Rita Hunter will be remembered as one of the major Wagnerian sopranos of the later 20th century, especially for her performances as all three of the Brünnhildes in the Ring cycle, conducted by Reginald Goodall at the English National Opera.
[2] In this production she was partnered by Alberto Remedios (who had studied singing at the same time as Hunter in Liverpool with Edwin Francis) as Siegfried, and Norman Bailey as Wotan.
[1] In the Glen Byam Shaw Ring production, the quality of Hunter's singing and interpretation enabled audiences to set aside her outsize stature (which conformed to all prejudices about Wagnerian sopranos), and few have matched her conviction as Brünnhilde.
She made her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera on 19 December 1972, in Die Walküre, with great success (conductor Erich Leinsdorf and Dame Gwyneth Jones as Sieglinde).
Among conductors with whom she worked whom she found sympathetic to the singer, she cited Sir Simon Rattle Carlo Felice Cillario and Richard Bonynge.