| HILDEGARD BEHRENS |  |
One of today's most celebrated dramatic sopranos, Hildegard Behrens is renowned for her highly intelligent and dramatically intense portrayals of the heroines of Wagner and Strauss and for the powerful radiance of her voice.
Although music was always an important part of her life, she began her musical career relatively late - after completing her law degree at the University of Freiburg. But her rise to stardom was meteoric: she debuted in 1972 as the Countess in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro at the opera in Osnabrück - while she was still an ensemble member of the Deutsche Oper am Rheim in Düsseldorf where she sang many roles in the company repertoire. By 1976, she had debuted at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (as Beethoven's Fidelio) and the Metropolitan Opera in New York (as Giorgetta in Puccini's Il Tabarro). In 1977, she became an overnight sensation at the Salzburg Festival where she debuted as Strauss' Salome. And the rest, as they say, is history, which she continues to make to this day...
Salome is just one of her many signature roles that include Wagner's Brünnhilde, Isolde and Senta, Strauss' Elektra, Alban Berg's Marie, and Beethoven's Fidelio - all of which have been recorded on CD, as have her Dyer's Wife (in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten) and her Agathe (in Weber's Der Freischutz). As befits a great singing actress, she is also well represented on video: two complete Ring Cycle productions, Wozzeck, Der fliegende Holländer, Tosca, and Idomeneo.
Her repertoire has also included, in addition to those already mentioned, such diverse roles as Mozart's Dona Anna, Fiordiligi, and Elettra, Strauss' Ariadne, Janacek's Emilia Marty, and Katya Kabanova, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, and Schoenberg's Woman (Erwartung).
In the past three years, she has added new roles to her repertoire: The Woman R in Luciano Berio's Cronaca del Luogo which was commissioned by the Salzburg Festival and composed especially for her voice, Lehar's Die lustige Witwe, Wagner's Kundry, and Janaçek's Kostelniçka which she sings at the 2001 Salzburg Festival.
And... as she remarked in her speech on her acceptance of the prestigious Lotte Lehmann Memorial Ring Award in Vienna, the Ring, which is hers to own until retirement, will be in her possession for a long time because - she will be singing for many more years to come!
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