Margarethe Bence was an American opera singer, who sang both mezzo-soprano and contralto parts and was mostly active in German and Austria, including international festivals such as the Bayreuth Festival and the Salzburg Festival. Her repertoire included music from Baroque to contemporary premieres.
Career
Born in Kingston, New York in a German-American family on August 13, 1930, Bence began her voice studies in the United States. She toured with the Robert Shaw Chorale from 1950 to 1953, when she continued her studies in Stuttgart. Her teachers included Res Fischer and Ellinor Junker-Giesen. She appeared first in concert, especially in alto-parts of oratorios. In 1956 she joined the ensemble of the Württembergische Staatsoper, where she remained for 14 years. She studied a broad repertory, from Baroque to contemporary music, playing as both comic and tragic characters. She appeared as a guest artist, first in 1959 when the Stuttgart Opera performed Wagner's Parsifal at the Vienna State Opera. She was engaged there for Handel's Jephtha, with Fritz Wunderlich, and for Janáček's Jenůfa. In 1961, she appeared at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, which became one of her signature roles. From 1962 she was invited to international festivals. She performed at the Bayreuth Festival, in 1962 as Rossweisse and Waltraute in Der Ring des Nibelungen, the next year also Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, and a small part in Parsifal. In 1965 she performed Rossweisse once more. She sang at the Bavarian State Opera first in 1963, the role of Babekan in the premiere of Werner Egk's Die Verlobung in San Domingo. In 1966, she appeared at the Schwetzingen Festival in the premiere of Hermann Reutter's Der Tod des Empedokles, and she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Marcellina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. The new production was staged by Günther Rennert and conducted by Karl Böhm, with Claire Watson and Ingvar Wixell as the noble couple, Reri Grist and Walter Berry as Susanna and Figaro, and Edith Mathis as Cherubino. The production stayed in the repertory until 1971, always with Bence as Marcellina. Bence moved to the Bavarian State Opera in 1970, where she sang among others Annina in the production conducted by Carlos Kleiber which was recorded. She appeared as a guest internationally, including Berlin, Bucharest, Paris, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco. From 1976 on, she was a member of the Vienna State Opera for eleven years, where she performed 266 times in 27 parts. She also appeared at the Wiener Volksoper. From the 1970s, she was a voice teacher in Vienna and at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart. Her students included Malin Hartelius and Anna Korondi. Margarethe Bence died in Munich on April 1, 1992, aged 61.
Selected parts
Premieres
1963: Die Verlobung in San Domingo by Werner Egk – Bavarian State Opera
1966: Der Tod des Empedokles by Hermann Reutter – Schwetzingen Festival
