Enid Szánthó

Enid Szánthó (15 March 1907 – 1997) was a Hungarian operatic contralto born in Budapest to a Hungarian ministerial councillor and an Irish mother. She studied at the Königlich-Ungarische Musikakademie in Budapest, where her teachers included Laura Hilgermann, and completed her studies with a diploma. At twenty-one she joined the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera, making her debut there as Muschel in the Vienna premiere of Richard Strauss's Die ägyptische Helena.

Szánthó's years at the Vienna State Opera established her as a leading dramatic contralto across a wide repertoire. She took part in all four evenings of a new Ring des Nibelungen production directed by Lothar Wallerstein, singing Erda in Das Rheingold in 1928, Schwertleite in Die Walküre in 1930, Erda again in Siegfried, and both First Norn and Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung in 1931. She assumed central Verdi alto roles as well, including Azucena in Il trovatore and Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera, both in 1930, and Giovanna in Rigoletto that same year. In 1934 she appeared in the world premiere of Julius Bittner's Das Veilchen, directed by Wallerstein and conducted by Krauss, with Richard Mayr in the male lead. Her concert work in Vienna included the alto solo in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in 1929, conducted by Erwin Stein, and his Third Symphony in 1933, conducted by Eugen Szenkar. On 15 June 1938 she participated in the world premiere of Franz Schmidt's oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln, conducted by Oswald Kabasta.

Her festival career ran parallel to her Vienna engagements. She made her Salzburg Festival debut in 1928 as the Third Boy in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, staged by Wallerstein and conducted by Franz Schalk. At the Bayreuth Festival, where she first appeared in 1930, she sang Erda, Waltraute, and Erste Norn in the Ring, as well as an Esquire and a Flower Maiden in Parsifal, and continued to be invited there regularly through 1937.

Szánthó's international career broadened significantly from 1935 onward. That year she appeared as a concert soloist at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence and undertook a concert tour of North America, subsequently performing in Berlin and Paris as well. In 1936 she made her first appearance at the Royal Opera House in London as Erda and Fricka. Her Metropolitan Opera debut came in the 1937–38 season as Fricka, followed by Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde and Klytämnestra in Richard Strauss's Elektra.

Her career was effectively ended in 1938 when Austria came under the Nazi regime. Classified as a Half-Jew, she was no longer invited to Bayreuth, and the annexation of Austria cost her her position at the Vienna State Opera. Her final performance there is believed to have been Azucena in Il trovatore on 27 June 1938. She fled to the United States, where she sang additional performances at the Metropolitan Opera before settling into a new phase of her professional life.

In the autumn of 1945 Szánthó appeared in four productions with the New York City Opera, the engagement that constitutes her Broadway credits. She sang Mary in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, Czipra in Johann Strauss's The Gypsy Baron, Martha in Gounod's Faust, and Ludmilla in Smetana's The Bartered Bride. In 1946 she traveled with the City Opera ensemble to Paris, where she again performed the role of Mary at the Opéra-Comique, but she did not secure a permanent position. She subsequently earned her living teaching singing at the University of Michigan and in New York, and gave occasional concerts in schools and libraries. Among her documented American recital appearances, she performed lieder by Schubert, Mahler, Hugo Wolf, and Wagner at Ann Arbor High School in Michigan, and presented works by Béla Bartók at the New York Public Library. In the 1945–46 season she also appeared as a soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony under Eugene Ormandy with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Westminster Choir, alongside Stella Roman, Frederick Jagel, and Nicola Moscona.

Szánthó's voice is preserved in recordings from the Vienna State Opera, including excerpts from Die Walküre conducted by Krauss on 1 March 1933, and the first scene of Das Rheingold released on Koch/Schwann with Luise Helletsgruber, Dora With, and Hermann Wiedemann as Alberich. The same label documents her as Erda and as Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Private recordings from the Metropolitan Opera capture her Brangäne alongside Kirsten Flagstad as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, and Unique Opera Records issued her interpretation of Klytämnestra. No professional activity has been traced after 1946. Szánthó was buried in London on 21 April 1997.