Janis Martin, operatic mezzo turned soprano, is dead at 75

Janis Martin, the Sacramento-born opera singer who began her career at the San Francisco Opera as a precocious, hardworking mezzo-soprano before attaining international prominence as a soprano in the 1970s and ’80s, was found dead Dec. 14 at her home in San Antonio, Texas. She was 75.

She apparently died of natural causes, according to her brother, Richard Martin of Larkspur.

To most opera lovers worldwide, Ms. Martin is best remembered for her potent mastery of the challenging soprano parts in the works of Wagner and Richard Strauss. She was a regular at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, dedicated to Wagner’s music, and she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and other leading opera houses.

But Bay Area audiences also know her — either by reputation or actual memory — as the ambitious and versatile young mezzo who lit up the Merola Opera program while scarcely out of her teens, and then went on to sing a wide array of roles as one of the company’s youngest members.

Ms. Martin died the same day as Irene Dalis, another mezzo-soprano native to the Bay Area who also came of age at the San Francisco Opera in the 1960s. The two appeared onstage together several times, including in a 1960 “Aida” and the 1961 world premiere of Norman Dello Joio’s “Blood Moon.”

Ms. Martin was still singing small roles at that point, but she soon came into her own. In 1961, at 22, she stepped into the role of Fenena in Verdi’s “Nabucco,” prompting an enthusiastic review from Chronicle Music Critic Alfred Frankenstein, headlined “A Star Is Born.”

The following year, she won the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions, and went on to sing increasingly important mezzo-soprano roles throughout the U.S. and Europe.

But in the 1970s, midway through an already successful career, Ms. Martin decided to leap into the soprano repertoire. During a stint at Bayreuth, she was offered Waltraute in “Götterdämmerung” — a mezzo role — but said she’d rather undertake the longer and more prominent soprano part of Eva in “Die Meistersinger.”

She persisted in the face of skepticism, and within a few years had successfully retrained her voice to encompass the higher soprano range — all without sacrificing any of the plush lower register she had used as a mezzo. She was acclaimed for her command of such Wagnerian assignments as Senta in “The Flying Dutchman,” Isolde in “Tristan und Isolde” and Brünnhilde in the “Ring” Cycle, as well as the title roles in Strauss’ “Elektra” and “Ariadne auf Naxos.”

Ms. Martin was born into a musical family in Sacramento on Aug. 16, 1939. Her father was a radio producer — the family spent five years in San Francisco when he was music director of KSFO — and she studied music at Sacramento State University and UC Berkeley.

After her early years with the San Francisco Opera, Ms. Martin’s career was centered mostly in Europe — she made her home in Berlin for many years — but she returned to sing in San Francisco frequently, appearing in “Elektra” in 1984 and “Dutchman” in 1988. Her final appearances here were as Brünnhilde in the 1990 “Ring.”

Among her recordings are a notable “Dutchman” conducted by Sir Georg Solti, and a performance of Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” conducted by Pierre Boulez. She received the San Francisco Opera Medal in 1990.

In addition to her brother, Ms. Martin is survived by her son, Robert Martin of San Antonio, and two grandchildren. No information about memorial services was available.