Helga Dernesch

Helga Dernesch (b. February 3, 1939 in Vienna) is an Austrian soprano and mezzo soprano. Her career has taken her through four successive phases: from mezzo-soprano to lyric soprano to dramatic soprano and after about 1980 back to mezzo again (see also Voice type). "Her voice had great richness and power, and her strikingly handsome stage appearance and intense acting made her a compelling performer." Dernesch studied at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik before making her debut in 1961 singing Marina in Boris Godunov in Bern. She continued to sing in Bern from 1961 to 1963, in Wiesbaden 1963-1965 and in Cologne from 1965-1968. She made her first appearance in Bayreuth (as Wellgunde in Der Ring des Nibelungen) in 1965. Two years later she...