Vera Schwarz

Vera Schwarz was born on July 10, 1888 in Agram, Croatia, Austria-Hungary.

She studied in Vienna with Philipp Forstén and gave her debut in 1908 at the Theater an der Wien. 1908 to 1912 she was a member of the opera in Graz, from 1911 to 1913 she sang at the Johann Strauß-Theater in Vienna. After performing in Karlsbad she came to the Hamburger Stadttheater in 1914. From 1918 to 1922 she was an ensemble member of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin.

She was an actress, known for Figaros Hochzeit (1920), The Last Waltz (1953) and Wir tanzen auf dem Regenbogen (1952).

From 1921 till 1930 Vera Schwarz appeared often as a guest in Vienna, and became a local star there, performing the title roles of Tosca and Carmen, Eva in Meistersingern, Sieglinde in Walküre, Countess in The Marriage of Figaro and Rachel in La Juive, receiving the title "Kammersängerin"". It was during this time that she taught her Vienna Staatsoper colleague Leo Slezak's daughter, (and Walter Slezak's brother), Margarete.

She appeared with Tauber in the Berlin Premiere of Lehar's operetta Paganini in January 1926 at the Deutsches Künstlertheater, and in a new production at the Theater des Westens in April 1930, both conducted by the composer. More famously, she and Tauber appeared, again under the composer's baton, in the October 1929 premiere of Das Land des Lächelns at the Metropol Theater in Berlin, making some famous creator-recordings at the time.

Having Jewish paternal grandparents, Schwarz was forced to leave Germany in 1933.

In 1935 she went back to Austria and appeared at the Viennese Staatsoper. But Austria was only an inter-station of her banishment and after the annexation to the German Reich in 1938 she emigrated to England where she was able to continue her stage career. Afterwards she went to the USA where she appeared again as a singer, among others in Chicago and San Francisco.

In 1938 she emigrated first to England then to the United States, where she appeared in Chicago and in San Francisco, but concentrated mostly on concert appearances (including concerts at the Los Angeles German-Jewish club), and teaching in New York, and in Hollywood.

One of her last roles was as Verdi's Lady Macbeth at the 1939 Glyndebourne Festival.

Vera Schwarz returned to Vienna in 1948, teaching and giving masterclasses in the Salzburg Mozarteum.

Some respected sources (including Kutsch, K.J. & Riemens, Leo: 'Grosses Sängerlexicon', Franke Verlag, Bern and Stuttgart, 1987 Edition, Page 2697 - which further fails to mention that she ever sang in Paganini) claim that she also appeared with Tauber in Lehar's Der Zarewitsch, but this is incorrect. The 1927 operetta has only two soprano singing roles; one an ingénue role, played originally by de:Rita Georg, and the other a soubrette part, played by Charlotte Ander. There is simply no part in this operetta for a singer of Schwarz's voice and stature.

In 2011, a street in Vienna's 23rd district was named Vera-Schwarz-Gasse in her honour.