Christoph von Dohnányi
Rothenberger was born in Mannheim, Germany. She studied with Erika Müller, and took up her first engagement in Koblenz in 1942. In 1946, Günther Rennert offered her a job at the Hamburg Opera House, where she sang in Rennert's now famous production of Alban Berg's "Lulu" twenty years later, a role she would also perform at the Munich Opera Festival, under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi.