Helga Dernesch is an Austrian soprano and mezzo soprano.Dernesch studied at the Conservatory in Vienna, before making her debut in 1961 singing Marina in Boris Godunov in Berne. She continued to sing in Berne from 1961 to 1963, in Wiesbaden 1964-1965 and in Cologne from 1966-1969. She made her first appearance in Bayreuth (as Wellgunde in Der Ring des Nibelungen) in 1965. Two years later she was singing Elisabeth in Tannhuser there. She made her first appearance at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1969.Since her debut, she has appeared in most of the world s great opera houses, including Zürich, Amsterdam, Glyndebourne, London, Paris, San Francisco, New York and Chicago in such roles as Leonore in Fidelio, Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, The Dyer s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten , Clytemnestra in Elektra, Kabanicha in Káa Kabanová, The Countess in Pique Dame, Larina in Eugen Onegin. She continued to sing regularly at the Bavarian State Opera where she sang her first Marschallin in 1977 and created the role of Goneril in the premiere of Aribert Reimann s Lear in 1978, a role she also sang in several German houses and for San Francisco Opera in 1981. In October 2000, she created the title role in another Reimann opera, Bernarda Albas Haus in Munich.