Hildegard Ranczak
Birthplace: Witkowitz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now Vítkovice, part of Ostrava, Czech Republic)
Hildegard Ranczak was a Czech soprano who studied in Vienna with Irene Schlemmer-Ambros and made her stage debut at Düsseldorf in 1919 as Pamina. After engagements at Cologne and Stuttgart she joined the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where under Clemens Krauss she became closely associated with Strauss's operas, creating Clairon in Capriccio in 1942 and singing Octavian, Zdenka, Aithra and the Dyer's Wife. Guest appearances took her to Vienna, to London as Salome in 1937, to Paris as Octavian the same year, and to Rome and Dresden. She married the baritone Fritz Schaetzler, and gave her last performance as Carmen in Munich in 1950.
Creations
- Clairon — Capriccio
Written from
- Wikipedia (2026) Hildegard Ranczak. (Accessed: August 2026).
- Deutsche Biographie (n.d.) Ranczak, Hildegarde. GND authority record 116328142. (Accessed: August 2026). Gives her place of death as Munich; Grove, Wikipedia and Wikidata's referenced claim agree on Vienna.
- Cummings, D. (1992) 'Ranczak, Hildegard', in Sadie, S. (ed.) The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. London: Macmillan Reference, vol. 3, p. 1235.