Hildegard Behrens, singer famed for Wagnerian roles, 72

She was 72 and lived in Vienna.

Her death was reported by Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera, in an e-mail message sent to associates and shared with the press by Jack Mastroianni, director of the vocal division at IMG Artists and her former manager.

Ms. Behrens fell ill while traveling to a festival in the Japanese resort town of Kusatsu to present master classes and a recital and was taken to a hospital in Tokyo Sunday night. She died there, apparently of an aneurysm, Friend wrote.

Her ascent into the demanding Wagnerian soprano repertory was uncommonly fast after starting her career late.

She did not begin vocal studies, at the Freiburg Academy of Music, until she was 26, the same year she graduated from the University of Freiburg in Germany as a junior barrister, having initially chosen law as a profession.

Her debut came in Freiburg in February 1971, the month she turned 34, in a lyric soprano role, the Countess in Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro.’’

Her voice at the time was rich and flexible, and she might have continued on a lighter repertory path.

But the shimmering allure and power of her sound and the intensity of her singing led her inexorably to Wagner.

In her prime, she was a complete vocal artist, a singer whose warm, textured voice could send phrases soaring.

Her top notes could slice through any Wagner orchestra.

Her technique made heavy use of chest voice, an approach that would eventually take a toll on her singing.

Many purists argued that Ms. Behrens was no born Wagnerian. Her voice lacked the penetrating solidity of a Kirsten Flagstad or the clarion brilliance of a Birgit Nilsson.

Yet with her deep intelligence, dramatic fervor, and acute emotional insights, she made her voice do what the music and the moment demanded.

A beautiful woman with dark hair and a slender athletic frame, she was a poignant actress capable of fits and temperamental flashes onstage.

She was riveting as Wagner’s Isolde, a role she recorded with Leonard Bernstein conducting; Senta from “Der Fliegende Hollaender’’; and, especially, Bruennhilde.

She learned the three Bruennhilde roles of Wagner’s “Ring’’ cycle (in “Die Walkuere,’’ “Siegfried’’ and “Goetterdaemmerung’’) simultaneously, because she thought of the four operas as an entity, an organic operatic drama. Her first Bruennhilde came with a complete “Ring’’ at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany in 1983, the production conducted by Georg Solti.

It was a triumph for Ms. Behrens, which she repeated for the following three summer seasons there.

She sang the role when the Met opened its 1986-87 season with “Die Walkuere,’’ the first installment of Otto Schenk’s production.

In the spring of 1989 she sang in the Met’s first presentation of the complete Schenk “Ring,’’ which was designed with her in mind.

The production was retired in May of this year.

Between her Met debut as Giorgetta in Puccini’s “Tabarro’’ in 1976 and her appearances as Marie in Berg’s “Wozzeck’’ in 1999, she sang 171 performances with the company, including Leonore in Beethoven’s “Fidelio,’’ Elettra in Mozart’s “Idomeneo,’’ and the title roles in Strauss’s “Salome’’ and “Elektra.’’ She sang the title role in Puccini’s “Tosca’’ opposite Placido Domingo in the premiere of the popular Franco Zeffirelli staging introduced in 1985, a production later broadcast on public television.

Still, Bruennhilde became her Met calling card. She appears in the company’s DVDs of the Schenk “Ring’’ - recorded mostly in 1990, when she was at her dramatic and vocal peak - with James Levine conducting. The release affectingly captures her uncommonly feminine and thoughtful portrayal of this rambunctious character.

Yet Ms. Behrens’ move into Wagner was an act of will that took a vocal toll. By the mid-1990s, when she was approaching 60, her singing became ragged, with dicey pitch and strident top notes. She drew criticism from many opera buffs and reviewers during this period. But she was determined to sing her chosen roles with uncompromising intensity, whatever the cost.

Hildegard Behrens was born on Feb. 9, 1937, in Varel, Germany, west of Hamburg, the youngest of six children. Both her parents were doctors, and her father was an avid amateur musician. As a child, Ms. Behrens studied piano and violin and had a natural singing voice.

Commenting on her musical upbringing in a 1983 interview with The New York Times, she said, “Nobody cared for me, and I had no expectations.’’ Hence her drift into law school.

Her true talent did not emerge until well into her vocal studies in Freiburg.

In 1972 she became a member of the Deutsche Oper in Duesseldorf. She was discovered there by the powerful conductor Herbert von Karajan, who recruited her to sing Salome at the Salzburg Festival in Austria in 1977.

The experience was exasperating for the determined Ms. Behrens: Karajan insisted that a nonsinger perform Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils. Still, her performance was acclaimed and led to a landmark recording.

In the 1983 interview Ms. Behrens explained that she knew from the beginning that she would become a dramatic soprano and that her slow start was an advantage.

“I consider my career to have had a fantastic logic,’’ she said, adding, “Now I realize that all that time I spent at the conservatory allowed me to evolve as a musician.’’

“It was like playing a role out in my mind, before I actually did it. Even today I can think through a part, and my throat will subconsciously assume all the correct positions without my actually having to sing.’’

By the early 1980s, Ms. Behrens was such a major Met artist that she considered her loft in Chelsea home; she lived there at the time with her two children.

Ms. Behrens leaves two children, Philip Behrens of Munich and Sara Behrens Scheidmann of Vienna, and two grandchildren.