Donath, Helen (née Erwin)

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Donath, Helen (née Erwin)

Donath, Helen (née Erwin), American soprano; b. Corpus Christi, Tex., July 10, 1940. After attending Del Mar Coll. in Corpus Christi, she studied voice with Paola Novikova and Maria Berini. She then joined the Cologne Opera studio, where she made her formal operatic debut as Inez in II Trovatore in 1960. From 1963 to 1967 she sang at the Hannover Opera, and then joined the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1967, where she quickly rose to prominence. In 1971 she made her U.S. operatic debut as Sophie at the San Francisco Opera. In 1979 she made her first appearance at London’s Covent Garden as Anne Trulove. She also appeared as a guest artist in Salzburg, Vienna, Hamburg, Berlin, Bayreuth, Milan, and Zurich. In 1990 she was made a Bavarian Kammersangerin. Among her many roles were Susanna, Zerlina, Ilia in Idomeneo, Marcelline in Fidelia, Annchen in Der Freischiltz, Micaela, Melisande, and Mimi.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire