Helena Braun

Helena Braun (20 March 1903 – 2 September 1990) was a German dramatic soprano. She made her stage debut in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in 1928 and joined the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in 1939 and 1940, respectively. She became known for Wagnerian roles such as Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen and Ortrud in Lohengrin.

Braun performed at the Metropolitan Opera for a brief period in 1949–1950 with her husband, Ferdinand Frantz, as a temporary replacement for Helen Traubel who had laryngitis. She continued singing in Munich in the 1950s with several international guest performances, and retired from opera after Frantz's death in 1959.

Early life Helena Braun was born in Düsseldorf on 20 March 1903. She was initially trained as a mezzo-soprano and studied with Heinrich van Helden, a local baritone in Düsseldorf. Her early studies included roles such as the title character of Bizet's Carmen and Azucena from Verdi's Il trovatore. She also trained in Cologne and in Vienna with Hermann Gallos and Hans Duhan.

Career Braun's stage debut was in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Theater Koblenz in 1928. The opera was met with a hostile public response for its perceived anti-fascist themes and apparent influence of the German-Jewish composer Kurt Weill, as well as its unconventional musical elements. However, the German musicologist Dieter Härtwig later praised the expressiveness of Braun's performances. That same year she returned to the Zoppot Festspiele as Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin. She sang at the 1941 and 1942 Salzburg Festivals as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni and as the Countess in Figaro, respectively.

Braun was married to the German bass-baritone Ferdinand Frantz and accompanied him to New York City "just for the trip" when he sang with the Metropolitan Opera. On 21 December 1949, a week after Frantz's debut at the Met, Braun made her own Met debut when she assumed the role of Brünnhilde in Die Walküre on four hours' notice after Helen Traubel became ill with laryngitis. Howard Taubman of The New York Times reported that the audience members, who were initially disappointed by Traubel's absence, were heartened by Braun's performance opposite Frantz, who sang as Wotan. Taubman applauded Braun's confident performance and concluded: "Here was a Brünnhilde who acted and sang as if she belonged in a performance of a great music-drama in a great opera house." The success of her performance earned her a two-month contract with the Met to continue singing as Brünnhilde and other Wagnerian roles. In addition to the full-length opera recordings in the following list, she also recorded selections from Wagner's Götterdämmerung, Der fliegende Holländer, and Parsifal, Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide, and Borodin's Prince Igor. 1949 WagnerDie Walküre(Brünnhilde) Hilde KonetzniRosette AndayGünther TreptowFerdinand FrantzHerbert Alsen Rudolf MoraltVienna Symphony Myto Records

1950 WagnerTristan und Isolde(Isolde) Günther TreptowMargarete KlosePaul Schöffler Hans KnappertsbuschBavarian State Opera Orfeo

1952 WagnerLohengrin(Ortrud) Lorenz FehrenbergerAnnelies KupperFerdinand Frantz Eugen JochumBavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Preiser Records

1952 WagnerTristan und Isolde(Isolde) Günther TreptowFerdinand FrantzRudolf GroßmannMargarete Klose Erich KleiberBavarian State Opera Myto Records