Internationally renowned for her vivid operatic portrayals, Winnipeg-born soprano Irena Welhasch Baerg has enjoyed a wonderful career in both opera, concert and musical theatre. Whether in the title role of Dvořák’s Rusalka or as Mimì in La Bohème, the power and poetry of her performances are undeniable. She starred as Blanche in Les Dialogues des Carmélites for the Canadian Opera Company, a production that was later broadcast on CBC-TV. Ms. Welhasch Baerg’s authority in the French repertoire brought her to L’Opéra de Nice for Mélisande in Debussy’s impressionist masterpiece Pelleas and Mélisande. Her career has included appearances with Canadian opera companies from Montreal to Victoria and many in the United States including a heralded production of La Bohème with San Diego Opera.

In a lighter vein, she has been heard in Gershwin and Viennese evenings from coast to coast in Canada and beyond.

Ms. Welhasch Baerg’s career has grown to include the dramatic soprano roles including those of Leonora in Fidelio, the title role in Turandot, and Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo, among others.

National Arts Centre audiences have seen her in the title role of Lehár’s operetta Die Lustige Witwe, a role she also sang at the Calgary Opera and for the Canadian Opera Company National Tour. Ever open to new challenges, Ms. Welhasch Baerg appeared for several years as the temperamental Prima Donna, Carlotta Giudicelli in the long-running Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera.

Frequently recorded by CBC Radio, she has appeared with the orchestras of Washington, D.C., Ottawa, Québec City and Winnipeg in programs of Verdi, Mahler, Richard Strauss and Brahms. Ms. Welhasch Baerg has sung Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with many orchestras including the Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec and the orchestras of Hamilton, Kingston and Kitchener Waterloo.

Her discography includes an art song recording La Mystique D’Amour, which she shares with her husband and frequent concert/recital partner Theodore Baerg.