Marie Haupt

She is best remembered today for portraying several roles in the first complete presentation of Richard Wagner's The Ring Cycle at the very first Bayreuth Festival in 1876.

[1] Born in Danzig, Germany (now Gdańsk, Poland), Haupt studied in Berlin with the great prima donna Pauline Viardot and renowned pedagogue Eduard Mantius.

She excelled in the coloratura soprano repertoire, portraying such roles as Ännchen in Der Freischütz, Elvira in I puritani, Frau Fluth in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Marie in La fille du régiment.

[1] Haupt's participation in the first presentation of the complete Ring Cycle at the Bayreuth Festival in 1876 was the pinnacle achievement of her career.

This was the first time that the third opera in the ring, Siegfried, was heard and Haupt created the role of the Forestbird when it premiered on August 16, 1876.