I. Seefried, 69; Vienna State Opera Soprano

Irmgard Seefried, once the Vienna State Opera’s leading soprano and an artist who achieved major successes in the operas of Richard Strauss and Mozart, died Thursday. The announcement of her death on Austrian Radio said she was 69. The New York Times reported that she died of cancer.

Miss Seefried was particularly known throughout Austria and Germany, but she also toured on and off the Continent, in opera with Covent Garden in London and La Scala in Milan and in concert throughout Europe. She made her U.S. debut in 1951 and her first West Coast appearance in 1956, appearing here under the baton of Bruno Walter in a program of Mozart and Mahler at the old Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium.

Perhaps her best-known portrayal was Susanna in Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” while her other Mozart favorites were Pamina in “The Magic Flute,” Zerlina in “Don Giovanni” and Fiordiligi in “Cosi Fan Tutte.”

Her range extended from Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger” to Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” while she earned praise as Octavian in “Der Rosenkavalier” and as the Composer in “Ariadne auf Naxos.”

Born in Bavaria, Miss Seefried studied at the music conservatory in Augsburg and sang on her first stage at 11 when she was Gretel in Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel.”

In 1943, she joined the Vienna opera, where she made her debut as Eva in “Die Meistersinger.” She stayed with the opera for the rest of her career, touring mainly in the 1950s and ‘60s. In 1953, she and her violinist husband, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, staged a world tour.