Ruth Hesse (18 September 1936 – 13 July 2024) was a German opera singer. A dramatic mezzo-soprano, she was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1962 to 1995, where she took part in the world premiere of Henze's Der junge Lord. She was first invited to the Bayreuth Festival in 1960, where she performed until 1979.
Her international career began after she appeared at the Vienna State Opera in 1965 in two leading roles, Ortrud in Wagner Lohengrin and Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos. She performed there regularly to 1988, and was appointed an Austrian Kammersängerin in 1982. Hesse first appeared as Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Opéra National de Lyon. Her first role at the Royal Opera House, in 1969, was the Nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss, which became a signature role, repeated in Paris and at the 1974 Salzburg Festival, among others. Her voice was described as of a wide range, dark timbre and capable of dramatic expression.[1]
Born in Wuppertal on 18 September 1936, Hesse first studied with Peter Offermanns in Wuppertal, then with Hildegard Scharf in Hamburg and finally also in Milan.[1][2] She made her debut in 1958 at the Theater Lübeck as Orpheus in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and remained there until 1960. Afterwards she was engaged for two seasons at the Staatsoper Hannover. In 1960 she made her debut at the Hamburg State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival, where she performed until 1979 and was gradually assigned larger roles, culminating in Ortrud in Lohengrin, opposite Peter Hofmann and Karan Armstrong.[3]
From 1962 to 1995, she was engaged by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she learned a broad repertoire. She took part in the world premiere of Henze's Der junge Lord on 7 April 1965, singing the role of Frau von Hufnagel.[1][4]
From the second half of the 1960s she made her first appearances at major opera houses in Europe in new roles. In 1965, she performed at the Vienna State Opera as both Ortrud and Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos.[2] A year later, she appeared as Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Opéra National de Lyon.[2] In 1968 she was invited by the Holland Festival to sing Herodias in Salome by Richard Strauss.[1] Hesse made her Royal Opera House debut in 1969 as the Nurse in Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten.[1][2] When she reprised the role there in 1975, the critic for The Musical Times described her performance as "tirelessly ingenious and vocally in splendid command".[5] In 1972, she appeared at the Paris Opéra Garnier in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and again as the Nurse,[1][2] In 1974 and 1975 she was the Nurse in an acclaimed production at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Karl Böhm and directed by Günther Rennert, alongside James King and Leonie Rysanek as the imperial couple and Walter Berry and Birgit Nilsson as the Dyer and his wife,[2][6] in a production that was recorded.[7] She performed at the Festival the following year as Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal, alternating with Régine Crespin.[2]
She was a regular guest at the Vienna State Opera from 1965 to 1988, where she appeared as Herodias, the Nurse, Ortrud, Brangäne, Magdalene, Fricka and Waltraute, Eboli, as well as Amneris in Verdi's Aida, Azucena in his Il trovatore, Maddalena in his Rigoletto and Preziosilla in his La forza del destino, Giulietta in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann and Burija in Janáček's Jenůfa. In 1982 she was appointed a Kammersängerin. On 29 November 1988, she retired from the house as Herodias.[1][8]
She also performed in concert, including a performance of SalomeatCarnegie Hall in New York in 1975.[1] In 1970, Hesse portrayed Gertrud in a TV film of Hänsel und Gretel.[9]
Hesse married director Siegwulf Turek [de] in 1976. They had met in 1975 at the Salzburg Festival where she appeared in Die Frau ohne Schatten and he served as an assistant to the production's set designer, Günther Schneider-Siemssen.[10] After her retirement, Hesse lived in Hallstatt, Upper Austria.[1][11] She was awarded the state's cultural medal.[11]
She died there on 13 July 2024, at the age of 87.[4][11]
Hesse performed on DVD as Mary in Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer, with Donald McIntyre in the title role, in 1965,[21] and as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde (with Nilsson and Jon Vickers in 1973, filmed in the Roman Theatre of Orange. Alan Blyth wrote in a review for Gramophone in 2004: "Ruth Hesse sings an ample-sounding Brangäne of a kind hardly heard today, and interprets the part with apt sympathy."[22]
