Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay (25 April 1918 – 4 September 2006) was a Swedish-born American dramatic soprano of Hungarian descent. She spent most of her career in the United States and Germany. She was one of the leadingWagnerianheroic sopranos of her generation.
Both her parents were Hungarian and born in small towns in theAustro-Hungarian Empire, but she was born inStockholm, where her parents were living during part of World War I. During a Da Capo interview in 1988 Varnay claimed that although she was born in Stockholm, her ancestry was Hungarian, French and German. Her mother, Maria Junghans (who changed her name to Javor when she took to the stage as a singer), born October 15, 1889, was a notedcoloratura soprano with acoustic recordings to her credit. Her father was Alexander Varnay (born September 11, 1889), aspinto tenor. Opera was the family business, and Varnay grew up backstage at the world's opera houses. Her father founded, and both parents ran, theOpera Comique in Kristiania (laterOslo), (1918–1921). During one performance, she was swaddled in the lower drawer of the dressing roomchest of drawers of the youngKirsten Flagstad.[1]
The family moved to Argentina, then New York City, where her father died at age 35 in 1924. Two years later her mother married tenorFortunato de Angelis and the family settled inNew Jersey. Varnay had been studying to be a pianist but decided at age eighteen to become a singer and had intensive vocal lessons with her mother.[2]
A year later, Flagstad arranged for her to start preparing roles withMetropolitan Opera staff conductor and coachHermann Weigert (1890–1955). By the age of 22 she knew Hungarian, German, English, French and Italian and her repertoire consisted of fifteen leading dramatic soprano roles, eleven of which were Wagnerian parts. She also had formidable mezzo-soprano capability, which she displayed in performances as Ortrud inLohengrin andKlytemnestra inElektra.
She made her sensational debut at theMetropolitan Opera on 6 December 1941 in a broadcast performance singing Sieglinde inWagner'sDie Walküre, substituting for the indisposedLotte Lehmann with almost no rehearsal. This was her first appearance in a leading role, and it was a triumph.[3] Six days later she replaced the ailingHelen Traubel as Brünnhilde in the same opera.[4] Varnay and Weigert became closer and were married in 1944.[5] It was also at this time that she had lessons with former Metropolitan Opera tenor,Paul Althouse.
In 1948, she made her debut atCovent Garden and in 1951 inFlorence asLady Macbeth. In that year she also made her debut atBayreuth after Flagstad, who had declined the invitation to Bayreuth, recommended thatWieland Wagner engage Varnay. She sang at Bayreuth for the next seventeen years, and appeared regularly at the Metropolitan until 1956.
She left when it was clear that the Met directorRudolf Bing did not appreciate her,[6] and went on to become a mainstay of the world's other great opera houses, especially in Germany, in Wagner andStrauss but also severalVerdi and other roles. She had already madeMunich her home, where audiences liked her.[citation needed]
In 1969, she gave up her repertoire of heavy dramatic soprano roles and began a new career singingmezzo roles.[7] After being the world's leadingElektra for over twenty years, she now established herself as a great interpreter ofKlytemnestra. The role ofHerodias inSalome became her most often-performed role: 236 performances. She returned to the Metropolitan in 1974 and last appeared there inWeill'sRise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in 1979. In 1975 she appeared as Herodias in the production of Salome with Teresa Stratas which was filmed with the Vienna Philharmonic and directed by Gotz Friedrich.
In the mid-1980s, character roles now became Varnay's metier. Her last appearance on stage was in Munich in 1995, fifty-five years after her Metropolitan debut. In 1998, she published her autobiographyFifty-Five Years in Five Acts: My Life in Opera, written with Donald Arthur (German title isHab' mir's gelobt).
In 2004, a documentary about her life and first New York career entitledNever Before received acclaim in the USA. Her recordings of Strauss heroines such as Elektra and Salome along with the Wagnerian roles are among the treasures of the medium, while transcriptions of broadcast performances of her great roles document her art in sound, and a few video recordings of her late career preserve evidence of her acting ability. Varnay died in Munich on 4 September 2006 at age 88.
Wagner:Der fliegende Holländer – Chorus and Orchestra of theBayreuth Festival
Wagner:Lohengrin – Chorus and Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival
Wagner:Götterdämmerung – Chorus and Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival
Further reading
