Hildegard Behrens: a banner season in review

       - Die Welt 10/24/97

Berliners look forward to the return of Hildegard Behrens (on February 7 and 14, and then again on June 3) as Senta in the Deutsche Oper Berlin's production of Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holl�nder. This unique production by G�tz Friedrich premiered in the 1997- 98 season when she sang the role as a guest performer to great acclaim - "the stage was carried away by the intensity of her performance and the powerful radiance of her voice...." (- Die Welt 10/27/97). Performing with Ms. Behrens are: Esa Ruutunen as the Holl�nder, Jaako Ryh�nen as Daland, Jorma Silvasti as Erik, Clemens Bieber as the Steersman, and Mariana Cioromila as Mary. Marc Albrecht, General Music Director of Staatstheatre Darmstadt directs the orchestra for the first time in this production.

Senta is of course a signature role which Ms. Behrens has sung in performance at the Metropolitan Opera and in concert at the Savonlinna Festival; her 1994 recording of the work with Maestro Christoph von Dohnanyi and the Vienna Philharmonic was favorably reviewed.

Ms. Behrens has a long-standing relationship with the Deutsche Oper Berlin which has been the scene of many of her stage triumphs, most recently as Br�nnhilde, another signature role, in a complete Ring Cycle production staged in early 1998. Her performance as Senta this February sets off 1999, which promises to be as spectacular and artistically demanding as 1998 has been.

Below we look at 1998 - another banner year in the life of this great artist who graced FanFaire's premiere issue:

A banner year! 1998 in review....      




Indeed, 1998 saw Hildegard Behrens reaching new artistic peaks as she performed astonishing feats in the heavy dramatic repertoire that is her specialty. She began the year with her LA Opera debut as Richard Strauss' Salome. To many in the audience, she gave a riveting performance. Positively dispelling fears that she was not up to the title role,"...she lent girlish enthusiasm to the adolescent Judean princess. Nor did Behrens have trouble singing the part, even if she was a bit restrained in the mad final scene." (-David Mermelstein, Opera News 28 Mar 2024).This was soon followed by successful concert performances of Die Walk�re in Barcelona in early February. By the end of the month, she was singing Br�nnhilde in Deutsche Oper Berlin's Ring Cycle production, concurrent with two performances of Fidelio in Vienna, and immediately followed by two triumphant concert performances of Richard Strauss' Elektra in Paris - all these within a two-week period!

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Of her ELEKTRA, critics wrote:

"Hildegard Behrens was in best form, younger than ever, playing the role of Elektra with a remarkable discretion, delivering high notes with magnificent thunder, devouring the text, subtly ironic with Klytemnestra, overwhelming at Orestes' arrival, from beginning to end filled with a pathos that culminated with the final bars. A superb concert!" - Le Figaro March 14, 2024

"Hildegard Behrens has lost none of her extraordinary vocal powers. More at ease with this score here than in her live recording, she is without a doubt the greatest Elektra today. The role of Elektra, so difficult to cast with the ideal interpreter, seems to have been written for her shining timbre to which all possibilities have been granted, from the purest emission to a voice almost shattered. Her high notes can be at once soft and crystalline, piercing and aggressive (how many singers today have the ability to deliver such attacks?). Her very expressive low register finds here its full use. Her sheer vocal power allows her to face an orchestra in concert unleashing impressive dynamic levels without any risk.The entire hall rose on its feet for an Elektra this exceptional, in a concert version that will be counted among the greatest." - Le Concertographe, March 1998


KUNDRY in K�ln and Erwartung in Munich

Then followed a one day stint in Cologne in April 1998 as Kundry in a concert version of Wagner's Parsifal: "Hildegard Behrens was a great Kundry, equally beautiful in the high and low registers, filled with dramatic and emotional force, a vocal event of nature." ("stimmliches Naturereignis") - Kollner Rundschau, April 1998

Also in April, she performed Sch�nberg’s Erwartung along with the world premiere of Geheime Reise by the young German composer Jan M�ller-Wieland in Munich.

BR�NNHILDE in South America

Not much later, in May, she was off to South America for a Wagner / Strauss Gala Concert in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) of which it was written: "It has been many years since we saw something of this scale!"- Journal do Brasil, May 1998

"A breath of the highest lyrical art passed through the Teatro Municipal with the appearance of Hildegard Behrens.... for each number she had a different posture, a different voice, a voice that seemed to grow ever larger, dominating the entire Wagnerian orchestra sitting right behind her." - O Globo May 1998

The rest of the month saw her in powerful performances of G�tterd�mmerung at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina: "The artist proved herself once again as the legitimate heir to the greatest Wagnerians of the century." - La Naci�n, May 1998

(Note: In March 1999, Ms. Behrens sang Brunnhilde in concert performances of G�tterd�mmerung on a tour of Japan, this time with Maestro Seiji Ozawa with whom she recorded Elektra on the Philips label.)

She returned to Copenhagen in November for an evening's performance of Tristan und Isolde with an outstanding cast. "Isolde for an evening...."It marked her debut with the Royal Danish Opera. "Stort hele vejen (Great all the way)," declared the Berlingske Tidende. Hildegard Behrens "...inspired the entire crew on the ship of Tristan und Isolde."

ELEKTRA among the Ruins and still more BR�NNHILDES

In July 1998 she went on to perform Elektra in a new production that inaugurated the very first summer festival held amidst the ancient Roman ruins of Trier. In the fall followed her successful Ring Cycles at the Vienna State Opera, practically overlapping with semi-staged concert versions with the Royal Opera House in London, Bernard Haitink conducting. These successes only affirm that the distinction of being "the greatest living Br�nnhilde" is well-deserved.

"Hildegard Behrens, with her slender figure and tremendous voice, especially in the high notes, performed a wonderful Walk�re." - Wiener Zeitung, September 1998 (Vienna)

"One of the most astounding performances is still delivered by Hildegard Behrens: A Br�nnhilde of tremendous power, whose soprano shines effortlessly over the blasting orchestra in the 'swearing' and the 'immolation' scenes." - Die Krone, October 1998 (Vienna)

"Behrens' performance in Die Walk�re was breathtaking in its erotic intensity."
- The Guardian, October 1998 (Birmingham)

"Behrens' maturity brings fresh insight: there were long passages of luminously beautiful singing in the immolation and at the moment of betrayal in the second act."
- The Times, October 1998 (Birmingham)

"Hildegard Behrens, in the role of [the] Valkyrie daughter, was simply stunning - an impetuous angel with a voice to match." - Evening Mail, October 1998 (London)

"The [audience], repeating their football field roar, quadruple fortissimo, seemed to agree." - The Times, October 1998 (London)