O Dec. 18, 2024, German mezzo and soprano Sigrid Kehl died at the age of 95.

Born in Berlin on Nov 23, 1929, Kehl first studied piano, voice, and pedagogy at the Conservatory of Thuringia in Erfurt from 1948 to 1951. She also studied voice and piano at the Berlin University of the Arts until 1956.

She went on to make her debut at the Berlin State Opera in the role of the Polowetz woman in Borodin’s “Prince Igor” and with the company sher performed such roles as Mamma Lucia in “Cavalleria Rusticana,” Widow Browe in Lortzing’s “Zar und Zimmermann” and Mrs. Quickly in “Falstaff.”

In 1956 she won the second prize at the Robert Schumann International Competition for Pianists and Singers led to her engagement at the Leipzig Opera.

With Leipzig, she became a permanent member of the ensemble in 1957 and remained there for over 35 years. With the company, she performed 70 roles in such operas as “Il Trovatore,” “Tosca,” “Aida,” “Carmen,” “Der Rosenkavalier,” “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” “Radamisto,” “Aida,” “Don Carlo,” and “Macbeth.”

At the beginning of the 1970s, Kehl went from a mezzo-soprano to dramatic soprano singing Leonore in Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” Brünnhilde and Fricka in “The Ring Cycle” and Isolde in “Tristan und Isolde.”

In 1971 she became a guest artist with the Berlin State Opera. She also performed at the Komische Oper Berlin, Theater Hagen, Teatro di San Carlo, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Bern Theatre, Teatro La Fenice, Vienna State Opera, Opernhaus Graz, Bolshoi Theatre, and Semperoper in Dresden.

Throughout her career Kehl was awarded numerous prizes including the title of Kammersängerin in 1963, an honorary member of the Leipzig Opera, and the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic.

Folloing her retirement from the stage, she went on to teach at the Musikhochschule Leipzig and she began an opera project in 1996. She was also the artistic director for Telemann’s “Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho” in collaboration with the music academies of Leipzig and Berlin and the Leipzig Opera.

Kehl also made recording that preserved her voice including Verdi’s “La forza del destino” and Princess Eboli in “Don Carlo.”