reaction to the then-controversial updating of the opera's setting to the Industrial Revolution. She was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1982. Although known for Wagner roles, she could perform the full gamut of the dramatic soprano repertoire. High points in her stage career include Senta in The Flying Dutchman, Elsa in Lohengrin, Sieglinde and several of the Valkyries in Die Walküre, Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Elettra in Mozart's Idomeneo, the Marschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Liza in Tschaikowsky's The Queen of Spades, and Leonore in both La forza del destino and Il trovatore, among other roles. Her career was disrupted by illness several times – by viral pneumonia from 1981 to 1984, by a detached retina in 1991, and by colon cancer in 2000. She died on March 16, 2017, three days after her 79th birthday. She was survived by her partner of 24 years, Deborah Karner. References Sources Roberta Knie biography from Operissimo.com (In German) External links Roberta Knie at the Oklahoma Hall of Fame 1938 births 2017 deaths American operatic sopranos University of Oklahoma alumni People from New Cordell, Oklahoma Singers from Oklahoma American lesbian musicians American LGBT singers LGBT people from Oklahoma 20th-century American women opera singers 21st-century American women