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Edith Mathis
Swiss soprano Edith Mathis was born on 11 February 1938 in Lucerne, where she later studied singing at the Conservatory with Elisabeth Bossart.
After her 1956 debut as the Second Boy in The Magic Flute, favourable reviews helped with an invitation to sing Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at Zurich Opera House. After three more years singing in Switzerland, she moved to Cologne Opera in 1959, singing both Cherubino and Zerlina in Don Giovanni.
Her appearances included Bavarian State Opera, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, Glyndebourne, Hamburg State Opera, New York Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Paris, the Salzburg Festival and Vienna State Opera.
Although known mainly for her Mozart roles, she also sang J S Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Mahler, Schubert, Schumann, Richard Strauss, Weber and Wolf, and appeared in a series of first performances of new music by Gottfried von Einem, Hans Werner Henze, Gian Carlo Menotti and Heinrich Sutermeister. She also made many recordings, of operatic repertoire, lied and oratorio.
She retired from the stage in 2001, but continued to teach her Lied class at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and also gave masterclasses internationally.
Edith Mathis died in Salzburg on 9 February 2025, aged eighty-six.