Author Archives: Gaston Ormazabal

Ms.Marilinda Garcia
Messrs. Francisco Carranza Cárdenas, Isaac Casal, Raúl Gómez, and Scott Harrison

I am pleased to announce that you have each been selected as a 2012 Hildegard Behrens Foundation award-winner for your exceptional artistry and deep humanity.

Congratulations!

Hildegard Behrens, who would have been 75 years old today, was widely considered one of the greatest dramatic sopranos of the twentieth century and is particularly remembered for her interpretations of Wagner in the German operatic repertoire. She was, however, throughout her career always very close to the Spanish speaking public, a public from whom she might have received some of the biggest shows of love and affection. As a matter of fact, when she passed away some of the most emotional obituaries were written in our beautiful language.

Spain’s El Mundo declared: “Hildegard Behrens has died! Yesterday, the news of the sudden death of the great German soprano spread like wildfire among music lovers, not only because of the suddenness of her passing, but also because it happened when, what many see as the last great Brunnhilde, was still so full of life…Behrens, illustrious Wagnerian soprano, was one of the great dramatic sopranos of the second half of the twentieth century, a fascinating personality in the world of contemporary opera. Her
performances and recordings with the best orchestra directors (Karajan, Solti, Bernstein, Sawallisch, Maazel, Levine) represent decisive moments in music’s recent history. Besides being an incomparable Brunnhilde, she was also a passionate Strussian. She brought life to complex characters like Salome, Elektra, Ariadne, or the Empress in Die Frau Ohne Schatten…”

Likewise, El Pais said “The memory that Hildegard Behrens leaves behind is essentially that of a great tragedienne. She was a soprano with a great sensibility, an amazing interpretive intensity, an ability to deeply define the characters she represented, and an overall great communicator. Alongside Herbert von Karajan she achieved the supreme heights at the 1977 Salzburg Festival as Salomé. Among her greatest hits was The Ring of the Nibelung with Solti, or the Marie in Wozzeck with Claudio Abbado. A regular at Bayreuth, the Munich Opera, the Vienna State Opera or the Metropolitan Opera in New York, her portrayal of tragic characters was so magnificent that all the great directors fought over her. One of the greats has disappeared. The world of opera is in mourning.”

But it is not her greatness as an artist that we are celebrating today; that is known to all. What we want to commemorate is the great human being that Hildegard Behrens was and use her memory as a light-torch to illuminate the way for the younger generations.

In order to remember her I am going to tell you a short story in which she, as the professor of life, explained to me how, in Fidelio, the grand and only opera of that great humanist Ludwig van Beethoven (a piece in which she was one of the best interpreters of Leonore/Fidelio – the great idealist woman), there is a moment in which Leonore, dressed as the youth Fidelio, is trying to save the life of her incarcerated husband. She sees a poor, miserable, hungry, and thirsty being in a cell begging for food and water from those sent to dig his grave. Upon seeing such human misery, Leonore proceeds to give him some bread crumbs she has in her pocket and says to herself, “I will save him even though he may not be my husband”. It is in that moment that a transformation occurs, taking the more or less standard role of the faithful wife and transforming her into something so much greater, transcending into the universal woman, the bearer of goodness and hope for all human beings, the savior of the universe, for she can face evil
armed solely with her own moral force, and without fear or any personal interests. She wants to do it simply because it is the right thing to do, because it is every human being’s duty to redeem those that suffer, with our own personal sacrifice if necessary.

All of this was not created by Hildegard Behrens. This is the vision that Beethoven left the world with his wonderful opera. I can assure you, however, that few have ever understood his message more clearly, communicated the message through their art, and used at as a rule to live life like Hildegard Behrens. She once told Chile’s El Mercurio: “The task of the individual is to purify himself more and more, in order to be capable of refining his matter in a growing manner and then ascend…”.

It was this vision of profound humanity, of clear unconditional love for others, of following your inner voice (“Ich folg’ dem inner Tirebe”) that propelled her first to study and understand the great artistic and philosophical works of our culture, and later put them into practice through her art and her lifelong commitment to these fundamental values. And you could feel that when she sang! That is the greatest thing that an artist can communicate to her public.

I hope this spirit is a guide and inspiration for you, as you represent the future of this great art that is music!

Dr. Gaston Ormazabal
Founder and Chairman
The Hildegard Behrens Foundation

Advisory Board
Philip Behrens
Gloria Cajipe
Alexandra Kauka Hamill
Ken Noda
Prince Fabrizio Ruspoli di Poggio Suasa
Mary Gene Sondericker
 

DOWNLOAD:    A pdf version of this letter         Spanish version in pdf format