Few singers of the 20th century can look back on careers comparable to those of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. The soprano has made music, recording and EMI history with a repertoire range that extends from lied to opera and operetta. Through her marriage and longstanding artistic collaboration with legendary EMI producer Walter Legge, the name Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is inseparably linked with the repertoire and history of the EMI Classics label, whose back catalog still includes countless of her recordings. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was born in 1915 in Jarotschin near Pozñan (Posen), studied singing at the Berlin Musikhochschule and made her debut at the Deutsches Opernhaus Berlin in 1938. Her breakthrough came with Karl Böhm's invitation to the Vienna State Opera. Initially successful primarily in Italian roles, she soon enjoyed success in Richard Strauss roles as well - especially as the Marschallin (Rosenkavalier) and the Gräfin (Capriccio). in 1971, she retired from the operatic stage and confined herself to the art of lieder singing and later to teaching. The almost four-decade recording history that Elisabeth Schwarzkopf embodies is largely accessible on CD - especially in the "Great Recordings of the Century" series. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's recordings of Mozart arias, made between 1946 and 1952 outside the opera recordings and considered for decades by music critics and lovers alike to be the ultimate in Mozart singing, constituted one of the most important re-releases for the Mozart Year 2006.