Opera Singer. A mezzo soprano who later performed as a soprano, she is remembered for singing leading roles in major venues on both sides of the Atlantic. The child of a musical family, she was raised in both California's capital city and San Francisco, attended Cal State Sacramento and Cal Berkeley, studied voice in her hometown as well as in New York City, and made her 1960 professional bow with the San Francisco Opera as Theresa from Vincenzo Bellini's "La Sonnambula". Janis sang a number of compramario roles in San Francisco, among them Fenena in Verdi's "Nabucco", Violetta's maid Flora from the same composer's "La Traviata", and Sister Anne for the 1961 world premiere of Norman Dello Joio's "Blood Moon", then in March of 1962 won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions performing the aria "Mon coeur" from Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila". A few days after her competition win she made her New York City Opera debut as Mrs. Grose from Benjamin Britten's "The Turn of the Screw" and on December 19, 1962 gave the first of her 148 Metropolitan performances in the role of Flora, opposite Anna Moffo as Violetta; in 1968 Janis began a 30 year association with Wagner's Bayreuth Festspielhaus that saw her transition from mezzo to soprano while portraying a long list of characters including both Magdalena and Eva from "Die Meistersinger", Kundry in "Parsifal", Senta from "The Flying Dutchman", Venus in "Tannhauser", the title lead of "Tristan und Isolde", and at various times Fricka, Fria, Sieglinde, Brunnhilde, the Second Norn, and Gutrune from "The Ring Cycle". She had a long association with Deutsche Oper Berlin and was heard as a guest at Covent Garden, La Scala Milano, the Vienna State Opera, and elsewhere, usually in Wagnerian roles though her non-Wagner parts included the title leads of Richard Strauss' "Elektra" and "Ariadne aux Naxos" and Puccini's "Tosca". Returning to the Met as a soprano in 1973, she sang Kundry, Senta, and Marie from Alban Ber's "Wozzeck; Janis received the San Francisco Opera Medal in 1990, bade farewell to the Met in 1997 as Brunnhilde from "Die Walkure", retired in 2000, lived and taught for a time in Northern California's Nevada County, from whence had come the legendary 19th Century coloratura Emma Nevada, and relocated to San Antonio in her final years. At her death she could be heard on complete preservations of "The Flying Dutchman" and Wagner's early effort "Rienzi" as well as on some live 'pirates' and archived Metropolitan broadcasts.