Hildegard Behrens rehearses a scene in Jenufa, an opera by composer Leos Janacek and director Bob Swaim, in Salzburg, Austria. Behrens, one of the finest Wagnerian performers of her generation, has died while travelling in Japan. Hildegard Behrens rehearses a scene in Jenufa, an opera by composer Leos Janacek and director Bob Swaim, in Salzburg, Austria. Behrens, one of the finest Wagnerian performers of her generation, has died while travelling in Japan. (Rudi Blaha/Getty Images)

Soprano Hildegard Behrens, one of the finest opera actors to take the stage, has died in Tokyo, Japan. She was 72.

Behrens died of an aortic aneurysm Tuesday, according to an official at the Kanshinetsu Music Society Foundation in Japan.

The opera singer fell ill while travelling in Japan to a festival and was admitted Sunday night to a Tokyo hospital, where she died.

She was set to perform at a music festival followed by lessons at a hot springs resort.

An acclaimed opera singer in the late 1980s to the early '90s, Behrens was best known for her portrayal of Bruennhilde in the Otto Schenk production of the Ring Cycle.

Behrens, whose career spanned more than three decades, was known for her dramatic vocals and her many interpretations of the works of German composer Richard Wagner.

Hildegard Behrens was born in Varel-Oldenburg, Germany, on Feb. 9, 1937. She graduated from the University of Freiburg with a law degree before seriously pursuing singing. Behrens later studied at Freiburg Academy of Music.

Makes U.S. debut at the Met

In 1971, Behrens made her opera debut as the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in Freiburg. That following year, she became a member of Germany's opera house, Deutsche Oper.

In October 1976, Behrens made her American debut as Girogetta in Giacomo Puccini's Il tabarro at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Behrens's breakout role came the following year when she played as Strauss's Salome at the Salzburg Festival in Austria.

Since then, she has given over 150 performances at the Met and appeared in such notable roles as Elettra in Mozarts' Idomeneo, Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Marie in Berg's Wozzeck.

Behrens received several awards including the Order of the Merit Cross of the Federal Republic.

Behrens funeral will be in Vienna.

With files from The Associated Press