The Austrian contralto, a noted Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, has died at the age of 95. Born in Graz, Töpper studied at the city’s Conservatory before joining Graz Opera in 1945. Her debut was as Ulrica in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. When the Bayreuth Festival re-started after the war in 1951, she sang Flosshilde, Siegrune and the First Norn in The Ring (conducted by Joseph Keilberth, now available on Testament), and later that season sang her first Octavian with the Bavarian State Opera, joining the company shortly after. In 1953 she appeared at Covent Garden as Clairon (Capriccio) when the Bavarian State Opera visited.

Töpper sang at the world’s great opera houses including San Francisco (1960) and The Met (1962), as well as at the Salzburg Festival. In 1957 she sang in the world premiere of Hindemith’s Die Harmonie der Welt. Among her major roles were Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Fricka (Das Rheingold), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), Judith (Duke Bluebeard’s Castle) and Carmen. She was also a noted oratorio and Lieder singer. 

She is well represented on record, particularly as one of Karl Richter’s favoured alto singers for his extensive Bach recordings. She appears on Richter’s sets of the St Matthew and St John Passions, the B minor Mass and various cantata recordings. Away from Bach, she can be heard on Ferenc Fricsay’s Mozart Requiem, the C minor Mass and Le nozze di Figaro (as Cherubino), Keilberth’s DG recording of Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten and Pfitzner’s Von Deutscher Seele (also DG). She recorded the role of Bartók’s Judith (in German) opposite Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau for DG of which Lionel Salter wrote (in April 1960), ‘her vocal acting fully suggests all Judith's changes of mood, from her first entry as she gropes her way down the gloomy staircase to her final disappearance as she passes through the fatal seventh door’.

Töpper was married to the composer Franz Mixa (1902-94). From 1971 to 1981 she was a professor of singing at Munich's Hochschule für Musik und Theater where Elisabeth von Magnus was among her students. She retired from public appearances in 1980.