Rita Streich (December 18, 1920, Barnaul - March 20, 1987, Vienna) was one of the most significant coloratura sopranos of the post-war period. Born in Russia, she moved to Germany while still very young, and thus spoke both Russian and German fluently. Among her teachers were Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, Erna Berger, and Maria Ivogün. Her debut as an opera singer was during the Second World War at the Stadttheater of Ústí nad Labem in Bohemia, in the role of Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss' opera Ariadne auf Naxos. Three years later she secured her first engagement at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, where she stayed until 1952. In that year she moved to Bayreuth, in 1953 to Vienna, and in 1954 to Salzburg. Appearances at La Scala in Milan and at Covent Garden followed. From 1974 she taught at the Folkwang Academy in Essen and the Music Academy in Vienna. She gave master classes during the Salzburg Festival from 1983. Her repertoire included arias from Idomeneo, Così fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and others. As a native speaker of Russian, she also sang the works of Rimsky-Korsakov, without a trace of an accent. In addition to her operatic career, Rita Streich was considered a great operetta singer. She made recordings of many classical Viennese operettas such as "Die Fledermaus," "Eine Nacht in Venedig," "Der Zigeunerbaron," "Boccaccio," "Der Bettelstudent," and "Der Zarewitsch." Rita Streich was brought to the attention of modern audiences in 2007, in the film "Mr. Bean's Holiday," when Rowan Atkinson lip-syncs her famous recording of Puccini's "O mio babbino caro" with the Deutsche Oper Berlin Orchestra directed by Reinhard Peters. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.