Ruthild Engert-Ely (9 October 1940 – 5 May 2013) was a German operatic mezzo-soprano and alto.
Life
Born in Frankfurt, Engert-Ely first trained as a kindergarten teacher in her native town. Afterwards she worked as a nanny in London and later worked there as an art dealer. She studied singing at the Hoch Conservatory. Later, further studies followed with Josef Metternich in Cologne.
She made her stage debut at the Theater Osnabrück as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro. She had her first regular engagements at the Theater Koblenz (1969–1972) and at the Theater Freiburg (1972–1977) where she was the countess in Lortzing's Der Wildschütz. The then Freiburg director and the musical director Marek Janowski supported Engert-Ely in her early years. In Freiburg she was able to acquire her first major roles: Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Octavia in Der Rosenkavalier and Ottavia in L'incoronazione di Poppea. After five years in Freiburg, she moved to the Staatstheater Hannover (1977–1979). There she sang Dorabella in Così fan tutte for the first time; the composer in Ariadne auf Naxos was also one of her role debuts.
Since 1979, she was a permanent member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (DOB), to which she had been contracted by Siegfried Palm. She debuted there in 1979 as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro. Other (premiere) roles there included Hansel in Hänsel und Gretel (season 1979/80), Nicklausse/Muse in The Tales of Hoffmann (revival: September 1980), Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor (premiere: December 1980), Cherubino (August 1981, in the opening performance of the 1981/82 season as a stand-in for Hanna Schwarz; also in the rehearsal in January 1985), Gymnasiast/Groom in Lulu (premiere: February 1982), the composer in Ariadne auf Naxos (house debut; March 1982), Meg Page in Falstaff (revival: April/May 1982; later also in the 1988/89 season), Fenena in Nabucco (among others in March 1981, further in the revival in May 1982), Preziosilla in La forza del destino (house debut in October 1982, further in the revival in January 1987), Fjodor in Boris Godunov (revival/re-recording: February 1983), Lucienne in Die tote Stadt (premiere: February 1983), Flora Bervoix in La traviata (rehearsal: April 1984, with Júlia Várady in the title role), Floßhilde in Das Rheingold (premiere: September 1984) and Götterdämmerung (premiere: September 1985), Fatime in Oberon (premiere: January 1986) and Warwara in Káťa Kabanová (premiere: March 1986; follow-up performances in March 1987). In October 1988, she sang Warwara in Götterdämmerung in the complete Ring cycle at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In October 1990, she made her role and house debut there as Ortrud in Wagner's Lohengrin. In November 1992, she sang Preziosilla again in a new musical rehearsal of Verdi's opera La forza del destino. In November/December 1992, she took over the role of the crunchy witch in Hänsel and Gretel. In March 1993, she took over the role of Varvara again, this time "with lush vibrato" in mezzo-soprano, in the revival of the opera Káťa Kabanová.
She was officially a member of the Deutsche Oper ensemble until the 1995/96 season. In the course of her career, she sang roles ranging from the lyrical mezzo-soprano to the dramatic mezzo-soprano. At the Deutsche Oper, she also made the change from the lyrical to the dramatic mezzo-soprano part. Occasionally she also took on purely alto roles.