Rysanek was known for singing the music of
Richard Strauss. Her Strauss roles included the Empress (Kaiserin) in
Die Frau ohne Schatten, the title role in
Salome, the Marschallin in
Der Rosenkavalier and
Chrysothemis in
Elektra. She occasionally sang
Ariadne (
prima donna) in
Ariadne auf Naxos and female leads in rarely-staged Strauss operas (
Die ägyptische Helena and
Die Liebe der Danae). She did not sing S
alome until 1972, when she was 46, although she kept the role of Sieglinde in her active repertoire from her early 20s until age 62. She avoided offers to sing Isolde in Wagner's
Tristan und Isolde. She sang Brünnhilde in
Die Walküre in 1950, in
Innsbruck, but did not return to this role. One of her performances in
Die Walküre took place in the same week as her appearance as Gilda in
Rigoletto. Rysanek sang the title role of
Tosca often, and
Turandot a few times. She also sang Leonore in
Beethoven's
Fidelio. In
Wagner works, she sang Elisabeth in
Tannhäuser often, also Elsa and Ortrud in
Lohengrin. One of the roles most closely associated with her, in addition to Strauss's Kaiserin and Chrysothemis, was Sieglinde in
Die Walküre. Rysanek also sang several leading
Verdi roles, notably Desdemona in
Otello,
Lady Macbeth, Amelia in
Un ballo in maschera, Elisabetta in
Don Carlos, Leonora in
La forza del destino, and the title role of
Aida. She also sang Abigaille in the
Metropolitan Opera's first staging of
Nabucco in 1960. She also took an interest in Czech operas (those of
Smetana and
Janáček), even though she didn't grow up speaking Czech at home. Rysanek sang
Turandot and was praised for her role as Kundry in
Parsifal at the Met Opera, Vienna, and the
Bayreuth Festival. She had begun her career when
Kirsten Flagstad was still alive and
Birgit Nilsson and
Astrid Varnay were at the peak of their vocal abilities. In 1981,
Karl Böhm persuaded her to sing
Elektra for a
Unitel film (with the soundtrack recorded in the studio), not a live production in an opera house. In her later years, Rysanek reverted to dramatic
mezzo-soprano roles like
Herodias in
Salome,
Klytemnestra in
Elektra, and Kostelnička in
Janáček's Jenůfa. ==Officially published recordings==