Erna Berger

Erna Berger was a German soprano who studied in Dresden and joined the Dresden Staatsoper, making her debut as the First Boy in Die Zauberflöte in 1925. The opera's own premiere cast record credits her with creating the First Servant in Strauss's Die ägyptische Helena there in 1928, though neither her Grove entry nor her Wikipedia article mentions it. She sang at the Bayreuth Festival from 1929 to 1933, as the Shepherd in Tannhäuser, the First Flowermaiden and the Woodbird, and at the Salzburg Festival from 1932 to 1954, moving from Blonde to Zerlina. She made her Covent Garden debut as Marzelline in 1934, returning in 1935, 1938 and 1949, and her Metropolitan Opera debut as Sophie in 1949. Her voice kept its youthful freshness throughout her career; her Queen of the Night and Konstanze were considered peerless, and she went on performing in Germany and Austria until 1955.