Opera Scotland

Ursula Schröder-Feinen Suggest updates

Born Gelsenkirchen, 21 July 1936.

Died Hennef bei Bonn, 9 February 2005.

German soprano.

Ursula Schröder-Feinen had a brief but starry career singing many of the heaviest roles in the German dramatic repertoire. Her voice was considered to be unusually beautiful for such a big sound. Unfortunately this did not last, and her career ended rather quickly.

She studied in Gelsenkirchen with Maria Helm. Her career began in the chorus at the Gelsenkirchen Opera in 1958, making her debut in a solo role in 1961 in Zeller's operetta Der Vogelhändler, singing the role of Christel. Almost immediately she took on Aïda as a late replacement. From 1961 to 1968 she remained at her home house, as her voice developed. Having started in roles such as Oscar, Cleopatra, Bess and Alceste, she later sang Leonore, Chrysothemis, Salome and Turandot. Her next contract was at the opera house in Karlsruhe, for one season to 1969.

Her third engagement was in Düsseldorf with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (1969-75), though she did not come on either of that company's visits to Edinburgh. It was during these years that she took on the heavier roles by Wagner (Senta, Ortrud, Brünnhilde, Isolde and Kundry) and Strauss (Elektra, Dyer's Wife) that gave her a brief international career.

She sang as a guest with the major German houses - Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Berlin. At Bayreuth from 1971 she sang Senta, Ortrud, Brünnhilde and Kundry. She also worked in Vienna, Salzburg (Dyer's Wife, Ortrud), Paris (Brünnhilde with Solti), Milan, Naples, San Francisco and New York.

Her visit to Edinburgh as a guest with the Deutsche Oper, Berlin, was her only appearance in Britain.