Erna Sack

Erna Dorothea Luise Sack (née Weber, 6 February 1898 – 2 March 1972) was a German coloratura soprano, known as the German Nightingale for her high vocal range.

Erna Weber was born in Spandau, Berlin. As a child, her voice attracted attention both at school and in the church choir in which she sang. In 1921, she married Hermann Sack, of Jewish descent. She studied at the Prague Conservatory, and later in Berlin with Oscar Daniel.

She received her first break aged 30, when the wife of conductor Bruno Walter happened to hear her at one of her lessons and persuaded her husband, who was then the musical director at the Berlin State Opera, to audition her. Subsequently she joined them and between 1928 and 1930 she sang many small roles with this company, including parts in the 1929 local premiéres of Wolf-Ferrari's Sly, on 11 May, d'Albert's Die Schwarze Orchidee on 9 June, and Mark Lothar's Tyll on 1 September. At the same time she recorded several small roles in operas for Berlin Radio. But Walter advised her to gain more experience in provincial opera houses and to enlarge her repertory.

Her career accelerated in 1930 when her uncanny ability to sing stratospheric high notes, including C7 (C above high C), was discovered. (Richard Strauss later wrote a new cadenza for her high voice, for her to sing as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos).

In 1931, she sang Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale at Bielefeld Opera, where her voice made a great impression and her gifts were immediately recognised. The Theater Wiesbaden engaged her in 1932, and in that year she also made several radio broadcasts and recordings. In 1934 she was engaged by the Breslau Opera, where he roles included her first Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the following year arrived at the Semperoper in Dresden, where she attracted the attention of Karl Böhm and, above all, Strauss. In 1934 she also made a spectacular return to Berlin, appearing as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto alongside Heinrich Schlusnus as the Jester and Walther Ludwig as the Duke. The conductor was Erich Kleiber.