Helga Pilarczyk
Helga Pilarczyk was a German operatic soprano.
Born in Schöningen, she originally trained as a pianist, at Braunschweig and at the Musikhochschule Hamburg. However, she made her debut as a contralto at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, as Irmentraud in Lortzing's Der Waffenschmied in 1951. By 1954 to 1955, she emerged as a dramatic soprano at the Hamburg State Opera, where she remained until the 1966/67 season.
Pilarczyk became a specialist in works of the twentieth century, including works by Richard Strauss, Salome and Die Frau ohne Schatten, Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel, Luigi Dallapiccola's Il prigioniero, Stravinsky's Oedipus rex and The Flood, Alban Berg's Wozzeck and Lulu, and Schoenberg's Erwartung and Von heute auf morgen. She appeared in Zürich, Berlin, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Florence, the Glyndebourne Festival, Paris Opéra, La Scala, and Vienna.
In 1965, she debuted both at the Metropolitan Opera and in Chicago. In 1967, she left the stage in order to devote herself to her family, and later taught at the Musikhochschule Hamburg.
Her discography consists principally of recordings of Erwartung and Pierrot lunaire. Opera Depot has issued her 1963 performance of Puccini's Il tabarro, conducted by Alberto Erede, on Compact Disc.
The Kammersängerin died, following a brief illness, in Hamburg, at the age of eighty-six, leaving behind two children. Helga Pilarczyk is buried in Hamburg.
