# Maria Stader
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{{Short description|Hungarian-born Swiss opera soprano (1911–1999)}}
[[File:Maria Stader.jpg|thumb|Maria Stader on [Rigi](/source/Rigi)-Kaltbad, New Year 1965200px|alt=Maria Stader's signature]]
'''Maria Stader''' (November 5, 1911 – April 27, 1999) was a Hungarian-born Swiss lyric [soprano](/source/soprano), known particularly for her [Mozart](/source/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart) interpretations.
==Biography==
Stader was born in [Budapest](/source/Budapest), Austria-Hungary, on November 5, 1911, as Maria Molnár.[[http://www.srf.ch/sendungen/sinerzyt/maria-stader-erinnert-sich "Maria Stader erinnert sich"], [Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen](/source/Schweizer_Radio_und_Fernsehen), 2 November 2011 {{in lang|de}}] During and after World War I, the price of food in Budapest was so high that it was difficult for her parents to support their five children. Maria and her younger sister, Elisabeth, were taken to Switzerland by [The Salvation Army](/source/The_Salvation_Army) to recuperate for three months after being diagnosed with malnutrition. There, Maria's foster parents requested she stay for a full nine months. However, once in Budapest again, Maria fell seriously ill and it was also determined she would need her tonsils operated on. Her foster parents arranged for her to return to Switzerland. Because of difficulties with the immigration office, Maria could not remain in the [canton of Zürich](/source/canton_of_Z%C3%BCrich), so her foster father found her a place with the Stader family in [Romanshorn](/source/Romanshorn), where there is also the commemorative Maria-Stader path. They later adopted her.
In 1939, Stader married Hans Erismann, the music director of [Weinfelden](/source/Weinfelden) and later the choir director of the [Zürich Opera House](/source/Z%C3%BCrich_Opera_House). Through the husband of her vocal teacher, Mathilde Bärlocher, she met [Stefi Geyer](/source/Stefi_Geyer) and her husband. Geyer herself was born in Budapest and had moved to Zürich in 1920; she then became an ongoing supporter of Stader's career. Another native of Budapest, [Ilona Durigo](/source/Ilona_Durigo), became her vocal teacher in 1935 in Zürich and introduced her to Hermann and [Lily Reiff](/source/Lily_Reiff) (a student of [Franz Liszt](/source/Franz_Liszt)). The Reiffs' home was the frequent meeting place of [Adolf Busch](/source/Adolf_Busch) and his brother [Hermann Busch](/source/Hermann_Busch), [Thomas Mann](/source/Thomas_Mann) and the entire ensemble of the [Zürich Opera](/source/Z%C3%BCrich_Opera) and [Zürich Theater](/source/Schauspielhaus_Z%C3%BCrich). [Fritz Busch](/source/Fritz_Busch) arranged for Stader to go to the [Schnabel](/source/Therese_Behr-Schnabel) School in [Tremezzo](/source/Tremezzo), run by the wife of [Artur Schnabel](/source/Artur_Schnabel), a few years later. From 1938 on, Stader received training from [Giannina Arangi-Lombardi](/source/Giannina_Arangi-Lombardi) in Milan.
Stader was a close friend of the Swiss politician [Walther Bringolf](/source/Walther_Bringolf), as well as of numerous musicians – especially pianist [Clara Haskil](/source/Clara_Haskil) and the Hungarian conductor [Ferenc Fricsay](/source/Ferenc_Fricsay) (with whom she became acquainted through [Rolf Liebermann](/source/Rolf_Liebermann)). She was also a friend of the French film director, [Emil-Edwin Reinert](/source/Emil-Edwin_Reinert) and she corresponded with [Albert Schweitzer](/source/Albert_Schweitzer).
==Career==
Stader first achieved fame for her interpretations of [Mozart](/source/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart) and her collaborations with conductor Ferenc Fricsay on works such as ''[Don Giovanni](/source/Don_Giovanni)'', ''[Le nozze di Figaro](/source/The_Marriage_of_Figaro)'', ''[Die Entführung aus dem Serail](/source/Die_Entf%C3%BChrung_aus_dem_Serail)'', two versions (1954 and 1960) of ''[Exsultate, jubilate](/source/Exsultate%2C_jubilate)'' and the [Great Mass](/source/Great_Mass_in_C_minor%2C_K._427), as well as Verdi's [Messa da Requiem](/source/Requiem_(Verdi)). She won, the [Geneva International Music Competition](/source/Geneva_International_Music_Competition) in 1939, but although she "seemed poised for major stardom... her career was delayed by the outbreak of World War II", according to ''[Opera News](/source/Opera_News)''.["Maria Stader" in ''[Opera News](/source/Opera_News)'', July 1999.] Later in her career, Stader acquired a reputation as an outstanding [Bach](/source/Johann_Sebastian_Bach) interpreter, especially with [Karl Richter](/source/Karl_Richter_(conductor))[Stader recorded [Bach's B Minor Mass](/source/Mass_in_B_minor) with Richter and the Münchener Bach-Orchester in 1961 (Label: Archiv Produktion, ASIN: B00000E4CC).] and Ferenc Fricsay. She recorded the [Requiem](/source/Requiem_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k)) by [Antonín Dvořák](/source/Anton%C3%ADn_Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k) with [Karel Ančerl](/source/Karel_An%C4%8Derl), and Beethoven's opera ''[Fidelio](/source/Fidelio)'' (as Marzelline) with [Hans Knappertsbusch](/source/Hans_Knappertsbusch).
Stader was highly praised for her fine, if not very powerful, voice. She nearly always performed operatic roles in the recording studio and seldom, if ever, on stage because of her small stature – she was about {{Convert|1.44|m|ftin}} tall. She preferred the concert repertory, but, "even in concert, she frequently had to stand on a platform or box in order to be seen properly by the audience", according to ''Opera News''.[[http://classicalmusicianstoza.blogspot.ca/2014/06/maria-stader-hungarian-swiss-soprano.html "Tours of Southern Africa 1953–1978 organised by Hans Adler]]]]
{{external media|audio1=[https://archive.org/details/MozartCoronationMassMarkevitch/Mozart+-+Coronation+Mass+(Markevitch)+-+02.+Gloria.mp3 Maria Stader singing] in W. A. Mozart's [Mass in C major (''Coronation'')](/source/Coronation_Mass_(Mozart)) K. 317, with the [Berlin Philharmonic](/source/Berlin_Philharmonic) conducted by [Igor Markevitch](/source/Igor_Markevitch) in 1955; via [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive)}}
Her concert tours had taken her around the world. Besides Europe and America, she sang in Japan, South Africa, and South America. Stader sang in various festivals, including the [Salzburg Festival](/source/Salzburg_Festival), the [Lucerne Festival](/source/Lucerne_Festival), at the [Prades](/source/Prades%2C_Pyr%C3%A9n%C3%A9es-Orientales) Festival and at the [Aspen Music Festival](/source/Aspen_Music_Festival_and_School). She sang under the leadership of many well-known conductors including [Eugen Jochum](/source/Eugen_Jochum), [Josef Krips](/source/Josef_Krips), [Eugene Ormandy](/source/Eugene_Ormandy), [George Szell](/source/George_Szell), [Carl Schuricht](/source/Carl_Schuricht), [Rafael Kubelík](/source/Rafael_Kubel%C3%ADk), [Bruno Walter](/source/Bruno_Walter), [Hermann Scherchen](/source/Hermann_Scherchen), [Otto Klemperer](/source/Otto_Klemperer), [Ernest Ansermet](/source/Ernest_Ansermet) and [Dean Dixon](/source/Dean_Dixon). Until 1951, she taught at the Zürich Conservatory (merged in 1999 into the School of Music, Drama, and Dance (HMT), itself merged in 2007 into the [Zurich University of the Arts](/source/Zurich_University_of_the_Arts) (ZHdK)) and later held [master class](/source/master_class)es there.
The title of her autobiography, ''Nehmt meinen Dank'', is taken from Mozart's aria for soprano and orchestra, "Nehmt meinen Dank, ihr holden Gönner!", K. 383.
She died in Zürich on April 27, 1999.
==Awards==
* 1939 – First place, [Geneva International Music Competition](/source/Geneva_International_Music_Competition)
* 1950 – [Lilli Lehmann Medal](/source/Lilli_Lehmann_Medal), [International Mozarteum Foundation](/source/International_Mozarteum_Foundation)[{{Cite news |last=Kozinn |first=Allan |date=May 3, 1999 |title=Maria Stader, A Concert Soprano, 87 |work=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/03/arts/maria-stader-a-concert-soprano-87.html |access-date=September 10, 2024}}]
* 1956 – Silver Mozart Medal of the International Mozarteum Foundation
* 1964 – [Hans Georg Nägeli](/source/Hans_Georg_N%C3%A4geli) Medal by the Zürich City Council[[http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/kultur/de/index/kultur_stadt_zuerich/auszeichnungen/kunstpreis/laureaten.html "Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger 1932 bis 1998: Hans-Georg Nägeli-Medaille für Verdienste um das musikalische Schaffen"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927171625/http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/kultur/de/index/kultur_stadt_zuerich/auszeichnungen/kunstpreis/laureaten.html |date=2011-09-27 }}, Zürich City Council (accessed 3 July 2010)]
== Articles by Stader ==
* "Ferenc Fricsay", in: ''Diener der Musik. Unvergessene Solisten und Dirigenten unserer Zeit im Spiegel der Freunde''. Published by Martin Müller and Wolfgang Mertz. Tübingen, Rainer Wunderlich, 1965.
* "Zusammenarbeit mit Fricsay", in [Friedrich Herzfeld](/source/Friedrich_Herzfeld) (ed.): ''Ferenc Fricsay. Ein Gedenkbuch''. Berlin, Rembrand, 1964.
* ''Über [Wilhelm Furtwängler](/source/Wilhelm_Furtw%C3%A4ngler)'', in ''Furtwängler Recalled''. Zürich, Atlantis, 1965.
==References==
==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Maria Stader|title=Nehmt meinen Dank. Erinnerungen|language=de|trans-title=Accept My Thanks. Memories|author-mask2=retold by Robert D. Abraham|publisher=Kindler|location=Munich|year=1979|isbn=978-3-463-00744-1|ref=none}} (with repertoire, index of recordings and register of names)
==External links==
{{Commons category|Maria Stader}}
* [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Stader-Maria.htm Biography with photographs], bach-cantatas.com
* {{YouTube|XzOoLy3JHAU|Television interview}}, with [August Everding](/source/August_Everding)
* {{YouTube|zFPkA9KhV3Q|Audio|link=no}}, "[Der Hirt auf dem Felsen](/source/Der_Hirt_auf_dem_Felsen)" (Schubert), {{ill|Rudolf Gall|fr}}, clarinet; [Karl Engel](/source/Karl_Engel), piano
{{Portal bar|Biography|Opera}}
{{Authority control|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stader, Maria}}
Category:1911 births
Category:1999 deaths
Category:Swiss operatic sopranos
Category:Deutsche Grammophon artists
Category:Hungarian emigrants to Switzerland
Category:Academic staff of the Zurich University of the Arts
Category:20th-century Swiss women opera singers
Category:Winners of the Geneva International Music Competition
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Maria Stader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Stader) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Stader?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.