[1] In 1951, the Bayreuth Festival reopened and the new leader Wieland Wagner asked her to sing Sieglinde in Die Walküre, conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

Other operas were Ariadne auf Naxos, Macbeth, Turandot, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Tannhäuser, Aida, Salome (Salome and Herodias), Tosca, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die Walküre, Lohengrin (Elsa and Ortrud), Jenůfa (Kostelnička), and The Queen of Spades (the Countess).

Two days later, a Metropolitan Opera production of Wagner's Lohengrin with Ben Heppner in the title role was dedicated to her memory.

She was especially praised as the Empress (Kaiserin) in Die Frau ohne Schatten, the title role in Salome, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and Chrysothemis in Elektra.

She started her career when Kirsten Flagstad was still alive and Birgit Nilsson and Astrid Varnay at the peak of their vocal abilities.

In 1981, Karl Böhm persuaded her to sing Elektra for a Unitel film (with the soundtrack recorded in the studio), not a live production in an opera house.

In her later years, Rysanek reverted to dramatic mezzo-soprano roles like Herodias in Salome, Klytemnestra in Elektra and Kostelnička in Janáček's Jenůfa.