Frida Leider

German Operatic Soprano

Frida Leider (born Berlin, April 18, 1888 - died Berlin, June 4, 1975) was a German opera singer. The daughter of a Berlin doctor, Frida Leider was herself studying medicine when she attended a performance of Il Trovatore at the State Opera, Berlin. So deep an impression did Verdi's opera make on her that she determined at once that the operatic and not the operating theatre was to be the scene of her triumphs. After four years study she made her début in her native city, and quickly attracted attention. Her voice was ideal for Wagnerian rôles, and from the time that she first sang Brünnhilde and Isolde, Leider has been recognised as the greatest living exponent of these most difficult rôles. She came to London in 1924, quite unheralded. In a night she had London at her feet. Since then she has been a regular visitor to Bayreuth and Covent Garden, and in 1932 joined the company of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York.