Some Modest Proposals

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

More from Elektra

Final scene

This entry was posted on August 21, 2009 at 11:30 AM and is filed under Uncategorized with tags Elektra, Fidelio, Hildegard Behrens, Jon Vickers, Klaus Tennstedt, Salome. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.