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German mezzo-soprano Ruth Hesse died on July 13 in Hallstatt near Salzburg in central Austria at the age of 87. From the 1960s to the mid-1990s, she made numerous guest appearances at prominent opera houses and at music festivals in Salzburg and Bayreuth. She was awarded the title of “court singer” by Austria.
Born in Wuppertal, Germany, she studied in Wuppertal, Hamburg, and Milan, and made her operatic debut in 1958 singing the role of Orpheus in Gluck’s “Orfeo e Euridice” at the Lübeck City Theater. After a stint at the Hanover State Theatre, she moved to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1962, where she remained until 1995, performing many roles, including the world premiere of Henze’s “The young lord”.
She also made her debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 1960 and continued to appear there until 1979, performing the role of Ortrud in “Lohengrin” with Peter Hoffmann and Karan Armstrong, among others.
She made her debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1965 and appeared regularly there until her retirement in 1988 singing Herodias in Richard Strauss’ “Salome.
She has appeared at the Opéra National de Paris, the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Netherlands National Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. She has also made numerous appearances in the United States in San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.
Her signature roles in Wagner’s works include Ortrud and Brangäne in “Tristan und Isolde”, and in Verdi she has sung Eboli in “Don Carlo”, Amneris in “Aida”, Azucena in “Il Trovatore”, Maddalena in “Rigoletto”, and Preziosilla in “La forza del destino”.
In addition to Herodias, she is also highly acclaimed for her performance as the nurse in “Die Frau ohne Schatten” by Richard Strauss, and has been recorded at the Vienna State Opera under the baton of Karl Böhm in which she collaborates with James King, Birgit Nilsson, Leonie Rysanek and Walter Berry.
PHOTO：Bayreuther Festspiele
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