Erna Dorothea Luise Sack (née Weber; 6 February 18982 March 1972) was a German lyric coloratura soprano, known as the German Nightingale for her high vocal range. Biography Erna Weber was born in Spandau, Berlin. As a child, her voice attracted attention both at school and in the church choir in which she sang. In 1921, she married Hermann Sack, of Jewish descent. She studied at the Prague Conservatory, and later privately in Berlin with Oscar Daniel. Her career accelerated in 1930 when her uncanny ability to sing stratospheric high notes, including "C above high C" (C7), was discovered. Richard Strauss wrote a new cadenza for her high voice, for her to sing as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. In 1931, she sang Norina in Donizetti's Don Pasquale at Bielefeld Opera, where her voice made a great impression and her gifts were immediately recognised. The Theater Wiesbaden engaged her in 1932, and in that year she also made several radio broadcasts and recordings. In 1934 she was engaged by the Breslau Opera, where her roles included her first Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the following year arrived at the Semperoper in Dresden, where she attracted the attention of Karl Böhm and, above all, Strauss. In 1934 she also made a spectacular return to Berlin, appearing as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto alongside Heinrich Schlusnus as the Jester and Walther Ludwig as the Duke under the baton of Erich Kleiber. In 1935, Erna Sack made her first series of concert tours, to Austria, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom. During the same year, she signed an exclusive recording contract with Telefunken. She appeared in the world premiere of Strauss's Die schweigsame Frau as Isotta, a role in which her special commitment earned her the gratitude of both Strauss and Karl Böhm. As a result, she was invited to sing the part of Zerbinetta under Strauss's personal direction when the Dresden State Opera visited the Covent Garden Royal Opera House in 1936. From this point onwards Sack's career took off. She seemed to work tirelessly, at the opera, in concert tours, and touring, including to Rome where she appeared in Mozart's The Magic Flute with a cast that included Tito Schipa and Licia Albanese, Copenhagen, Oslo, and, for the first time, the United States, where she shared a platform at Carnegie Hall with Joseph Schmidt and Richard Tauber (24 October 1937)