Astrid Varnay facts for kids

Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay (born April 25, 1918 – died September 4, 2006) was a famous opera singer. She was a dramatic soprano, which means she had a powerful, high singing voice. Astrid was born in Sweden but was American and had Hungarian family roots. She spent most of her singing career in the United States and Germany. Many people considered her one of the best singers of Richard Wagner's operas during her time.

Early Life and Family

Astrid Varnay's parents were both from Hungary. They were living in Stockholm, Sweden, when Astrid was born in 1918. Astrid later said her family also had French and German backgrounds.

Her mother, Maria Junghans, was a well-known singer called a coloratura soprano. This means she had a very high and flexible voice. Her father, Alexander Varnay, was also an opera singer, a spinto tenor with a strong voice.

Opera was a big part of their family life. Astrid grew up seeing the backstage areas of opera houses around the world. Her parents even ran their own opera company, the Opera Comique, in Norway from 1918 to 1921. Once, when Astrid was a baby, she slept in a dresser drawer backstage. The famous singer Kirsten Flagstad was using that dressing room!

Later, her family moved to Argentina and then to New York City. Her father passed away when Astrid was only six years old. A few years later, her mother married another tenor, Fortunato de Angelis. The family then settled in New Jersey. Astrid first studied to be a pianist. But at age 18, she decided to become a singer. Her mother gave her many intense singing lessons.

A Star is Born

About a year later, the famous singer Kirsten Flagstad helped Astrid. Flagstad arranged for Astrid to train with Hermann Weigert, a conductor and coach at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

By the time she was 22, Astrid knew five languages: Hungarian, German, English, French, and Italian. She also knew how to sing fifteen main roles for a dramatic soprano. Eleven of these roles were from Wagner's operas. She could also sing lower mezzo-soprano parts very well. She showed this when she sang as Ortrud in Lohengrin and Klytemnestra in Elektra.

Astrid made her amazing debut at the Metropolitan Opera on December 6, 1941. She sang Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walküre. She had to step in for another singer, Lotte Lehmann, with almost no practice. This was her first time singing a main role, and it was a huge success! Just six days later, she replaced another sick singer, Helen Traubel, as Brünnhilde in the same opera. Astrid Varnay and Hermann Weigert became very close and got married in 1944.

In 1948, she sang for the first time at Covent Garden in London. In 1951, she debuted in Florence, Italy, as Lady Macbeth. That same year, she also sang for the first time at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in Germany. Kirsten Flagstad had been asked to sing there but suggested Astrid instead. Astrid sang at Bayreuth for the next 17 years. She also performed regularly at the Metropolitan Opera until 1956.

She left the Met because the director, Rudolf Bing, did not seem to value her. She then became a very important singer in other major opera houses, especially in Germany. She was famous for her roles in operas by Wagner and Richard Strauss. She also sang many roles by Giuseppe Verdi and other composers. She made Munich, Germany, her home, where audiences loved her.

Later Career and Legacy

In 1969, Astrid Varnay stopped singing the very heavy dramatic soprano roles. She started a new career singing mezzo-soprano roles. After being the world's best Elektra for over 20 years, she became known as a great Klytemnestra. The role of Herodias in Salome became the role she performed most often, with 236 performances!

She returned to the Metropolitan Opera in 1974. Her last performance there was in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in 1979. In 1975, she appeared as Herodias in a film of Salome.

In the mid-1980s, Astrid began to sing "character roles." These are often older, supporting roles that require strong acting. Her very last performance on stage was in Munich in 1995. This was 55 years after her first big debut at the Met!

In 1998, she wrote her life story in a book called Fifty-Five Years in Five Acts: My Life in Opera. In 2004, a documentary film about her early career in New York, called Never Before, was praised in the USA.

Astrid Varnay's recordings of Strauss's heroines, like Elektra and Salome, and her Wagnerian roles are very special. Many recordings of her live performances also show her amazing singing. Some video recordings from her later career show her great acting skills. Astrid Varnay passed away in Munich on September 4, 2006, at the age of 88.

Recordings

Here are some of Astrid Varnay's famous recordings:

• Wagner: Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman)
  • Conductor: Joseph Keilberth
  • Astrid Varnay sang the role of Senta.
  • Recorded at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, 1955.

• Wagner: Lohengrin
  • Conductor: Eugen Jochum
  • Astrid Varnay sang the role of Ortrud.
  • Recorded at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, 1954.

• Wagner: Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)
  • Conductor: Hans Knappertsbusch
  • Astrid Varnay sang the role of Brünnhilde.
  • Recorded at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, 1958.

See also