Dębicka, Debitzka, Stermich-Dębicka, von Debitzka, Jadwiga, Hedwiga, *24 November 1888 Lviv, †3 December 1970 Vienna, Polish singer (soprano). She was educated at the famous school of the Kozłowski sisters in Lviv. She made her debut in 1907 at the opera in Lviv (Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen), then performed the role of Halka in Moniuszko’s opera, Mimi in Puccini’s La Bohème and Nedda in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. After further studies with the outstanding conductor and teacher P. Stermich-Valcrociata (whom she later married), in 1914, she performed at the Vienna Hofoper (later Staatsoper) as Margarita in Gounod’s Faust. In 1915–24, she was a soloist of the second Viennese stage – Volksoper, in 1924 she was engaged in the ensemble of the Berlin Staatsoper, where she was a soloist for 5 years, achieving the greatest successes of her life; also later, until 1936, she regularly appeared on the Berlin stage as a guest. She also sang as a guest in Vienna, Budapest, Paris, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Stockholm, as well as in Warsaw, Poznań and Lviv. Her best roles included: Butterfly (Puccini’s Madama Butterfly), Violetta (Verdi’s Traviata), Margarita (Gounod’s Faust) and Zofia (R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier). After World War II, she stayed in Italy. In 1950, she was appointed professor at the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna.
