In memoriam: Hildegard Behrens - Homages: broadcasts

Homages - USA: FAREWELL to a LEGEND, Adieu LUMIÈRE...

In Memoriam: Hildegard Behrens

N. E. Opera Club Pays Tribute to Hildegard Behrens

On Sunday, June 13 at 2:00 pm the New England Opera Club will pay tribute to Hildegard Behrens (1937-2009) with recordings and video clips of her performances. A native of Germany and one of the foremost dramatic sopranos and singing actresses of her generation, Behrens was acclaimed for her intense musicality and fearless dramatic commitment. She was particularly identified with Wagner's Brunhilde, a role she sang at the Metropolitan Opera in the company's historic first telecast and first audio recording of the complete Ring Cycle. The program will be facilitated by Erika Reitshamer.

The New England Opera Club was founded 30 years ago by a small group of opera lovers. The Club meets monthly for programs featuring interesting guest speakers, professionals and talented amateurs. Erika Reitshamer is a former board member of the New England Opera Club, Vice President of the Boston Wagner Society and a member of the Sudbury Opera Lovers Group.

http://www.newtonfreelibrary.net/programs/calendar/nav/?year=2010&month=6&content=music

http://www.whrb.org/programs/octnov2009.pdf

The Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius XM pays tribute to Behrens with the historic broadcast of a 1989 performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre

HILDEGARD BEHRENS: 1937-2009
Hildegard Behrens, one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of her generation, died on August 16, 2009, in Tokyo. She made her stage debut as the countess in Le Nozze di Figaro in her native Germany and was first heard at the Met in 1976 as Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il Tabarro. Acclaimed for her intense musicality and fearless dramatic commitment, she was particularly identified with Wagner’s Brünnhilde, a role she sang in the company’s historic first telecast and first audio recording of the complete Ring cycle. Her other roles at the Met include Isolde, Elektra, Tosca, Leonore in Fidelio, Marie in Wozzeck, and Elettra in the company premiere of Idomeneo. Metropolitan Opera Radio on Sirius XM pays tribute to Behrens with the historic broadcast of a 1989 performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre on 8/25 at 12 noon ET, 8/27 at 9 PM ET, and 8/30 at 9 AM ET.

http://www.sirius.com/metropolitanoperaradio

SAN ANTONIO'S CLASSICAL OASIS

KPAC & KTXI (Texas Public Radio) will honor Behrens singing today at 2pm with some Wagner.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Passing of a legend

Soprano Hildegard Behrens, one of the finest Wagnerian performers of her generation, has died while traveling in Japan. She was 72. Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, said Tuesday in an e-mail to opera officials that Behrens felt unwell while traveling to a festival near Tokyo. She went to a Tokyo hospital, where she died of an apparent aneurism.
Friend's e-mail was shared with The Associated Press by Jack Mastroianni, director of IMG Artists.
Her funeral was planned in Vienna.

Organizers of Behrens' visit said she was in Japan to perform at a music festival and then give lessons at a hot springs resort. Miyuki Takebayashi, an official at the Kanshinetsu Music Association, said Behrens was taken to a hospital Sunday night and died there Tuesday. Her son and daughter were at her bedside when she passed away," she said.

Behrens was among the finest actors on the opera stage during a professional career that spanned more than three decades. She made her professional stage debut in Freiburg as the countess in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" in 1971 and made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Giorgetta in Puccini's "Il Tabarro" in 1976.

One of her breakthrough roles came the following year, when she sang the title role in Strauss' "Salome" at the Salzburg Festival in Austria. She sang 171 performances at the Met, where she appeared until 1999. She was most acclaimed in the late 1980s and early 1990s for her portrayal of Bruennhilde in the Otto Schenk production of the Ring Cycle, the Met's first televised staging of Wagner's tetralogy.

"She is the finest Bruennhilde of the post-Birgit Nilsson era," Associated Press critic Mike Silverman wrote in 1989. "Though she lacks the overpowering vocal resources of a great Wagnerian soprano, she makes up for that with dramatic intensity as she changes before our eyes from a frisky young Valkyrie to a passionate and then betrayed lover, and finally to a compassionate woman whose sacrifice returns the ring to its rightful owners, the Rhinemaidens."

A dramatic soprano, her Met career included Elettra in Mozart's "Idomeneo," Isolde in Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde," Senta in "Die Fliegende Hollander," Donna Anna in Mozart's "Don Giovanni," Santuzza in Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana," the title roles in Strauss' "Elektra" and `Salome," and Puccini's "Tosca," and Marie in Berg's "Wozzeck."

She was injured during the final scene of Wagner's "Goetterdaemmerung" at the Met on April 28, 1990, when Valhalla collapsed prematurely and an overhead of foam rubber landed on her. Behrens walked off the stage under her own power and was taken to Roosevelt Hospital. She missed subsequent performances because of the injury, and later sued the Met, according to a 1995 article in The New York Law Journal.

According to Behrens' Web site, she was born in the north German town of Varel-Oldenburg. Her parents were both doctors and she and her five siblings studied piano and violin as children. She earned a law degree from the University of Freiburg, where she was also a member of the student choir.

She received Germany's Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of the Merit Cross), Bavaria's Bayerischer Verdienstorden service medal and was honored by both the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Vienna State Opera.

Posted by Your Classical Oasis at 9:51 AM

http://kpac883.blogspot.com/2009/08/passing-of-legend.html

HILDEGARD BEHRENS: she makes music worth seeing!

PROFILE     PORTRAITS     PERFORMANCES     DISCOGRAPHY     AWARDS     QUOTES
BRÜNNHILDE     ELEKTRA      SALOME      FIDELIO     ISOLDE     MARIE     SENTA
THE KOSTELNICKA      THE WOMAN 'R'       KUNDRY     DIE LUSTIGE WITWE

about FANFAIRE       AUDIOFILES     NEW RELEASES    FOOD & MUSIC       VIDEO

SUPPORT FANFAIRE!
Buy your HOLIDAY GIFTS by CLICKING on FanFaire's AMAZON links,