Posted December 15, 2014

Posted December 15, 2014

It is also reported that mezzo soprano Janis Martin died yesterday at her home in San Antonio, Texas. Janis Martin was a Sacramento native who studied at Sacramento State University and the University of California Berkeley. Martin started her career singing comprimario roles at the San Francisco Opera beginning in 1960. She went on to sing Brünnhilde in San Francisco in 1990 alternating with Gwyneth Jones and Hildegard Behrens.

San Francisco Roles include: Venus, Senta, Brangäne, Ariadne, Suzuki, Marie (Wozzeck), Meg Page (Falstaff), Tosca, and Elektra. The Wagner Society of Northern California invited Janis Martin to sing the Wesendonck Lieder in a performance at the Century Club in San Francisco in the late 1990’s.

In Bayreuth from 1968 through 1987 Janis Martin sang the roles of  Eva and Magdalene, Freia, Fricka, Sieglinde, Gutrune, 2nd Norn, Brünnhilde, and Kundry. She recorded the trouser role of Adriano in Rienzi and also the role of Senta on the Decca Der fliegende Holländer with Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Janis Martin also sang with the Vienna Staatsoper, Berlin Opera, La Scala and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Janis Martin was 75 years old.