In memoriam: Hildegard Behrens - obituaries & tributes from the Middle East and Asia

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In Memoriam: Hildegard Behrens

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/hildegard-behrens-renowned-wagner-soprano-dies-in-tokyo-at-age-72-1.536044

http://www.haberturk.com/haber.asp?id=166545&cat=190&dt=2009/08/19

Opera singer died Hildegard Behrens
Famous artist was72 years old.
19.08.2009 09:47

Opera singer Hildegard Behrens has died in Japan at age 72.

According to New York's Metropolitan Opera executive Jonathan Friend, the soprano was in Japan to join a festival near the capital Tokyo, but was taken ill and hospitalized. The famous Wagnerian sopranolost her life as a result of an apparent aneurysm, he said.

Behrens, was voted"Singer of the Year" by the German opera magazines Opernwelt in 1997 and Orpheus in 1996.

Aug 19, 2009
German soprano dies in Japan

TOKYO - GERMAN soprano Hildegard Behrens, known for her dramatic portrayals of Richard Wagner's heroines, has died during a visit to Japan to attend a music festival, event organisers said Wednesday. She was 72.

Behrens worked with great conductors including Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan, won multiple awards and performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera, also recording numerous albums in her decades-long career.

She died on Tuesday in a Tokyo hospital from an aortic aneurysm, said a representative of the annual Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy and Festival, where she had been due to teach and perform this week. Her body was to be cremated in Tokyo on Thursday with her ashes to be brought to the festival for a concert in her memory later in the day.

Shortly after arriving in Japan Sunday, Behrens 'said she was feeling unwell from low blood pressure", festival secretariat spokeswoman Miyuki Takebayashi told AFP. 'She was taken by ambulance and immediately hospitalised.' The singer's son and manager Philip Behrens and her daughter Sara flew in and joined her in hospital where she died in surgery, Takebayashi said.

Behrens was born in Varel near Oldenburg, Germany, and learned the piano and violin at a young age, according to an obituary released by the secretariat.

She began formal music studies while she was a law student in Freiburg. Her talent was noticed by maestro Herbert von Karajan, and she rose to fame when he invited her to the 1977 Salzburg Festival.

She was most renowned for her portrayals of the heroines of Wagner and Richard Strauss, but her wide repertoire also included demanding soprano roles in the works of Mozart and other composers. She received state honours from Germany and Austria and numerous awards, including, according to her website, the 1997 Singer of the Year prize by the German opera magazine Die Opernwelt.

A frequent visitor to Japan, she had in recent years been a fixture at the festival in the hot-spring resort of Kusatsu, 150 kilometres northwest of Tokyo, where she had been due to perform Thursday.

The memorial concert will be attended by Behren's two children, who will bring her ashes from Tokyo.

'She was cremated at the request of her family,' said Miki Hayashi of the Kan-Shinetsu Music Association which organises the annual festival. The concert will start with a performance by the Prague-based Panocha String Quartet and feature German classic clarinet player Karl Leister, who had been billed with Behrens for the night, Hayashi said. -- AFP

German opera singer Behrens dies in Tokyo
Wednesday 19th August, 01:02 PM JST

TOKYO —
German 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 in an email 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 on Tuesday.

Friend’s email was shared with The Associated Press by Jack Mastroianni, director of IMG Artists.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/entertainment/view/german-opera-singer-behrens-dies-in-tokyo

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
German soprano Behrens dies in Japan
August 20, 2009 07:23:00 AM

German soprano Hildegard Behrens, known for her dramatic portrayals of Richard Wagner's heroines, has died during a visit to Japan, organisers of a music festival there said Wednesday. She was 72.

Behrens worked with great conductors including Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan, won multiple awards and performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera, also recording numerous albums in her decades-long career.

She died on Tuesday in a Tokyo hospital from an aortic aneurysm, said a representative of the annual Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy and Festival, where she had been due to teach and perform this week.

Shortly after arriving in Japan Sunday, Behrens "said she was feeling unwell from low blood pressure," festival secretariat spokeswoman Miyuki Takebayashi told AFP. "She was taken by ambulance and immediately hospitalised."

The singer's son and manager Philip Behrens and her daughter flew in and joined her in hospital where she died in surgery, Takebayashi said.

Behrens was born in Varel near Oldenburg, Germany, and learned the piano and violin at a young age, according to an obituary released by the secretariat.

She began formal music studies while she was a law student in Freiburg.

Her talent was noticed by maestro Herbert von Karajan, and she rose to fame when he invited her to the 1977 Salzburg Festival.

She was most renowned for her portrayals of the heroines of Wagner and Richard Strauss, but her wide repertoire also included demanding soprano roles in the works of Mozart and other composers.

She received state honours from Germany and Austria and numerous awards, including, according to her website, the 1997 Singer of the Year prize by the German opera magazine Die Opernwelt.

A frequent visitor to Japan, she had in recent years been a fixture at the festival in the hot-spring resort of Kusatsu, 150 kilometres (90 miles) northwest of Tokyo, where she had been due to perform Thursday.

Her body will be cremated in Tokyo on Thursday and her remains may be sent to Kusatsu for a memorial event, the spokeswoman said.

"Her son and daughter will attend the memorial service, which will be a kind of farewell for Madame Behrens," Takebayashi said.

http://www.fijilive.com/news/2009/08/20/19405.Fijilive

HILDEGARD BEHRENS: she makes music worth seeing!

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