Hildegard Behrens

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 • 1992 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording: Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra ==Performances on video==

Available on DVD: • Der Ring des Nibelungen, with James Levine conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, in the "classical-manner" production by Otto Schenk, from 1989 to 1990; Deutsche Grammophon 073 049-9 • Tosca, with Giuseppe Sinopoli conducting the Metropolitan Opera in the celebrated Franco Zeffirelli production from 1985, also starring Plácido Domingo; Deutsche Grammophon 073 410-1 • Idomeneo, performed at the Met with Luciano Pavarotti, production designer Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, conductor James Levine; Deutsche Grammophon • Elektra, from the Met, January 1994, with Brigitte Fassbaender, James King, Donald McIntyre, conducted by James Levine; • Wozzeck, from the Vienna State Opera, 1987, with Franz Grundheber, Aage Haugland, Heinz Zednik, Philip Langridge, conducted by Claudio Abbado; == References ==