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SIZE IN CENTIMETRES - 10cm x 12.5cm.

PERSON - Original Press Photo, German Opera Soprano Singer, Anja Silja      

SUBJECT - Anja Silja Regina Langwagen (born 17 April 1940) is a German soprano singer.

Born in Berlin, Silja began her operatic career at a very early age, with her grandfather, Egon Friedrich Maria Anders van Rijn, as her voice teacher. She sang Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville in Braunschweig in 1956, followed by Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.

She had a breakthrough in 1959 as the Queen of Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Vienna State Opera, conducted by Karl Böhm, and also at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. France-Soir dubbed her "a second Callas." Other early roles included Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore, Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, the four heroines of Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann, Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte.

She made her debut in 1960 at the Bayreuth Festival, as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer. At Bayreuth (until 1967), she also sang Elsa von Brabant in Lohengrin (opposite Astrid Varnay), both Venus and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Freia in Das Rheingold and Waldvogel in Siegfried, among others. Outside Bayreuth, the soprano appeared in Wieland Wagner's productions of Salome by Strauss, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Die Walküre and Siegfried (as Brünnhilde), Elektra by Strauss, Beethoven's Fidelio, Verdi's Otello, Alban Berg's Lulu and Wozzeck (conducted by Pierre Boulez). Of her Salome, Harold Rosenthal wrote in Opera in 1968:

DATE - 16.5.1967.

PRESS STAMP - please see reverse of photo.

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