Hannelore Bode (born 2 August 1941) is a German operatic

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

. She performed at the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

from 1968 to 1978, including Elsa in ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wo ...

'', Eva in ''

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...

'', and several parts in the 1976

Jahrhundertring The ''Jahrhundertring'' (''Centenary Ring'') was a production of Richard Wagner's ''Ring'' cycle, ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'', first performed at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. The production was a centennial celebration of both the festival and ...

, including Sieglinde in ''

Die Walküre (; ''The Valkyrie''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86B, is the second of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was ...

''. She performed internationally and recorded operas with conductors such as

Eugen Jochum Eugen Jochum (; 1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987) was a German conducting, conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others. Biography Jochum was born to a Roman Catholic ...

Silvio Varviso Silvio Varviso (26 February 1924 – 1 November 2006) was a Swiss conductor who spent most of his career devoted to conducting opera. He began his conducting career working in minor opera houses in Switzerland in the mid-1940s. He became the ...

and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

Career

Bode was born in Berlin. She studied there for two years with Ria Schmitz-Gohr in Berlin, then at the Salzburg Mozarteum and with Fred Husler. She was first engaged at the

Theater Bonn Theater Bonn (also known as the Stadttheater Bonn) is the municipal theatre company of Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is an organization that produces operas, musicals, ballets, plays, and concerts. It operates several performance venu ...

in 1964. In the 1967/68 season, she sang with the

Theater Basel Theater Basel is the municipal theatre of the city of Basel, Switzerland, which is home to the city's opera and ballet companies. The theatre also presents plays and musicals in addition to operas and operettas. Because the theatre does not h ...

, the following season with the

Deutsche Oper am Rhein The Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) is an opera company based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. The opera also has an associated classical ballet company. Axel Kober has been its music director since 2009. The resident orchestra, t ...

. Bode performed at the

from 1968 to 1978, including Elsa in ''

'' (from 1971) and Eva in ''

'' (from 1973). She performed several parts in the

, the 1976 centenary performance of Wagner's ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the . The compo ...

'', staged by

Patrice Chéreau Patrice Chéreau (; ; 2 November 1944 – 7 October 2013) was a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer. In France he is best known for his work for the theatre, internationally for his films '' La Reine Margot'' and ''I ...

, Sieglinde in ''

'', and Gutrune and the third Norn in ''

Götterdämmerung ' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86D, is the last of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). I ...

''. She appeared internationally, performing Sieglinde also at the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...

in 1976, conducted by

Horst Stein Horst Walter Stein (2 May 1928 – 27 July 2008) was a German conductor. Biography Stein was born in Elberfeld, Germany; his father was a mechanic. At school in Frankfurt, he studied piano, oboe, and singing. Later, he continued studies ...

, staged by

Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan (; born ''Heribert Adolf Ernst Karajan''; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, ...

in a set by Emil Preetorius, with Hans Beirer as Siegmund, Hans Sotin as Hunding,

Theo Adam Theo Adam (1 August 1926 – 10 January 2019) was a German operatic bass-baritone and bass singer who had an international career in opera, concert and recital from 1949. He was a member of the Staatsoper Dresden for his entire career, and s ...

as Wotan, and Ute Vinzing as Brünnhilde. She sang in Washington in 1975 as Elsa in a production of the

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the ...

and at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

in 1977 the leading part of Agathe in Weber's ''

Der Freischütz ' (Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns, J. 277, Opus number, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German List of operas by Carl Maria von Weber, opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Johann Fried ...

'', She appeared as Elisabeth in Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' at the

Cologne Opera The Cologne Opera (German language, German: Oper der Stadt Köln or Oper Köln) refers to both the main opera house in Cologne, Germany and its resident opera company. History of the company From the mid 18th century, opera was performed in the ...

in 1980, alongside Jean Cox in the title role and conducted by

Hans Wallat Hans Wallat (18 October 1929 – 11 December 2014) was a German conductor, GMD in Bremen, at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Dortmund and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. A specialist for the stage works of Richard Wagner, he appeared at the Bayre ...

. She performed Eva both at the

Teatro Colón The Teatro Colón () is a historic opera house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic. According to a survey carried out by the acoustics expert Leo Beranek among leadin ...

in Buenos Aires in 1980 and at the

San Francisco Opera The San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 wh ...

in 1981. In 1996, she sang in the contemporary opera ''Amandas Traum'' by Harold Weiss.

Recordings

Bode appears as a Flower Maiden on a 1971 live recording of ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is freely based on the 13th-century Middle High German chivalric romance ''Parzival'' of th ...

'' in Bayreuth, conducted by

. She is Eva in ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' in a 1974 live recording from Bayreuth, conducted by

, in a cast with

Karl Ridderbusch Karl Ridderbusch (29 May 1932 – 21 June 1997) was a German operatic bass, associated in particular with the music of Wagner. He was recognised as a notable exponent of the role of Hans Sachs. Barry Millington "Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Die", ...

as Sachs, Jean Cox as Stolzing and Anna Reynolds as Magdalene. A review noted: "Hannelore Bode as Eva has a somewhat light voice but for once spares us the maternal flavor that seems to affect many an Eva." She appears in the part again in 1975, with Norman Bailey as Sachs and René Kollo as Stolzing, and with

Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt, and London, and as a long-servi ...

conducting Wiener Philharmoniker. In 1970, she performed again a Flower Maiden in ''Parsifal'', now with

conducting the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, with James King in the title role and Gwyneth Jones as Kundry.

References

External links

*
Hannelore Bode
wagneropera.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Bode, Hannelore Living people 1941 births German operatic sopranos Singers from Berlin