Leffler-Burckhard, Martha

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Leffler-Burckhard, Martha

Leffler-Burckhard, Martha, German soprano; b. Berlin, June 16, 1865; d. Wiesbaden, May 14, 1954. She was a student in Dresden of Anna von Meichsner and in Paris of Pauline Viardot-García. In 1888 she made her operatic debut in Strasbourg, and then sang in Breslau (1889–90) and Cologne (1891–92). After a tour of North America (1892–93), she appeared in Bremen (1893–97) and Weimar (1898–99). From 1900 to 1912 she sang in Wiesbaden, and also appeared at London’s Covent Garden (1903, 1907) and at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. (debut as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, March 4, 1908). She was a member of the Berlin Royal Opera from 1913 to 1918.After singing at the Berlin Deutsches Opernhaus (1918–19), she taught voice. Among her best-known roles were Leonore, Isolde, the 3 Brünnhildes, Kundry, Ortrud, and Sieglinde.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire