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Rosa Olitzka

German singer (1873-1949)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ18027492
Source-derived summary

Rosa Olitzka (September 6, 1873 – September 29, 1949) was a German-born contralto singer. She sang with the Metropolitan Opera from 1895 to 1901, and with the Chicago Opera from 1910 to 1911.

Early life

Rosa Olitzka was born in Berlin; her parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Her father, Joseph Olitzki, was a cantor. She studied voice with Julius Hey in Berlin, and with Désirée Artôt de Padilla in Paris. She also studied piano.

Career

Olitzka made her opera debut in 1892, in Brno. She sang at the Court Theatre in Hanover, at the Municipal Theatre in Hamburg, and at the Court Opera in Dresden. At the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, she appeared in Siegfried (1893), Orfeo ed Eurydice (1894), Otello (1895), Lohengrin (1895 and 1907), Faust (1895), Tannhäuser (1895), Die Walküre (1895, 1900, and 1907), Carmen (1897), Götterdämmerung (1900), Rigoletto (1901), and Aida (1905).

Olitzka sang at the 1896 funeral of William Steinway, in New York City.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rosa Olitzka” as german singer (1873-1949). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1873, 1949, 1895, 1901—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1873-09-06, 1873—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Rosa, Olitzka and German can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as german singer (1873-1949). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18027492. VIAF identifies the subject as 197149106270068492242. The Library of Congress control number is n97076700. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1949, 1895 and 1901.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rosa Olitzka”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rosa Olitzka primary sources, Rosa Olitzka archive and Rosa research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rosa Olitzka”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Rosa Olitzka” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.