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Leonie Rysanek

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Leonie Rysanek
Three-quarter profile, sepia, publicity headshot, film-star-style, of a dark-haired woman with heavy makeup and bouffant hairdo.
Rysanek, c. 1960
Born
Leopoldine Rysanek

(1926-11-14)14 November 1926
Vienna, Austria
Died7 March 1998(1998-03-07) (aged 71)
OccupationOperatic soprano
Spouses
  • Rudolf Großmann (voice teacher)
  • Ernst-Ludwig Grosmann (Journalist)
[1]

Leopoldine Rysanek (14 November 1926 – 7 March 1998), known professionally as Leonie Rysanek, was an Austrian soprano singer.

Career

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Rysanek made her operatic debut in 1949 in Innsbruck, Austria.[2]

In 1951, at the Bayreuth Festival reopening following World War II, Wieland Wagner asked her to sing as Sieglinde in Die Walküre, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.[3]

On Sept. 18, 1956, Rysanek made her American debut at the San Francisco Opera in Der fliegende Holländer, the first of 19 roles in San Francisco. She also performed in the operas Ariadne auf Naxos, Macbeth, Turandot, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Tannhäuser, Aida, Salome (as Salome and Herodias), Tosca, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die Walküre, Lohengrin (as Elsa and Ortrud), Jenůfa (as Kostelnička), and The Queen of Spades (as the Countess). Her last San Francisco performance was on Dec. 12 1993.[4]

Rysanek debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in 1959 as Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth, replacing Maria Callas in the production.[5] Throughout her career, she sang 299 performances in 24 roles there.[6] She starred in productions of Verdi's Nabucco, as the title role in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, as the Empress in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten, and in Janáček's Káťa Kabanová.

From late 1995 to early 1996, she performed as the Countess in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades for her final season at the Metropolitan Opera, during which she received confirmation of a cancer diagnosis.[7][8] She left the Metropolitan Opera in early 1996 and her final performance was at the Salzburg Festival in August 1996, as Klytämnestra in Elektra by Richard Strauss.

Voice and roles

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Rysanek was known for her performances in the operas of Richard Strauss.[9][10] 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 Salome until 1972,[11] 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 the role. Among her achievements was her performance in Die Walküre the same week as her appearance as Gilda in Rigoletto.

Rysanek sang the title role of Tosca often, and sang Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio. In Wagner works, she often sang Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, as well as 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.[12]

Rysanek also took on a number of leading Verdi roles, most 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 in Aida. In 1960, she sang Abigaille in the Metropolitan Opera's inaugural staging of Nabucco. Beyond the German and Italian repertoire, she also developed a keen interest in Czech opera, particularly the works of Smetana and Janáček, despite Czech not being a language spoken in her 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), instead of a live production in an opera house. In her later years, Rysanek reverted to mezzo-soprano roles like Herodias in Salome, Klytemnestra in Elektra, and Kostelnička in Janáček's Jenůfa.

Officially published recordings

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(Format: work (composer), role, conductor, year of recording, record label)

Other recordings

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Decorations and awards

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Rysanek's star on the Vienna Walk of Fame

Honorary memberships

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Personal life

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Rysanek, like her sister soprano Lotte Rysanek, was born in Vienna as one of six children to a Czech father and an Austrian mother. She attended the Vienna Academy at 16, where she studied with baritone Alfred Jerger as well as baritone Rudolf Grossman, who became her husband.[15]

She was appointed curator of the Vienna Festival a few months after her retirement, which she held until her death from bone cancer in 1998, at the age of 71.[7] Two days later, a Metropolitan Opera production of Wagner's Lohengrin with Ben Heppner in the title role was dedicated to her. She had sung the role of Ortrud in the 1985–86 production.

References

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  1. ↑ Pasles, Chris (9 September 1994). "Met Star Bidding a Long Goodby : Opera Diva Leonie Rysanek Makes a Stop in L.A. on Her Final Tour Ending in 1996". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
  2. ↑ Kutsch, K.-J.; Riemens, Leo (2003). "Rysanek, Leonie". Großes Sängerlexikon (in German) (4th ed.). Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-59-844088-5.
  3. ↑ "Performance Database – Works, Productions & Casts". Bayreuther Festspiele. Retrieved 2 May 2026.
  4. ↑ "Recordings by Leonie Rysanek | Now available to stream and purchase at Orfeo Music". www.orfeomusic.de. Retrieved 8 May 2026.
  5. ↑ "From the Archives: Macbeth at the Met". www.metopera.org. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
  6. ↑ "Leonie Rysanek".
  7. 1 2 Tommasini, Anthony (9 March 1998). "Leonie Rysanek, Operatic Soprano, Dies at 71". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 April 2026.
  8. ↑ Honig, Steven (1 November 2022). "Leonie Rysanek, Hochdramatischesopran -". Classical Music and Musicians. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
  9. ↑ Resnik, R (1 July 1999). "Leonie Rysanek (1926-1998). In memoriam". The Opera Quarterly. 15 (3): 449–460. doi:10.1093/oq/15.3.449. ISSN 0736-0053.
  10. ↑ Peter Dusek, Matthew Werley, & Oswald Panagl. (2020). LEONIE RYSANEK: DIE UNGEKRÖNTE "KAISERIN" DER RICHARD STRAUSS-SOPRANE. in Richard Strauss-Jahrbuch 2018. Hollitzer Verlag. 2020. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1cdxfqz.10.
  11. ↑ "Salome (1972 Böhm, Rysanek / @1905 Strauss), Vienna production".
  12. ↑ "San Francisco Opera Archive: Performance Database | San Francisco Opera Performance Archive". archive.sfopera.com. Retrieved 26 May 2026.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dusek, Peter (2005). "Rysanek, Leonie". Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 22. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 311–313. (full text online).
  14. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (PDF) (in German). p. 1037. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  15. ↑ "Obituary: Leonie Rysanek". The Independent. 9 March 1998. Retrieved 1 June 2026.
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