Tokyo: Soprano Hildegard Behrens, one of the finest Wagnerian performers of her generation, has died while traveling in Japan. She was 72.

Jonathan Friend, artistic administrator of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, said on Tuesday in an e-mail to opera officials that Behrens did not feel well while traveling to a festival near Tokyo. She went to a Tokyo hospital, where she died of an apparent aneurism.

Friend's e-mail was shared with The Associated Press by Jack Mastroianni, director of IMG Artists.

Her funeral was planned in Vienna.

Organizers for Behrens' visit in Japan said she was in the country to teach lessons in the hot springs resort town of Kusatsu, north of Tokyo, from August 21 to 29. The lessons were being sponsored by the Kanshinetsu Music Association.