Violetta de Strozzi was born Ljubica Oblak on April 28, 1896, in Sarajevo, the center of the then Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia. Her father, Franz Oblak, was a high-ranking official in the Habsburg administration.
After studying in Zagreb, where she trained with the renowned Milka Ternina, and in Vienna, she made her debut at the Zagreb Opera in 1918. In 1922, she went to the opera in Breslau (present-day Wrocław), where she began performing under the name Violetta de Strozzi, having married the actor and writer Tito de Strozzi. In September of 1924, she was engaged at the Berlin State Opera. There, she sang the major roles of her repertoire—Tosca, Aida, Leonore, Salome, Ariadne—and gave guest performances in Vienna, Dresden, Paris, Prague, and Rome.
The Nazis’ rise to power initially appeared to have no consequences for her, as she received a new contract in September of 1933. However, in February of 1934, General Director Heinz Tietjen informed her that, “in agreement with the opera director, Dr. Furtwängler, […] there is no intention” to extend her current contract. The reason for this sudden dismissal had to do with de Strozzi’s family connections: her second husband, the physician Curt Engelmann, whom she married in 1928, was Jewish.
The couple fled Germany in July of 1934 and emigrated to the United States, where Violetta de Strozzi was initially engaged at the Metropolitan Opera. However, this engagement ended in 1935. The singer appears to have struggled to resume her career in the years that followed. Violetta de Strozzi died on March 23, 1981, in New Milford, Connecticut.
1896 Sarajevo
1981 New Milford, Connecticut