Helene Wildbrunn, Liebestod, Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Unpublished take ,1919) Sunday, February 13, 2011

The great Austrian dramatic soprano Helene Wildbrunn (1882-1972) in "Mild und leise" from Act 3 of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. This take, which was unpublished, was made in 1919 for Deutsch Grammophon. Wildbrunn was one of the most outstanding Hochdramatische of her era. Among her admirers were Lotte Lehmann, who wrote of her 'noble art'. The following biographical notes come from "Subito-cantabile: a site for collectors of great singers of the past" (www.cantabile-subito.de): "She was a pupil of Rosa Papier-Paumgartner at the Conservatory "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde," who had previously taught Anna Bahr-Mildenburg and Lucie Weidt. At the beginning of her career she sang contralto and mezzo roles and made her debut at the Municipal Theatre in Dortmund in 1907. In one season she sang twenty-three roles! Having married her tenor partner Karl Wildbrunn, she gradually began to take over the soprano repertoire but even in 1913 she still sang Waltraute, Erda, Fricka and Brangäne. In the following year she was engaged to the opera house in Stuttgart and she concentrated chiefly in the dramatic Wagner repertory where she stayed for five years. Her subsequent roles were Rezia, Amelia, Leonore, Brünnhilde in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, Valentine in Les Huguenots, Kundry and the Marschallin. From 1918 she was a member of the Berlin State Opera and in 1925 at the City Opera where she shared the dramatic roles with Margarete Bäumer . In 1919 she sang at the Vienna State opera ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TooqAYUkukg&hl=en