Teresa Stich-Randall, 79; opera singer was known for performing Mozart

Teresa Stich-Randall, 79, an American soprano praised by Arturo Toscanini as “the find of the century,” died July 17 in Vienna, Austria’s Bundestheater said Tuesday without specifying the cause of death.

Acclaimed for her interpretations of Mozart’s greatest works, Stich-Randall shuttled between the United States and Europe, where she spent most of her professional career singing in the world’s great opera houses.

She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1961 in Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” and was a regular at the Salzburg Festival and the Vienna State Opera, where she performed on 355 separate occasions before retiring in 1972.

Born Dec. 24, 1927, in New Hartford, Conn., Stich-Randall studied at the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford and at Columbia University.

She was hired by Toscanini at 19 for several concerts with the NBC Symphony of the Air. She learned German, French and Italian, and in 1963 became the first American to be named a Kammersangerin, or chamber singer, an honor bestowed on Austria’s most respected artists.