Word: varnay
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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DIED. Astrid Varnay, 88, Swedish-American soprano whose intense, passionate style energized some of the most demanding roles of German opera, including Strauss's Elektra and Wagner's Isolde, Kundry and Brunnhilde (she sang Brunnhilde more than 300 times); in Munich. Her career took off unexpectedly in 1941 after she was called in as a last-minute, last-choice understudy to play Sieglinde in Wagner's Die Walkure at New York City's Metropolitan Opera, where she eventually performed 200 times. Of her emotional style, she said, "I feel my roles first, then I put them into action...