Kirchengesangsszene der Ortrud

Laura Hilgermann (real name Laura Oberländer, b. 13 October 1857, Vienna; d. 9 February 1945, Budapest, Hungary), soprano/contralto. Hilgermann was a member of the Vienna Court Opera from 1900 to 1920, except during the 1902/03 season. Her repertoire encompassed both soprano and contralto parts. During Mahler’s tenure as director, Laura Hilgermann played a wide variety of roles, including starring as Dorabella in the restaging of Mozart’s Così fan tutte on 4 October 1900 (alongside Demuth as Guglielmo, Naval as Ferrando, Hesch as Alfonso and Gutheil-Schoder as Despina), and reprising the same role at the premiere of another production on 24 November 1905 (this time with Kurz as Fiordiligi, Demuth as Guglielmo, Hesch as Alfonso, Slezak as Ferrando and Gutheil-Schoder as Despina). Hilgermann also starred as Fricka in the new production of Wagner’s The Valkyrie on 4 February 1907, alongside Schmedes as Siegmund, Förster-Lauterer as Sieglinde and Weidmann as Wotan. It can be assumed that Mahler valued the singer highly, since a letter he wrote to Bruno Walter in March 1910 shows she was among the performers he originally chose to perform in the premiere of his 8th Symphony in Munich, though she did not take part in the event.