German soprano Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf has died at the age of 90, at her home in Austria. Born in the now-Polish town of Jarotschin, the singer trained in Berlin and Leicester, and sang for the Berlin State Opera from 1939 until 1942. She later became principal of the Vienna State Opera, sang with New York's Metropolitan Opera, and was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1992, after becoming a British citizen. Schwarzkopf was also married to Walter Legge, artistic director of EMI Records and a founder of the Philharmonia, from 1951 until his death in 1979.
In her later life, she came under public scrutiny for her early links with the Nazi party. In retirement, she admitted that she had applied to join the Nazi Party in 1939 likening it to joining a union, and saying: "I applied for membership when I was 24, in my second year at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. I was told that I must do so if I wanted to continue my career. The membership card never reached me."