Maria Jeritza

Maria Jeritza was an Austrian-born American soprano. She was described by John Rockwell in The New York Times as a spinto soprano who was "the golden girl of opera's golden age". She enjoyed "mass adulation" from the public from the 1910s into the 1930s in what today could only be compared to that of a major rock or pop star. While she appeared at many theaters globally as a guest artist, her career was chiefly based in Vienna and New York City. She had a long association with the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. She performed more than 60 roles during her career; 20 of which were sung at the Met. She is remembered today for originating roles in several notable operas; among them Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss and Die tote Stadt by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. She was also the first singer to perform the title roles of Giacomo Puccini's Turandot and Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa in the United States.