Popular mezzo who was the first American Kundry at Bayreuth passes at 89.

The mezzo-soprano Irene Dalis has died in San Jose, California at the age of 89. In a major career spanning 25 years she was a regular at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and became the first American to sing Kundry in Parsifal at Bayreuth.

Born on October 8, 1925, she graduated as a pianist from San Jose State College before a Fulbright scholarship enabled her to study singing in Europe. She went straight to Milan and in 1953 she made her professional debut at the Oldenburgisches Stadtstheater in Germany as Princess Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo. Her performance in Janáček’s Jenufa at the Berlin Stadtische Oper led to an offer from The Met where she debuted, as Eboli again, in 1957.

A favourite of Rudolph Bing, her subsequent Met career ran to 274 performances over a total of 20 seasons. Notable roles included Amneris in Aïda, a part she sang 69 times, the nurse in Die Frau Ohne Schatten, Ortrud in Lohengrin and Herodias in Salome. An outstanding Brangäne in Tristan, she sang the...