Background
Vera Zorina was born Eva Brigitta Hartwig in Berlin, Germany. Her father, Fritz Hartwig, was a German lapsed Roman Catholic, and mother, Abigail Johanne Wimpelmann (known as Billie Hartwig), Norwegian and Lutheran.
Actor choreographer ballet dancer
Vera Zorina was born Eva Brigitta Hartwig in Berlin, Germany. Her father, Fritz Hartwig, was a German lapsed Roman Catholic, and mother, Abigail Johanne Wimpelmann (known as Billie Hartwig), Norwegian and Lutheran.
Both were both professional singers. Young Eva was brought up in a small coastal town between Trondheim and Bergen, called Kristiansund North, where she debuted as a dancer at the Festiviteten, the oldest opera house in Norway. She received her education at the Lyceum for Girls in Berlin and was trained in dance by Olga Preobrajenska and Nicholas Legat.
At age 12, she was presented to Max Reinhardt, who cast her in A Midsummer Night"s Dream (1929) and Tales of Hoffman (1931).
She appeared in a number of Hollywood movies between 1938 and 1946. As the title character, she played an exquisite angel who descended from heaven to marry Hungarian banker played by Dennis King, but whose complete lack of human guile presented him with a whole new set of problems.
(Jeanette MacDonald had that lead role in the film version) Starting in 1948, Zorina appeared in Arthur Honegger"s Joan of Arc at the Stake, playing the title role in the first American performance with the New York Philharmonic under Charles Münch. She subsequently commanded the role many times, notably in the recorded performance from the Royal Festival Hall in June 1966, with the London Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa.
In the 1970s, Vera Zorina was appointed director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet (Den Norske Opera & Ballet).
Later, she was active with the Lincoln Center as an adviser and director and, for several seasons, directed operas at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico. In 1986, she completed her autobiography, Zorina.