Deborah Polaski

Deborah Polaski (born May 26, 1949, in Richland Center, Wisconsin) is an American opera and concert singer (soprano). She has specialized in dramatic soprano roles and also sings mezzo-soprano roles occasionally.

After being educated in the USA, Polaski moved to Europe. Her debut was in 1976 as Senta in Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. She subsequently sang on a number of opera stages in Germany (for example, Mannheim, Ulm, Karlsruhe, Darmstadt, Hannover and Freiburg). Her repertoire comprises primarily dramatic soprano roles, such as the Wagnerian roles of Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, Brünnhilde (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Kundry (Parsifal) and Ortrud (Lohengrin), and Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Elektra, Berlioz' Didon and Cassandre (Les Troyens), Berg's Marie (Wozzeck) and Janáček's Kostelnicka (Jenůfa).

Polaski achieved recognition in 1988 at the Bayreuth Festival in the role of Brünnhilde, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. In 1991 she reprised her performance, and under James Levine she sang the role for five consecutive years from 1994.

...
Wikipedia