Helena Forti (April 25, 1884 – May 11, 1942) was a dramatic soprano active 1906 – 1924, closely associated with the Dresden royal court opera, known for her beauty, voice and strong stage presence.

Other repertoire included the title role in Verdi's Aida, Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria and contemporary works such as Marietta in Korngold's Die tote Stadt.

[3] Her Sieglinde in Die Walküre in Braunschweig was described by the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik[4] as "Equally endowed with youth, beauty and vocal means... (Forti) immerses herself so intensely in her role that one believes the transformation of the virgin-Goddess into a human form."

Her professional stage debut was as an actress, at the Dessau court theater, at age sixteen in Goethe's The Brother and Sister (Die Geschwister).

[33] Forti's stage Debut as a soprano operatic singer came in 1906, as Valentine in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots at the Hoftheater Dessau,[34] where she was a member of the soloist ensemble, staying till 1907.

[39] She sang as a guest in the Court Opera in Berlin (Valentine in Meyerbeer's Huguenots) in 1908,[40] in the theaters of Bremen and Braunschweig,[41] in Vienna (as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser) in 1910 and 1913, and at the Munich Wagner-Festival (in 1911).

[43] Stars of Dresden and Bayreuth, they made way for a new, dramatically oriented singer like Annie Krull, Strauss's choice for Diemuth (in Feuersnot) and the title role of Elektra.

[45] Forti had first appeared in Dresden during the Esperanto Congress in 1908,[46] and in September 1911 sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre as a guest at the Royal court opera.

[48] Strauss, later writing to the Dresden conductor Hermann Ludwig Kutzschbach, suggester her as the Composer in Ariadne (she later sang the title role), and was happy to accept her as Herodias in Salome (1916).

Forti sang the title roles of Aida, Fidelio[52] and Carmen,[53] Marina in Boris Godunov,[54] Santuzza in Cavalleria,[55] Antonia in Contes d'Hoffmann, Rachel in La Juive,[56] Leonore im Il Trovatore, Amelia in Ballo in Maschera and even Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, but mainly she was the Wagner-singer of Dresden: Senta in Der fliegende Holländer[57] Ortrud in Lohengrin,[58] Isolde in Tristan und Isolde,[59] Sieglinde in Die Walküre,[60] and all other Wagner heroines, Elsa, Eva, Brünnhilde, Fricka, etc.

[61] Forti's role is the most exposed, written in a late romantic idiom, high in tessitura and expansive in expression, containing music of tenderness such as Myrtocle's first monologue "Psyche wandelt durch Säulenhallen",[63] intensely dramatic sections such as "Doch!

[65] The opera proved a great success for the conductor Fritz Reiner and Forti, it was played often,[66] but did not enter into the canon of standard repertoire, the music and biblical theme of controversial quality.

[70][71] Forti also sang Dresden's first performances of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Marietta in Die Tote Stadt and the title role in his Violanta,[72] as well as the role of Weibes (=a woman) in Paul Hindemith's opera, Mörder Hoffnung der Frauen[54][73] During her Dresden period she sang in Amsterdam, Berlin (the world premiere of Alfred Kaise]'s Stella Maris),[74] Brussels, Bucharest, Cologne, Dessau (Isolde)[75] Munich,[76] Vienna, Zürich (Boris Godunov), and in Italy.

[c] in 1917, she married Dresden's "most famous and excellent"[82] actor Walter Bruno Iltz,[83] who was "always seen sitting in the artist's box when Forti sang, utterly immersed at her stage presence.

Online and other references (e.g. Kutsch – Riemens Sängerlexikon)[96] to a "career breakthrough" in Germany after her "excellent"[97] Marina in Boris Godunov in 1923 cannot be sourced and are in error; Forti definitely retired from singing by 1925.

[85] In 1929 Forti followed Iltz to Düsseldforf, where he was named general director, and where she also continued to coach actors,[1] and teach singing to (female) opera singers.

[104] Bühnen und Welt of 1909 describes the young Forti in the Prag Maifestspiele as a "youthful singer with great sensuous charm and excellent vocal, acting and intellectual qualities".

ibid, [107] As early as 1911, Die Musik, while praising[108] her Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, notes a certain difficulty in the top range of her voice.

Her first attempt at the role of Kundry was "scenically quite impressive" but vocally insufficient;[109] Her Isolde "looked better than it was sung",[110] By the end, Der Merker, merely labels her last performance (Adriano in Rienzi) as "disappointing".