Maria Jeritza

Maria Jeritza (6 October 1887 – 10 July 1982) was a celebrated Czech soprano singer, long associated with the Vienna State Opera (1912–1935) and the Metropolitan Opera (1921-1932 and 1951). Her sensational rise to fame and spectacular beauty and personality earned her the nickname the Moravian thunderbolt.
Jeritza was born in Brno. In 1910, she made her debut as Elsa, in Wagner's Lohengrin, at Olomouc. The Emperor Franz Josef heard her and immediately orderded that she be offered a contract at the Imperial Hofoper, Vienna. She created the roles of Blanchefleur in Kienzl's opera Der Kuhreigen (1911), Ariadne in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos (1912), the Empress in his Die Frau ohne Schatten (1919), and Marie/Marietta in Korngold's Die tote Stadt (1920), which was also the role in which she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera on 19 November 1921.
On 16 November 1926, she starred in the title role of Puccini's Turandot...