Dorothee Manski

Dorothee Manski (March 11, 1895 – February 24, 1967) was a German-born American operatic soprano and voice teacher. She appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in 335 performances, and took leading roles internationally, such as Wagner's Isolde at the Salzburg Festival.

Dorothea Manski grew up in Berlin. She studied there at the Prox School and the Conservatory of Music with Emmy Raabe-Burg. She made her operatic debut in her hometown at the Court Opera, where she was a member for the 1913/14 season. Among her early roles were Tebaldo in Verdi's Don Carlos and the First Esquire when Wagner's Parsifal was first performed at the house. From 1914 to 1919, she also sang at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, including the title role of Sharazade by Bernhard Sekles in 1917. She performed at the Staatsoper Stuttgart from 1919 to 1921, and then returned to Berlin, where she sang at the State Opera from 1922 to 1926. She appeared as Eurydice in Offenbach's Orpheus in der Unterwelt, directed by Max Reinhardt.

In 1927, she performed at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time, as the Witch in Humperdinck's Hänsel and Gretel on November 5. She remained with the company until 1941, during which time she sang in 335 performances. Her major roles there included both Elsa and Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin, Venus in Tannhäuser, Gutrune in Die Götterdämmerung, Chrysothemis in Elektra by Richard Strauss, Herodias in Salome, Marianne Leitmetzerin in Der Rosenkavalier, and Giulietta in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. In 1933, she stepped in for Frida Leider as Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre. During her time at the Met she was a pupil of voice teacher Estelle Liebling, the teacher of Beverly Sills.