Erika Wedekind
Erika Wedekind, complete named Frida Marianne Erica Wedekind, also Erika Oschwald, (13 November 1868 – 10 October 1944) was a German operatic soprano. She came from the family. Her brothers were the writers Frank Wedekind and . She was married since 1898 to the Kgl. Privy Councillor Walther Oschwald. Life and career Born in Hanover, Wedekind grew up at Lenzburg Castle in the Swiss canton of Aargau, which had been purchased by her father – a general practitioner. Although she was celebrated by the local press for her successful stage performances as a young girl in Lenzburg and Aarau, her father refused to allow her to train as a singer and forced her to train as a teacher. It was only after his death that she graduated from the Dresdner Konservatorium from 1891 to 1894, initially with Gustav Scharfe (until his death in 1892) and studied singing with the famous soprano and music teacher Aglaja Orgeni. Wedekind made her debut in 1894 as Frau Fluth in The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai and in the same year received her first engagement at the Dresdner Hofoper, where she was a celebrated coloratura soprano until 1909. Due to her great