Helene Wildbrunn

Career

Wildbrunn was born in Vienna in 1882, the daughter of a railway operator. She studied in Vienna at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Conservatory under Rosa Papier-Paumgartner, who had earlier taught Anna Bahr-Mildenburg and Lucie Weidt. She was initially a contralto, but had a wide vocal range. She made her debut in 1907 at the Stadttheater Dortmund as an alto and mezzo-soprano. At the Dortmund theatre, she performed 23 different roles in one season, and in the 1913 season appeared as Waltraute, Erda and Fricka in Wagner's Ring and as Brangane in his Tristan und Isolde. She married fellow opera singer Karl Wildbrunn (1873–1938) in 1914. Shortly afterwards, they moved to Stuttgart, where she became a member of the Stuttgart Court Opera. Here she developed to a soprano, performing the roles of Rezia, Amelia, Leonore, Brunnhilde in Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, Valentine in Les Huguenots, Kundry and the Marschallin. From 1919 to 1925 she performed at the Berlin State Opera, from 1925 to 1932 at the Stadtische Oper Berlin, and from 1919 until 1932 at the Vienna State Opera. During this time she was invited to opera houses in the world, including the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, by an invitation of Felix Weingartner. At La Scala in Milan she appeared as Kundry and Brunnhilde, alongside the Lotte Lehmann, Walter Kirchhoff, Emil Schipper and Carl Braun. Isolde is regarded as her greatest role.

From 1932 to 1950, she appeared as a concert singer, and was a professor at the Vienna Music Academy. Wildbrunn possessed a wide vocal range, with dark colours and dramatic creativity in her voice. She died in April 1972 at the age of 90. Her tomb is located in the Neustifter Friedhof cemetery of Vienna (Group J, row 1, number 1).