Metzger-Lattermann, Ottilie

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Metzger-Lattermann, Ottilie

Metzger-Lattermann, Ottilie, German contralto; b. Frankfurt am Main, July 15, 1878; d. in the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Feb. 1943. She was a pupil of Selma Nicklass-Kempner and Emanuel Reicher in Berlin. In 1898 she made her operatic debut in Halle, and then appeared in Cologne (1900–03), at the Bayreuth Festivals (1901–12), the Hamburg Opera (1903–15), and the Dresden Court Opera (1915–18), and its successor, the State Opera (1918–21). In 1910 she was the first to sing Herodias in Salome in London under Beecham’s direction. She made guest appearances in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, and other European cities, and in 1923 she toured the U.S. with the German Opera Co. As a Jew, she was forced to leave Germany in 1935 and went to Brussels, where she taught voice. In 1942 she was arrested by the Nazi henchmen and sent to Auschwitz.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire