Salome hildegard behrens biography

Behrens was born in Varel in 1937.
The soprano Hildegard Behrens, who has died of a ruptured aortic aneurism aged 72, was an individual, unforgettable Wagner singer, a great actor and, for many.
Hildegard Behrens, born on Feb. 9, 1937, was one of the great exponents of the dramatic German repertory in the late 20 th century.

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Opera Profile: Tang Xianzu’s ‘The Peony Pavilion’

Hildegard Behrens, born on Feb. 9, 1937, was one of the great exponents of the dramatic German repertory in the late 20^th century.

Born in Varel, Germany, she actually kicked off her professional life in Law School before eventually turning her attention to singing. She attended the Freiburg Academy of Music and made her debut in “Le Nozze di Figaro,” as the Contessa, in 1971. From there she became a member of the Deutsche Oper and in 1976, she made her American debut at the Metropolitan Opera.

During the 1975-76 season at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, she impressed Herbert Von Karajan with her “Salome” and he invited her to take on the Strauss opera at the 1977 Salzburg Festival.

Her career took off from there and she was a fixture all around the world, appearing at the Royal Opera House (she had debuted there before Salzburg), the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Teatro Colón, and the Vienna Staatsoper, among many more.

She was Leonard Bernstein’s choice for his recording of “Tristan und Isolde” and would win thr

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Hildegard Behrens

Known for her unforgettably exciting stage presence, and the powerful radiance of her voice, HILDEGARD BEHRENS is widely regarded as "one of the finest singing actresses of our day.” "Here is a soprano,” writes The New York Times, “ who has it in her to evoke an elemental response in opera lovers, to send electric shocks through the house - a heroine in whose performances the crowd can abandon itself, for whom it can shout itself hoarse at the end."

Referred to as “the greatest living Brünnhilde” in Opera News, this status has been reaffirmed recently after performances in London of “pearly singing that ravish the senses” by the public’s “football-crowd roar, quadruple fortissimo” (The Times), and immediately after in Vienna, with the press describing her performances as “grandiose”, “astounding” and “singing of immense power”. The acclaim she has received for her electrifying Brünnhilde has indeed been far and wide, with praise ranging from “all-surpassing” for her first assumption of the role at the Bayreuth Festival in 1983, to her being rendered “the legit

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Hildegard Behrens

Hildegard Behrens (born 1937) was a German soprano noted for her highly dramatic performances, especially as Wagnerian heroines. She developed a vocal technique called "chest singing" which audiences and critics outside of Italy occasionally found disturbing and controversial.

Hildegard Behrens was born in Varel, a small town in northern Germany on February 9, 1937. Both her parents were doctors, and she was the youngest of their six children. She studied piano and violin as a child, but she had no professional aspirations. Instead, she went to the University of Freiburg in southern Germany to study law. Despite her intended career, she found herself spending most of her time at the school of music in the school chorus. She sat in on master classes as a spectator and had a boyfriend who was studying the violin and who later played with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Early Tutoring

Behrens decided upon a singing career at the comparatively advanced age of twenty-six. After three years studying law, she had passed her examinations but had already decided to purs