Hildegard Behrens, 1937-2009, Her Life Affirming Art
Brad Kronen
November 13, 7:23 AM

One of the best memories of my life was when I attended a performance of “Elektra” at the Metropolitan Opera with Hildegard Behrens in the title role. The opera is performed in one act with no intermissions, each note building to the amazing dramatic ending where Elektra, in sheer redemptive bliss drops dead. Ms. Behrens not only embodied that sentiment with her acting which immersed herself fully as the tragic heroine and voice that was a beacon of sound perfect for Strauss, but with a physical stamina of a decathalete as well. For as the Met Opera Orchestra boomed the triumphant chords reflecting Elektra’s ecstatic joy upon hearing of the death of her mother, Hildy lost all abandon and proceeded to use every part of her body as she stomped into a Victory Dance that was so demanding and COMMITTED, one could see how with each blissful stomp Elektra would sacrifice a beat of her living soul, rendering her lifeless on the very last note.

The Met, being THE greatest stage on the globe, like every opera they perform had their massive golden curtain close to completion with the exact same precision as Maestro Levine was conducting the final beat of the opera and remarkably as Hildegard literally threw herself down on the ground in a heap that had completely expired with not a breath left in it. The entire audience was so completely overwhelmed by this fusion of Greek tragedy, sublime singing and hyper realistic acting that there was not a sound when the curtain finally closed. And the audience was still taking in everything they had witnessed with this display of artistic mastery when the curtain went up with another pause of silence, and a single spotlight proceeded to shine on Ms. Behrens who stood on the massive stage, alone. Another pause. I must add that I was very close to the stage on the far left hand side of the theater. After the delayed pause with the audience finally realizing that not only had a spotlight gone on but that one of the greatest interpreters of “Elektra” was before us, there was a ROAR of sound made by hundreds of people regaining their knowledge of where they were along with what had happened and they began to howlingly scream and applaud as if desperate to make up for lost time. This delayed reaction must have come down on Ms. Behrens like a stimulus of blaring shock because from my viewpoint, I literally saw her wince and jolt backwards. She was literally taken aback and was not expecting the audience to so fiercely show their thanks and pleasure to her on such a primal level!

The din remained consistently strong in volume for at least the next 4 minutes, which in applause time is seemingly never ending. Ms. Behrens smiled, bowed and when there showed no signs of the audience decreasing their frenzied pitch of praise for her, the great soprano lowered her head and when she lifted her visage back to the audience to display that ever beaming smile which in itself was famous, there were tears streaming down her face. She cried tears of uncontrollable joy which made me, in turn, involuntarily weep while applauding as hard as I could and cheering with all my vocal might!

I truly felt human during those glorious moments. As a member of that performance’s audience, we were acknowledging Art itself and that moments such as these are the things that make us write poetry, sing operas, and believe in God.

Perpetual light shine upon you Hildegard, and I thank you very deeply for giving me that precious gift in time that I will carry with me as one of my most treasured possessions.

http://www.examiner.com/x-27160-Hollywood-Astrology-Examiner~y2009m11d13-Hildegard-Behrens-19372009-Her-Life-Affirming-Art

Memoriam Of A Diva
Brad Kronen
December 15, 2009

I had a piece published that I did not follow with a mass announcement. Obituaries are not the type of thing people want to read during their leisure time or to "read up on something new."

When I discovered that the great soprano Hildegard Behrens had died, I not only experienced emotion but was truly moved with her loss. So moved that I was compelled to write "Hildegard Behrens, 1937-2009, Her Life Affirming Art."

As many of you know, I had a short but very fulfilling singing career as an opera singer. I had run into a friend of mine just yesterday and we discussed the loss of Ms. Behrens. My friend had worked with Hildegard on numerous occasions and he said to me how she would have loved the obituary and emphasized how spiritual she was with anything she approached in life.

An hour later I was honored and touched to receive notice that my piece was listed on the "In Memoriam" site for Hildegard Behrens as well as it was being directly quoted in the Index of Tributes from fans and colleagues around the globe.

Please look at the wonderful outpourings from around the world at the joy Hildegard Behrens gave with her life, art and spirituality.

Love, Light und Froliche Weinachten



http://www.examiner.com/x-27160-Hollywood-Astrology-Examiner~y2009m12d15-Memoriam-Of-A-Diva

21 August 2009

IN MEMORIAM: Hildegard Behrens, German dramatic soprano
(9 February 1937 – 18 August 2009)

Hildegard Behrens as Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera As even her most frenzied admirers accepted in the final years of the 1970’s that Birgit Nilsson’s dominance in the Hochdramatische repertory – especially Strauss’ Elektra and Färberin and Wagner’s Brünnhilde and Isolde – was drawing to its natural close, both opera lovers and the managers of the world’s opera houses searched the ranks of young singers for a suitable successor to Nilsson in German dramatic repertory. The protean vocal abilities of Nilsson seemed, and indeed have proved to be, not merely once-in-a-generation but once-in-a-century. Nonetheless, musical voices as significant as Elektra’s and Brünnhilde’s could not fall silent upon Nilsson’s retirement. During the last two decades of the twentieth century, there surely were respectable, idiomatic performances of German dramatic operas throughout the world, but among the heroines of those performances the undoubted mistress of the Hochdramatische repertory was Hildegard Behrens, who passed away unexpectedly in Tokyo on 18 August.

>Born on 9 February 1937 in the town of Varel in Lower Saxony, Behrens pursued a career in jurisprudence before devoting herself to singing. Initially studying voice in Freiburg, Behrens made her formal operatic debut there in 1971 as the Contessa in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, inauspiciously launching an important career in dramatic roles with success in Mozart. Following further acclaimed performances in Freiburg, Behrens was invited to join the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where she gradually progressed to larger, more dramatic roles, culminating with Marie in Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, a role with which she remains associated.

It was while rehearsing Wozzeck in Düsseldorf that Behrens first encountered the Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, the galvanizing force behind the developments and destructions of several noteworthy operatic careers. Impressed by Behrens’ Marie, Karajan invited her to Berlin to audition for the 1977 Salzburg Festival production of Strauss’ Salome. Rewarded with the title role, Behrens enjoyed a triumph at Salzburg and took her success into the recording studio. Behrens’ Salome on EMI, with Karajan stalwarts José van Dam and Agnes Baltsa as Jochanaan and Herodias, remains after more than thirty years one of the finest entries in the opera’s competitive discography.

In the meantime, Behrens made her formal debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera on 15 October 1976 as Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il Tabarro, part of a complete performance of Il Trittico in which Neil Shicoff also made his MET debut (as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi). [Behrens had first appeared at the MET two weeks earlier, on 1 October, in a ‘MET Marathon’ gala concert in which she sang Elisabeth’s ‘Dich teure Halle’ from Tannhäuser.] A further 169 performances followed during the next two decades, ranging from Mozart’s Elettra and Donna Anna and Beethoven’s Leonore, through Santuzza and Tosca, to Brünnhilde in all three of her guises, Isolde, and Berg’s Marie. It was as Marie that Behrens bade farewell to the MET a decade ago, on 24 April 1999.

Despite myriad successes in Wagner and Strauss roles throughout the world, not least in Munich and Vienna, it is likely as the centerpiece of Otto Schenk’s legendary MET Ring Cycle – on stage, on records, and on video/DVD – that Behrens will be most remembered, at least in Wagner repertory. Though it might seem cruel to suggest that a singer’s interpretation of a role was largely unchanging throughout her career, in Behrens’ case this is indicative of the fact that she had thoroughly prepared the role (or, in the case of Brünnhilde, the three roles) prior to offering her interpretation to the public. In Die Walküre, Behrens’ Brünnhilde Hildegard Behrens as Brünnhilde in the MET's Otto Schenk production of DIE WALKÜRE bounded onto the stage in the second act, the very vocal and dramatic embodiment of the young, impetuous favorite daughter of a god. Few Brünnhildes have been more magisterial without being matronly in the Todesverkündigung, and few have expressed the girl’s heartbreak at being cast off by her father more pathetically or with greater sincerity. In Siegfried, it is virtually impossible to name a Brünnhilde, remembering even Florence Easton, who awakened to love with greater wonder and tonal beauty. Enduring what she perceives as shattering betrayal and sacrificing herself to union in death with her consort, Behrens’ Brünnhilde became in Götterdämmerung both the archetype and that thing she represents: the Eternal Feminine who offers herself as an instrument of redemption. Both Nilsson and Varnay sang the three Brünnhildes with greater vocal abandon (and, to be frank, more voice), but Behrens meaningfully personified the post-modern Brünnhilde, first and always a sensitive, emotionally intense woman.

Fortunately for posterity, Behrens was recorded in most of her finest roles: Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz (DECCA; Kubelík), Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio (DECCA; Solti), Strauss’ Elektra (Philips; Ozawa, and Naïve; Layer) and Salome (EMI; Karajan), Wagner’s Isolde (Philips; Bernstein) and Brünnhilde (all three roles – DGG; Levine, and EMI; Sawallisch), and Berg’s Marie (DGG; Claudio Abbado). It is my personal opinion, however, that no recording captures the essence of Behrens as a performer more thrillingly than Sir Georg Solti’s studio recording of Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, in which Behrens sings the fascinatingly complicated role of the Färberin. In this performance, Behrens’ Färberin progresses with rare eloquence and psychological directness from the petulant shrew of her first appearance to the woman who understands herself and accepts her role as the divinely-blessed procreator in the final scene. Behrens conjures many moments of brilliant, richly touching singing, the voice responding with complete commitment to the intricacies of her interpretation and the upper register gleaming and free. A vital component to an audience’s reaction to the Färberin is that, for all her faults, we must respect her, strive to understand her motivations, pity her, and ultimately embrace her (the role was based to an extent on Strauss’ wife Pauline, after all). Even in the impersonal environment of the recording studio, Behrens creates a multi-dimensional character who exasperates and intoxicates but inspires genuine affection. Such was the nature of Behrens’ artistry.

The position that Hildegard Behrens will occupy in the line of great Hochdramatische singers is a matter for debate. What is more certain is that Behrens was for a generation of opera lovers the definitive Brünnhilde. For me, Behrens was my first Brünnhilde, the intriguing impetus who inspired me to explore the earlier Brünnhildes of Flagstad, Traubel, Varnay, Mödl, Nilsson, and Dame Gwyneth Jones. It is not merely sentimentality that secures for Behrens a prominent place in my affections. Even when singing with a voice less imposing than those of many of her finest older rivals, Behrens possessed the endearing ability to aim her performances squarely at the collective hearts of her audiences, and she rarely missed her mark. In our digital age, legacies are increasingly insignificant, but it is comforting and exciting to imagine that another magnificent voice now rings through Walhalla.

Hildegard Behrens, 1937 - 2009
Posted by Joseph Newsome at 23:08

1 comment:
Jim Forrest said...

A moving, and well-deserved tribute. It was easy for older opera-goers to complain about what we perceived as vocal limitations in some of her roles. But we have no one now who begins to compare!
August 22, 2009 7:36 AM

http://voix-des-arts.blogspot.com/2009/08/in-memoriam-hildegard-behrens-german.html

Hildegard Behrens Has Passed Away

It is so difficult for me to comprehend that Hildegard Behrens has died. She was only 72 and it seems not all that long ago that my friend Bryan and I visited her in her dressing room after what was to be her final Met performance as Marie in Berg's WOZZECK. Hildegard Behrens was one of a half-dozen singers who, in the nearly half-century that I've been immersed in the world of opera, made an impression that transcended mere vocalism and acting. Her voice was utterly her own: a ravaged, astringent quality often beset her timbre - the price of having given so unsparingly of her instrument in some of opera's most taxing roles. And yet she could produce phrases of stupendously haunting beauty, and she could suddenly pull a piano phrase out of mid-air. Her unique mixture of raw steely power, unmatched personal intensity and a deep vein of feminine vulnerability made her performances unforgettable even when the actual sound of the voice was less than ingratiating.

So many memories are flooding back this morning while I am thinking about her: the Wesendonck Lieder she sang at Tanglewood during my 'Wagner summer'...a rare chance to hear her miscast but oddly moving singing of the Verdi REQUIEM...her televised RING Cycle from the Met...her wildly extravagant 'mad scene' in Mozart's IDOMENEO...her passionate Tosca and Santuzza, cast against the vocal norm...a solo recital at Carnegie Hall...the dress rehearsal of the Met revival of her ELEKTRA where she made up (and how!) for an off-night at the premiere. Hildegard Behrens was also the holder of the Lotte Lehmann Ring which was left to her by her great colleague Leonie Rysanek upon Rysanek's untimely death in 1998.

It was in fact the Behrens Elektra, sung in concert at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa in August 1988 that has always seemed to me the very epitome of what an operatic portrayal can be. In a black gown and violently teased hair, the soprano (announced as being indisposed by allergies) transformed a stand-and-deliver setting into a full-scale assault on the emotions. I'll never forget that performance and I was fortunate a week later to record it from a delayed broadcast.

In the great scene in which Elektra recognizes her long-lost brother, Behrens transported me right out of this mortal world. Here it is, from her 1994 Met performance with Donald McIntyre.

It's going to be hard for me now to listen to Hildegard - her Berlioz Nuits d'Ete is my favorite recording of those beloved songs, unconventional as her voice sounds in that music - or to watch her on film as Brunnhilde or Elektra. For a while I will just let the memories play.

A favorite Hildegard Behrens recording: Berlioz & Ravel.

August 19, 2009


http://oberon481.typepad.com/oberons_grove/2009/08/hildegard-behrens-has-passed-away.html

Deeply sad, yet she is triumphant

The world of music lost a great lady yesterday in the crossing of Hildegard Behrens, a voice and person of honest and beautiful intensity. To her millions of fans all over the world, and to her dear friends and family, my prayers, my solace, solidarity and heart are with you.

~ by aprilemillo [soprano] on August 19, 2009.

http://aprilemillo.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/deeply-sad-yet-she-is-triumphant/

Saturday, August 22, 2009
Hildegard Behrens 1937-2009

I came out of my not-blogging cave to sadly announce the death of one of the great Wagnerians sopranos, Hildegard Behrens. I was introduced to her work, however, not through Wagner, but through the perfection that is the 1985 Zefferelli Tosca. When I delicately dipped into the world of the Wagner cult, the Otto Schenk Ring cycle with her as Brünnhilde was the only one I could watch. She always stunned me with her emotional and dramatic power on the stage, not to mention the force of her beautiful voice.

The soprano died on August 16th in Japan, reportedly of an aneurysm, at the age of 72. Ms Behrens was in Japan for a festival where she would perform and give master classes. She will be remembered fondly as the best Brünnhilde in the post-Nilsson era.

Rest in Peace.

Posted by CaroNome at 8/22/2009 01:17:00 PM

http://scoredesk.blogspot.com/2009/08/hildegard-behrens-1937-2009.html

In our age of tin, a voice from a golden age passes…

I’m coming in a bit late with a tribute to the soprano Hildegard Behrens who died Tuesday. In the 80s I was blessed to see her at the Met as Leonore in Fidelio with Jon Vickers as Florestan and Klaus Tennstedt conducting. Behrens was also centerstage for one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had in an opera house: Elektra in Munich. It was an astounding performance and Behrens brought a touch of vulnerability to the character along with the requisite skin-crawling weirdness. Behrens went all out in every role and left nothing on the table.

She didn’t make nearly enough recordings. I have some private recordings of her in Met broadcasts and on DVD singing Brünnhilde in the Met Ring Cycle. Her Salome with von Karajan conducting is her landmark recorded performance and one of my favorite recordings of the opera.

Here’s the electrifying Behrens in Elektra.
-Craig Zeichner

http://somemodestproposals.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/in-our-age-of-tin-a-voice-from-a-golden-age-passes%E2%80%A6/

August 20, 2009
HILDEGARD BEHRENS

By now you may have heard that soprano Hildegard Behrens has passed away, suddenly, while travelling in Japan. In obituaries and appreciations (like Anthony Tommasini's in the New York Times), you can learn about her late start as an opera singer, and her seemingly inevitable trajectory into Wagnerian roles. My own memory of her comes from 1988, when she was in Boston for semi-staged performances of Richard Strauss's Elektra with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa, performances which are also referenced by Alex Ross of the New Yorker and which were recorded for a commercial release. In my mind, it's impossible to overstate the individual power of that performance, which was echoed in Gramophone magazine (reviewing that subsequent CD): "... so much of her performance is felt instinctively from the heart and is communicated to her audience in this live concert through her psychological understanding of the part expressed in her vibrant, very personal tone." (April 1989)
Posted by Brian McCreath at 10:03 AM

http://wgbhresonances.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html

Opera Star Behrens Dies

Emily Langer, an opera enthusiast who works in The Post's Outlook section, writes:

Hildegard Behrens, one of the finest opera singers of her generation, died at a Tokyo hospital on Tuesday after suffering an aortic aneurysm. The German-born soprano, 72 years old, was still performing--she was in Japan to give a recital and master classes--and her death represents a huge loss for the opera world.

Today I spoke with Ken Noda, Ms. Behrens's longtime accompanist and a musical coach at the Metropolitan Opera, where Ms. Behrens performed in 15 roles and 171 performances. Noda spoke movingly about the passion Ms. Behrens brought to her music, both in fully staged operas and in her recitals. He said that Ms. Behrens would mediate for hours before performances; it was her way of connecting with her characters before introducing them to the audience.

Both Noda and Anthony DelDonna, the Georgetown musicologist quoted in Ms. Behrens's obituary, noted that although Ms. Behrens was best known for her Germany repertory--she was the Brunnhilde of the 20th century--she was just as magnificent in Puccini's Italian opera "Tosca."

Fortunately, Ms. Behrens's performance of "Tosca" at the Met in 1985 is preserved on video. Below you'll find a clip with her "Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore," the big soprano aria from Act II.

The song is actually a prayer: As Tosca considers her lover Mario's sad fate--he is in the hands of the evil police chief Scarpia--she asks God how he could let her suffer so terribly. "I never harmed a living soul," she says. "In my hour of suffering,

"Vissi d'arte" is one of the most important arias in Italian opera, one that any soprano would be proud to sing as an encore. But modern-day sopranos have a lot to live up to. Probably the most famous Tosca of all was Maria Callas, who was also known as "La Divina," which tells you everything you need to know.

Noda said that Ms. Behrens had enormous respect for Callas and that she studied her "Tosca" deeply. So before you watch the video of Ms. Behrens, watch Callas at London's Covent Garden, the first video below. Watch the expressiveness in her face, the despair in her eyes, and, at around 2:40, her absolute abandon as she moves into the end of the aria:

And now, here is Ms. Behrens. Some critics said that her voice didn't have the lyricism needed for Italian operas such as "Tosca"--that she was better suited to the more muscular roles in Wagner and Strauss--but as you'll see in this video, Behrens made up for it with the depth of her acting.

If you've ever been to the Met, you know how thunderous that applause must have felt.

One note: We were unable to obtain a complete list of Ms. Behrens's survivors before our deadline yesterday. In addition to her two children, Philip and Sara Behrens, and two grandchildren, survivors include two siblings. Ms. Behrens married Seth Schneidman in 1985; they divorced in 2003, according to her son.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/08/opera_star_behrens_dies.html

CLEF NOTES
August 19, 2009
Tim Smith

Hildegard Behrens, dynamic German soprano, dies at 72

Hildegard Behrens died Tuesday in Tokyo of an apparent aneurysm at the age of 72.

The exceptional German soprano, highly valued for the strength and beauty of her voice, as well as for her intensity of expression, was especially successful in the works of Wagner and Strauss. She sang the music of Mozart, Puccini, Janacek and others, as well. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1976 and was a frequent performer there over the years (in 1990, she was injured by prematurely descending scenery during the finale of "Gotterdammerung" at the Met). I've posted the AP obit at the end of this entry.

The artistry of Hildegard Behrens is preserved on many recordings and filmed performances. To salute her memory, I chose this example of the soprano, at a peak of vocal and interpretive warmth, singing the ...

"Liebestod" in a performance led by one of ardent admirers, Leonard Bernstein.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/classicalmusic/2009/08/hildegard_behrens_dynamic_germ.html

Atque In Perpetuum, Hildegard

The splendid Wagnerian soprano Hildegard Behrens is dead. She was 72. Notable as much for her striking stage presence and expressive acting as she was for her fine if more lyric than heroic soprano voice, she brought to her Wagner roles a convincingness too rarely seen onstage. Even though long off the Wagnerian stage, her absence from the world of opera will be sorely felt.

Atque In Perpetuum, Hildegard. Ave Atque Vale.

http://www.soundsandfury.com/soundsandfury/2009/08/atque-in-perpetuum-hildegard.html

Karl Ufert's Blog
Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Diva Hildegard Behrens Rest in Peace

I am deeply saddened to have just learned that the great German soprano, Hildegard Behrens, passed away unexpectedly today in Japan at the far-too-young age of 72. Mme. Behrens was, according to the AP report this evening, traveling to Tokyo to prepare for two recital programs, when she “felt unwell” and “died of an apparent aneurysm.”

This is especially tragic for me, and others like me, who experienced Behrens for many of the important years of her career at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in the 1980s and 90s. During this period, she sang everything from Mozart to Puccini — her full MET debut (after an appearance in a fundraising gala) was in the unlikely role of Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il Tabarro — to Mascagni and more, but most importantly, the major heroic roles of Wagner and Richard Strauss. I was never a fan of her too-light-for-much-of-her-repertoire vocal instrument, but I was a passionate admirer of her spectacular musical-theatrical artistry. This was a rare instance of an operatic singer who I loved hearing in roles far above her “fach,” and watching, so as to witness her sheer 100% commitment in everything she performed. I heard and saw, live in the house, all of her MET roles after the early 1980s until the late 90s when she informally, and unannounced, made her last MET appearance.

My father, Frank Ufert, passed away last month at the similarly premature age of 75 (albeit following a decade-long battle with poor health–a much longer period of illness than Mme. Behrens seemingly experienced). May this great woman — who I met many times — enjoy leading the chorus of angels, and my deepest condolences to her family and loved ones.

http://latest.coolpage.biz/?p=7248

also in:

http://www.blogcatalog.com/search.frame.php?term=hildegard+behrens&id=e73d89101732b6e9f35bd3a3f215fd8b

September 2, 2009
A Belated "Leb Wohl" to Hildegard Behrens
Bonnie Gibbons

During our vacation in Spain, the dramatic soprano Hildegard Behrens died unexpectedly from an aortic aneurysm.

Behrens wasn’t merely one of the most fearless-yet-expressive Brunnhildes — you’ll find links to her other roles below. But she’ll always be the “home” Brunnhilde for me. I was in the upper reaches of the Met audience on the opening night of the Otto Schenck Goetterdammerung in 1989. In a typical “youth is wasted on the young” scenario, I had no idea at the time how fortunate I was (the cast also featured Matti Salminen at his frightening finest and Christa Ludwig in one of her last Waltrautes). I was a music major in my last year of college, but hadn’t gotten around to Wagner yet. (I was buried in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, racing to complete my senior thesis on that work somewhere near on time.) I had only listened once to the just-out-on-CD Solti Ring with some other students in preparation for the college trip that landed me in the audience that night. The friend sitting next to me (also a Wanger newbit) commented approvingly “Brunnhilde is being sung by a lady named Hildegard — that’s promising.”

This was a few years before the Met finally caved to supertitles, so that single preparatory hearing was my only guide. It was up to Hildegard Behrens to communicate the range of human experience Brunnhilde encompasses in those three heartbreaking acts. I’ve seen and heard Brunnhildes who are better, in various moments and in various ways, but the moral authority and raw vulnerability of Behrens remains unmatched for me. In Act Two I was “lost” in terms of the libretto, but riveted on her presence in the middle of the stage. It’s not just her visuals, either — it’s there on the Levine recording on DG, where the vocally friendlier studio conditions highlight her expressive phrasing and (yes, I’m saying it) beautiful, sometimes radiant voice. (Note to the Hildegard hatas: just how hoarse would YOU be at the end of a four-night Ring?)

Germaine Greer says it better:

"There is no chance that I will see a Brünnhilde so utterly destroyed, so uncompromisingly tragic ever again. I would have thought it impossible to show such a depth of devastation and helplessness in music, but Behrens did it. How she did it – whether by her utter absorption, her rapt earnestness or her lack of self-consciousness – I shall never know. Never to have seen her do it would be never to have understood how a preposterous musical drama, with absurdly affected DIY verse for a libretto, could be transmuted into the highest of high art."

Behrens is well represented on YouTube as Tosca, Isolde, Fidelio, Elektra (and Elettra), Elisabeth (Tannhauser), the Kaiserin (from Frau), etc.

The Met has a photo gallery tribute. But let’s give the last word to James Morris’s Wotan. This clip begins as Brunnhilde is silenced forever — at least to the ears of this “unhappy immortal.”

http://holdekunst.com/blog/a-belated-leb-wohl-to-hildegard-behrens.html

Hildegard Behrens 1937-2009

This week saw the passing of soprano, Hildegard Behrens. Ms Behrens was noted particularly for her Wagnerian roles but I have found a site where you may download a wonderful recording of her in the role of Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio, with Jon Vickers and Donald McIntyre in a performance conducted by Roger Goodall. The Met has posted a fine pictorial tribute to Ms Behrens. It should not go unremarked that people who knew her well tell me she was a fine and generous lady. A true diva of the old school. Here she is singing Vissi D'arte from Tosca.

Now there's some high-class singin' from a high-class woman.
- Stephen Llewellyn

http://www.portlandopera.org/blog/operaman/2009/08/24/its-been-full-week-here-lake-woebetide

The Rehearsal Studio

Friday, August 21, 2009

Remembering Hildegard Behrens

I did not immediately jump to my keyboard when the news of Hildegard Behrens' death first broke. However, having now read Joshua Kosman's excellent San Francisco Chronicle obituary for her, I realize that I have a few personal points to add. Without in any way trying to diminish either her talent or her stature, Behrens was, for me, the "post-Nilsson" soprano, since she took on many of the roles that I had most enjoyed hearing Birgit Nilsson perform. Through accidents of personal timing, I did not have a chance to hear Nilsson at the Metropolitan Opera until her final season there, when she sang the Dyer's Wife in Richard Strauss' opera, Die Frau ohne Schatten. My opportunities to hear Behrens at the Met were not much better, but I had the good fortune to see her sing Marie when the San Francisco Opera performed Alban Berg's Wozzeck in 1999. I also remember being riveted by her Brünnhilde when Otto Schenk's staging of Richard Wagner's Ring for the Met was broadcast on Public Television. Those performances meant so much to me for so many reasons (Behrens' performance being just one of them) that the complete set is now part of my DVD collection, assuring Behrens of a rather firm place in my personal memory.
Posted by Stephen Smoliar at 8:17 AM

http://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2009/08/remembering-hildegard-behrens.html

dramma per musica

August 19, 2009...8:24 am
Hildegard Behrens

Following a day of unconfirmed rumors, the Associated Press reports this morning that the German soprano Hildegard Behrens, best known for her powerful portrayals of Brünnhilde, Salome, and Elektra, died in Tokyo on Tuesday of an apparent aortic aneurysm. She was 72.

Behrens was in Japan to take part in the Kusatsu International Summer Music Festival. According to an official at the Kanshinetsu Music Society Foundation, which hosts the festival, the singer fell ill shortly after arriving on Sunday and was taken to hospital in Tokyo, where she passed away during surgery. Sources indicate that her funeral will take place in Vienna.

While Behrens will almost certainly be remembered as a preeminent Wagner and Strauss interpreter, her repertoire also included such roles as Fidelio, Agathe (Der Freischütz), Marie (Wozzeck), Giorgetta (Il Tabarro), Tosca, the Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna, and Elettra (Idomeneo).

Speaking of Idomeneo, here’s one of my favorite Behrens moments, taken from a 1982 Met production of the opera conducted by James Levine. Some may argue that this kind of over the top singing is completely wrong for Mozart, but I’m not bothered by it in the least.

1 Comment
Gavin Plumley
August 20, 2009 at 2:32 pm

And we listened to DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN last night… what a recording. What a voice!

http://drammapermusica.com/2009/08/19/hildegard-behrens/

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19 August 2009
Hildegard Behrens dies at 72

One of the finest Wagnerian dramatic sopranos after WWII, Hildegard Behrens, died Tuesday in a hospital in Tokyo at the age of 72.

Hildegard Behrens's career as a singer began in 1971. In 1973 she became an ensemble member of Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg and (in 1974) also a member of Oper Frankfurt. After some minor roles she sang Marie in Alban Berg's "Wozzeck". In 1976 she made her début at Covent Garden as Leonore (Fidelio) and at the Metropolitan as Giorgetta (Il tabarro).

Hildegard Behrens's international career rocketed when Herbert von Karajan offered her the lead role in Richard Strauss's "Salome" at the Salzburg Festival in 1977.

Her career centred around the operas of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss and Mozart. She can be heard as Brünnhilde on the recordings of Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by respectively James Levine (also released on DVD) and Wolfgang Sawallisch (also released on VHS). Behrens delivered a wonderful performance as Isolde on Leonard Bernstein's recording of Tristan und Isolde (1981).

Hildegard Behrens sang Brünnhilde at the Bayreuth Festival in the Peter Hall / George Solti Ring (1983-86).

Hildegard Behrens appeared regularly on opera stages all over the world, with conductors like Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Leonard Bernstein, James Levine and Wolfgang Sawallisch.

- Posted by Per-Erik Skramstad at 11:29  

http://wagneropera.blogspot.com/2009/08/hildegard-behrens-dies-at-72.html