Hildegard Behrens

Hildegard Behrens (9 February 1937 – 18 August 2009) was a German operatic soprano with a wide repertoire including Wagner, Weber, Mozart, Richard Strauss, and Alban Berg roles. She performed at major opera houses around the world, and received several Grammy Awards for performances with the Metropolitan Opera.

Life and career Behrens was born in Varel in 1937. In 1973, she joined the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf.

Hildegard Behrens died of a sudden aortic aneurysm, aged 72, in hospital in Tokyo, Japan, where she had been attending the Kusatsu International Summer Music Festival.

Awards Behrens was the recipient of many awards, including the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Bavarian Order of Merit. The title of Kammersängerin was bestowed by both the Bavarian State Opera and the Vienna State Opera. In 1998, she received Denmark's prestigious Leonie Sonning Music Prize, and in 1999 the Vienna State Opera honoured her with the Lotte Lehmann Ring, bequeathed to her by Leonie Rysanek.

She received several Grammy Awards, including: 1989 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording: Wagner's Die Walküre, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra 1991 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording: Wagner's Götterdämmerung, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra