The Biography

The Trude-Eipperle-Rieger Foundation bears the name of the great, unforgettable German bel canto singer. She was born in Stuttgart on 27 January1908. After studying singing at the Stuttgart Academy of Music and a period of training at the Stuttgart State Opera, her meteoric stage career began in 1929 at the Wiesbaden State Theatre. This was followed by engagements in Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Cologne and Munich during the 1930s and 40s. As from 1951, she was permanently engaged by the Stuttgart State Opera as a Baden-Württemberg Kammersängerin (a title conferred on a singer of outstanding merit). She also gave many, highly acclaimed guest performances in Vienna, London, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Lisbon and Brussels. Especially at the "Green Hill" in Bayreuth and at the Salzburg Music Festivals, she was regarded as the ideal personification of the lyrical soprano.She performed with the greatest composers, conductors, singers and musicians of her time, including such stars as Clemens Krauss, Richard Strauss, Herbert von Karajan, Alfons Fügel, Juliu Patzak, Fritz Wunderlich, Wolfgang Windgassen and Mario del Monaco. Leading music publishers have recently reissued some of her outstanding performances in her classical roles on new CD editions. Trude Eipperle-Rieger retired from the stage in 1965. Until her death on 18 October 1997, she lived as the wife of Ernst Rieger's, RUD's managing director, on the Friedensinsel (Island of Peace) at our RUD Headquarters in Aalen-Unterkochen.