Dernesch, Helga (1939– )

Austrian soprano, later mezzo. She made her debut in Berne, in 1961, as Marina. She has appeared at Bayreuth since 1965 as Elisabeth, Eva, and Gutrune, and has sung Brünnhilde, Leonore, and Isolde at Salzburg, from 1969, under Karajan. With the Scottish Opera and in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, she has sung Leonore, the Marschallin, and Sieglinde. She took mezzo roles from 1979, for example singing Fricka and Waltraute; she was Adelaide in Arabella at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1986. She sang Hecuba in the first performance of Reimann's Troades at Munich in 1986, and spent the 1991–92 season as Clytemnestra in San Francisco and Paris.