1987: Leonie Rysanek as Sieglinde

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Leonie Rysanek sang only once at Seattle Opera, as Sieglinde in Die Walküre in 1987. An old friend of Speight Jenkins’s, Rysanek graced Seattle Opera’s Ring 2 with one of her signature roles.

Here, from Act Two, the near-delirious Sieglinde, fleeing the house of her husband, Hunding, with Siegmund, her brother and lover, tries to explain the powerful emotions battling within her: “Sacred rapture was penetrating my mind and soul…but I was ashamed, overcome with dread, for I have obeyed another man, I have held another without love. Let me flee, I am cursed. I am vile, unworthy. I must leave you--I bring shame to my brother, my faithful friend.” Hermann Michael conducts the orchestra of Seattle Opera.