Soprano who made celebrated debut at the Edinburgh Festival

Born: May 26, 1917;

Died: August 26, 2018

INGE Borkh, who has died aged 97, was an opera singer who built an international career in the post-war years with dramatic accounts of some of the most taxing Strauss and Wagner roles. Her searing voice seemed to effortlessly conquer the huge orchestration in such challenging parts as Salome, Elektra and Brunnhilde. Added to her piercing voice was a fiery and edgy stage presence. Borkh had trained both as an actress and as a dancer and this brought a definite confidence when she portrayed such strident women on stage. Scenes such as the Dance of the Seven Veils in Salome often defeat many sopranos: not Borkh. She danced the scene with a sinister relish. In her hands those terrifying Straussian women were exciting and totally compelling. There was a conviction and authority in all her stage performances.

Borkh in fact made her UK debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 1952. She came to Edinburgh for three noted festivals and showed off her command of those testing roles in the King’s Theatre to great acclaim. In 1952 she joined a strong team from Hamburg State Opera - the official history of the festival records that “there were many splendid performances by a galaxy of German singers particularly Inge Borkh”. She sang a superb account of Leonore in Fidelio in Gunther Rennert’s much admired production.

Hamburg Opera endeared themselves to Edinburgh folk when in the triumphant chorus to Freedom in the last act the chorus was augmented by members of the Edinburgh Opera Society to great effect.

This was the first festival without all the operas coming north from Glyndebourne and that caused some local controversy. But the quality of the performances soon got over such quibbles especially when the company continued a fondly created tradition by Glyndebourne artists of visiting the Royal Victoria Hospital to give a morning concert - Borkh singing a glorious solo.

Borkh returned with the Hamburg company in 1956 to give a thrilling account of the title role of Salome under Leopold Ludwig and again in 1958 with the Wuttemberg Opera to sing Eglantine in Weber’s Euryanthe.

Borkh was the daughter of a Jewish diplomat and the family relocated to Switzerland in 1938. Initially she trained as an actress in Vienna before moving to Milan to study singing.

She remained in Switzerland throughout the war where she was cast in various local productions. Borkh received excellent notices in 1951 when she sang at Basel Opera in the German-language premier of Menotti’s The Consul. In fact her account of the soprano’s show-piece aria literally stopped the show as the applause was so great. Within a year she was booked to sing Freia and Sieglinde at the Bayreuth Festival and such was her growing reputation she was offered an immediate contract with the Bavarian State Opera.

Considering she was a favourite soprano of the conductor Georg Solti she was not a regular during his time as music director of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden – perhaps because Solti was also a great admirer of the renowned Birgit Nilsson. In fact Borkh made her Covent Garden debut in a memorable revival of Salome under Rudolf Kempe in 1959.

She did not return until 1967 for the prestigious first UK performance of Strauss’s huge opera Die Frau ohne Schatten. Borkh sang a magnificent account of Barak’s wife with Regina Resnik as the nurse under Solti. During the rehearsals both singers were rushed to hospital after tripping over some off-stage cables. Borkh returned for the first revival of the production in 1969 with the same cast and conductor.

Another important UK appearance was with the Cologne Opera when they visited London in 1969. Borkh sang an exciting account of the Leonore in Fidelio under the company’s music director Istvan Kertesz.

Her international career was concentrated in Europe and America – notably as Elektra at San Francisco Opera (under Solti) where she also sang Verdi’s Lady Macbeth. Borkh sang at The Metropolitan in New York and made a huge impression both as Salome (conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos) and Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre. She continued to appear on the opera stage throughout the 1960s, broadening her repertoire to include Puccini’s Tosca and Turnadot.

Considering her renown Borkh made few commercial studio recordings. But much prized amongst collectors are recordings of her live performances. Many – such as the Elektra conducted by Mitropoulos at the Salzburg 1957 Festival – have taken on a cult status. She recorded Sieglinde in Wagner’s Ring Cycle under Joseph Keilberth and Elektra in 1960 under Karl Bohm.

In her long retirement Borkh maintained close contacts with the music world and often sat as a juror at singing competitions. Her first marriage was dissolved and her second was to the baritone Alexander Welitsch, who died in 1991.

ALASDAIR STEVEN