Elisa Stünzner

Elisa Stünzner was a German lyric and young dramatic soprano who trained at the Leipzig Conservatory and with the Dresden voice teacher Dora Erl, joining the Dresden Court Opera in 1909. She is credited with creating the Milliner in the premiere of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in 1911, though this does not appear in her own biographical sources. She went on to become one of Strauss's favoured interpreters at Dresden, singing Diemut in Feuersnot, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, and sang the title role in a 1930 gala performance of Salome conducted by the composer himself, marking that opera's own 25th anniversary. She took her farewell from the stage in 1935 as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, and afterwards taught at conservatories in Leipzig and Dresden.