts I could do, I was asked to sing the the bird in in Siegfried and the first bloomer in Parcewal. And there uh Karjan heard me the first time. And I remember very well that Wieland Wagner said to me, No, you are so good as a bird, you please promise me the next twenty years I have not to worry about the bird, you sing the next twenty years. But then, after two years we did with the whole cast of the Barrett Festival, the whole ring in Rome with the Rye,

Rita Streich15:29

Um there Vortengel heard me the first time and asked me for doing Engine with him in Salzburg. This was then my right way to Salzburg.

Presenter15:39

And while we're talking about festivals, Gleinborn.

Presenter15:42

And that's a lovely place to see.

Rita Streich15:43

Oh, yes, yes. Oh, a lovely place. Oh, so special. So very, very special.

Rita Streich15:49

Yes, I was uh asked to do a Sereneta there, and I this I really remember with great rejoy. Lovely uh ambience there, marvellous uh atmosphere of working and so beautiful uh it was one of the first things I did in England.

Presenter16:06

We got to record number four. What have you chosen next?

Rita Streich16:09

I would like so much to hear Catherine Ferrier. I love this.

Rita Streich16:14

Voice to hear.

Rita Streich16:16

Art thou troubled?

Rita Streich16:18

From Handel?

Presenter17:14

Kathleen Ferrier singing Handel's Art Thou Troubled?

Presenter17:17

Nowadays, Miss Dreich, besides your own work, you you give master classes.

Rita Streich17:22

Yes, I'm asked quite a lot to do that and I enjoy it enormously. I I am uh enormously interested to to pass uh my knowledge to young people. I do um mass class uh every year in Salzburg, while the festival on the Mozarteum.

Presenter17:32

Too young.

Rita Streich17:39

And I am

Rita Streich17:41

Professor in Vienna and in Essen on the Falkland Academy.

Rita Streich17:46

For instance, now just now for some masterclass at the Boston University and Toronto University.

Presenter17:52

Yes, and sometimes I know you you coach.

Presenter17:55

Individually, a young singer to do whatever.

Rita Streich17:57

Yes, if there is a very great talent, I I cannot say n no for someone who needs good advice.

Presenter18:04

Do you enjoy adjudicating?

Rita Streich18:06

I take it very seriously. But um

Rita Streich18:09

Yes, I love it. I love it. It's a s very, very important thing to

Rita Streich18:14

To do the best for quality. I mean, the to to get the quality lived, you know, that is, I think, very important.

Presenter18:22

Now record number five, what will that be?

Rita Streich18:24

Oh, something I would love always to do this is singing melezonde.

Presenter18:31

The base it.

Rita Streich18:32

Debussy.

Rita Streich18:33

So let's see a little bit of my wish from Miss Anselme.

Presenter19:37

A brief excerpt from The First Act of Pelliasimelissant by De Bussy.

Presenter19:43

What a vast number of records you've made. I I've been looking through the list in the BBC record library. There's a great thick watch of cards.

Rita Streich19:52

Yes, I think I have a good great number. And I'm absolutely glad if I can

Rita Streich19:58

Hear that uh also sometimes friends of mine who have the uh whole uh collection of Streichreckers, I don't have uh all, because my family always gives away instead of flowers to go.

Speaker 320:11

Oh, craving.

Rita Streich20:12

But I have a group of friends who are very, very careful with with the record. And they for enjoying me or surprising me, let me hear sometimes a record from a long time ago and something I I have uh done uh uh just now.

Presenter20:29

If out of all the records you've made,

Presenter20:32

Just one was to survive far into the future. Which one would you like it to be?

Rita Streich20:36

Oh, could I put the Queen of the Night and Servinetta together?

Presenter20:40

Yes, of course.

Presenter20:42

Record number six.

Rita Streich20:44

Six, Rodrigo. Uh I would like to take with um me one of this uh a a guitar concert.

Presenter21:55

The opening of the Rodrigo Guitar Concerto, John Williams, with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

Presenter22:03

Now, you're on this island, Miss Dryke. How good would you be at looking after yourself?

Rita Streich22:08

Oh, at least I wouldn't wouldn't worry about because uh

Rita Streich22:13

you know, our artistic life is not always so ruled by the outside thing that one has to a certain time certain things. I think the being

Rita Streich22:26

elastic to to to things, I think would be also the reason that I would then learn to to to eat um

Rita Streich22:35

Have you

Presenter22:36

Have you ever done any fishing?

Rita Streich22:37

Never, never, but I mean this uh would be exciting to learn.

Presenter22:41

Would you try to escape?

Rita Streich22:44

After a while, probably, this is uh the idea. But uh how? Yes, so

Presenter22:51

You would if you could.

Rita Streich22:52

Yeah, I think I would.

Presenter22:54

Another record.

Rita Streich22:56

I know that I could.

Presenter22:56

And I'm not like

Rita Streich22:57

Oh, yes, another time. Another record.

Rita Streich23:00

THE EARL OF OXFORD'S MARCH BY WILLIAM BYRD

Presenter23:04

This is going back a long way.

Rita Streich23:06

Yes, but we love that music.

Presenter24:08

The Earl of Oxford's March by William Bird, The Philip Jones Bras Ensemble, which brings us to Your Last Disc, what are you? Left, last disc, what are you? Left till the end.

Rita Streich24:18

Oh, oh, I have started with one of my own singing. I would like to take the last record also my own singing, and then something which which has no words, uh vocalese, something uh you know, this sans sense, Naitiga la Rose.

Speaker 324:33

Yeah.

Rita Streich24:33

That's uh That I will take.

Presenter25:43

The Nightingale and the Rose by Saint-Sans. If you could take only one disc instead of eight.

Presenter25:49

That's a tricky question, I know.

Rita Streich25:50

That's a tricky question, I know.

Rita Streich25:52

Oh, yes, I then I have to say

Rita Streich25:55

m mort over everything.

Presenter25:58

The Lindz Symphony

Rita Streich25:59

The lens of Leeus.

Presenter26:00

And you're allowed to take one luxury with you, any one thing you'd like to have that's of no practical use.

Rita Streich26:07

Oh, I would love to paint have have the material.

Presenter26:10

Yes, well some brushes and and paper.

Rita Streich26:11

I have never done this, but I I'm dreaming of that, and there would be the time and would be perhaps the the the right, the the creative moment to do so.

Presenter26:20

Maybe.

Rita Streich26:20

And as I would also like very much to write, I would like to have much, much, much of paper and pencil.

Presenter26:27

All that. We'll look forward to your exhibition. Will you come back?

Rita Streich26:29

Yeah.

Presenter26:30

Uh

Presenter26:31

And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already on the island, and we don't allow big encyclopedias. Anyone go?

Rita Streich26:41

Oh, yes, one I remember I like very much Malford, the philosophical um

Rita Streich26:50

Also practical advisors, it's a funny title, Der und Folk der Sterbens.

Rita Streich26:57

The um on folk, the um

Rita Streich27:00

The nonsense of dying.

Presenter27:02

The Nonsense of Dying by Malfort. It is it a German book Malfort

Rita Streich27:06

No, it's a American

Presenter27:08

American and you're translating the German title, The Nonsense of Dying.

Rita Streich27:12

Yes, I hope I did it right.

Presenter27:14

Give it in German again.

Rita Streich27:15

Unfuck disturbs.

Presenter27:17

Right, good. And thank you, Rita Strike, for letting us hear your Desert Islander.

Rita Streich27:20

For letting us hear your desert island days. It was very lovely to be here.

Presenter27:24

Thank you. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 227:33

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.