Rita Streich was a German soprano, one of the great coloratura and lyric sopranos of the post-war period. She was admired in Mozart, Strauss, operetta and song.

In the Pristine catalogue she appears in Furtwängler’s 1953 Rome Ring cycle and in Karajan’s Hänsel und Gretel with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Elisabeth Grümmer and Josef Metternich.

Streich’s singing combined brightness, agility and charm, with the kind of precise vocal sparkle that could still carry character.

Her page is justified by repeated catalogue presence and career standing. Streich gives the German opera shelf a soprano glint, quick as light on glass.