Baltsa made her first appearance in an opera in 1968 as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro at Frankfurt Opera, before going on to appear as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Vienna State Opera in 1970.
In Berlin she continued to expand her repertoire with leading roles in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Così fan tutte, Verdi's Aida, Puccini's Tosca, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Wagner's Tannhäuser and Lohengrin, and Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and Der Rosenkavalier.
Brouwenstijn's roles at La Monnaie in Brussels were Chrysothemis in Elektra, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Sieglinde in Die Walküre.
From her other versatile stage repertoire, she sang Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, the Marschallin in the Der Rosenkavalier, Renata in The Fiery Angel by Prokofiev (Opéra-Comique, 1967), and Béatrice in Un sguardo sul ponte by Renzo Rossellini (Bordeaux 1965, possibly the first French performance of that opera).
Her career encompassed many lighter soprano roles in the repertoire: l’Amour, Fatime (Les Indes galantes), Sophie (Werther), Poussette (Manon), Xenia (Boris Godunov), Rosina (The Barber of Seville, in French), Eurydice (Orphée), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) and Chérubin and Susanna (The marriage of Figaro).
Besides the 18th and 19th century Italian repertoire, he also gained considerable acclaim in character roles such as Fra Melitone, Geronte, Gianni Schicchi, Baron Ochs, the Doctor in Wozzeck, as well as roles in many contemporary works by Rota, Tosatti, etc.
After her studies in Trondheim, Oslo and København, her international break through came as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose) at Opéra Bastille in Paris in 1993.
Sieglinde Wagner had a very wide repertoire, including Clairon in Richard Strauss's Capriccio, Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, Magdalena in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Fenena in Nabucco, the mother in Hansel and Gretel and Mary in The Flying Dutchman.
She performed the major works of Richard Strauss, such as Salome, the Feldmarschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and, having sung Chrysothemis in Elektra earlier, Elektra herself.
She has sung more than sixty roles, including the title role in Carmen in three productions, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Azucena in Il trovatore, Amneris in Aida and Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera.
Der Spiegel | Der Rosenkavalier | Der Ring des Nibelungen | Rotenburg an der Fulda | Spittal an der Drau | Limburg an der Lahn | Weiden in der Oberpfalz | Dillingen an der Donau | Van der Graaf Generator | Kirchdorf an der Krems | Der Freischütz | Befehlshaber der U-Boote | Serena van der Woodsen | Rothenburg ob der Tauber | Oberkommando der Wehrmacht | Neustadt an der Orla | Neukirch an der Thur | Der Vampyr | Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft | Neuberg an der Mürz | Ludwig Mies van der Rohe | Brandenburg an der Havel | Bad Homburg vor der Höhe | Theater an der Wien | Schönenberg an der Thur | Rogier van der Weyden | Neustadt an der Weinstraße | Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz | Neuburg an der Donau | Melissa Auf der Maur |
His final and 316th performance at the Met was as the Hairdresser in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier on January 12, 1980 with Agnes Baltsa as Octavian, Anna Tomowa-Sintow as the Marschallin, and Judith Blegen as Sophie.
Her final appearance at the SFO was in October 1955 as Sophie in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as the Marschallin and Frances Bible as Octavian.
She made guest appearances in Frankfurt, Dresden, Zurich, London, Prague, and Budapest, and she created Pfitzner's Das Herz, in Munich in 1931, other notable operatic roles included Eva and Die Marschallin.
Unger's other Salzburg Festival roles included Monostatos in two different stagings of The Magic Flute (1967, 1968 and 1970, staged by Oscar Fritz Schuh and conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch; 1974 staged by Strehler and conducted by Karajan, and Valzacchi in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier (1969, staged by Rudolf Hartmann, designed by Teo Otto, and conducted by Karl Böhm).
There are a number of recordings of Reining: her Arabella (Salzburg, 1947, under Karl Böhm), Daphne (Vienna, 1944, Böhm), Ariadne (Vienna, 1944, Böhm), Eva in Die Meistersinger (Vienna, 1937, Toscanini), Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier (Salzburg, 1949, George Szell; Salzburg, 1953, Clemens Krauss; Vienna, 1954 (Studio), Erich Kleiber; Vienna, 1955, Knappertsbusch) are all on disc.
In 1924, at the invitation of maestro Arturo Toscanini, she made her debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, as Sieglinde in Walkure, and went on singing there as Alice Ford in Falstaff, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, and created the role of Dolly at the world premiere of Wolf-Ferrari's opera Sly in 1927, with the great Italian tenor Aureliano Pertile.
After the end of World War II, they returned to England, where Czinner made numerous successful opera movies (e.g. Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier).
Other early operatic appearances were Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Scottish Opera, and both Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier for English National Opera.
He sang several more larger roles at the Met over the next eight years, including Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Fenton in Falstaff, Idreno in Semiramide, the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier, and Tonio in La fille du régiment.
She later went to visit Strauss at Pontresina in 1948 to study with him the Four Last Songs and the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, and it was as the Marschallin that she ended her career at the San Carlo theatre in Naples.
He improved the quality of the orchestra and opened the new opera house with a performance of Der Rosenkavalier of Strauss, with Elisabeth Grümmer as Marschallin, Teresa Żylis-Gara as Octavian and Kurt Böhme as Ochs.