ARTISTS

Hildegard Behrens

Metropolitan Opera roles have also included Tosca, Marie in Wozzeck, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Leonore in Fidelio, Elettra in Idomeneo, and Sieglinde in Die Walkiire. This coming season Ms. Behrens adds the Gotterdammerung Briinnhilde

to her list of Met portrayals and sings Briinnhilde in the Met's first staging of the complete Ring cycle in more than a decade.

Ms. Behrens is also a distinguished soloist with orchestra. She has appeared frequently with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra since her 1982 performance in Beethoven's Fidelio atTanglewood, returning for music of Soprano Hildegard Behrens has ap- Wagner, Mozart, Strauss, Berlioz, peared with virtually every major opera Schoenberg, and, in April 1987, the role house and orchestra of international of Marie in Berg's Wozzeck. New additions stature. During the 1987-88 season she to her discography include recordings of sang and recorded the role of Briinnhilde Die Walkiire with James Levine, Wozzeck in the new Metropolitan Opera produc- with Claudio Abbado, and a recital of tion of Siegfried under James Levine, in Liszt Lieder, all on Deutsche Gram- addition to Met performances as the mophon. Recent EMI/Angel releases Walkiire Briinnhilde and Puccini's Tosca. include "Great Scenes and Arias from Following her Paris Opera triumph as Wagnerian Operas," and a recital includ- Elektra under Seiji Ozawa's baton in ing Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben February 1987, she sang her first United and songs by Brahms, Bach, Elgar, States performances of that role, with Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf. Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Recent CD reissues include the EMI/ Orchestra in December 1987 in Boston Angel Salome with Karajan, and, on and New York. In Europe she divided London/Decca, Der Freischiitz with her time mainly between Vienna, where Kubelik and Fidelio with Solti. Her per- she appeared in Salome and Fidelio, and formance as Tosca in the Met's Franco

Munich, where she performed in new Zeffirelli production is available on both productions, created especially for her, videodisc and videocassette. of Salome and The Makropoulos Affair. Ms. Born in Oldenburg, Germany, Hilde- Behrens's international career began gard Behrens graduated from law school with important debuts in 1976 at the in Freiburg, where she subsequently Met, Covent Garden, and the National studied voice at the conservatory. She Theatre of Prague. In 1977 she made then joined the Deutsche Oper-am- her Salzburg Festival debut as Salome in Rhein in Diisseldorf, where she was a new production conducted by Herbert discovered by Herbert von Karajan, who von Karajan and subsequently recorded launched her international career with for Angel. Her 1985 Bayreuth debut as Salome at Salzburg. Briinnhilde under Sir Georg Solti, fol- lowed by Metropolitan Opera per- formances of Isolde and Briinnhilde, established Ms. Behrens as a leading Wagnerian soprano. Since 1984, her

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