Martha Mödl was a German soprano and mezzo-soprano, one of the great singing actresses of the post-war era. She was especially associated with Wagner, Beethoven and dramatic German repertory.

In the Pristine catalogue she appears extensively with Furtwängler, Karajan and Knappertsbusch in Fidelio, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal and the Ring.

Mödl’s singing was raw, inward and theatrically magnetic, less about polished surface than about dramatic truth under extreme pressure.

Her page is essential. Mödl brings smoke, nerve and human fracture to the Wagner shelf.