Claudio Nicolai

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Claudio Nicolai , real name Klaus Hennecke or Klaus Brennecke (* March 7, 1929 in Kiel ; † May 11, 2020 in La Palma , Spain ), was a German opera singer in the baritone vocal range with a focus on the cavalier baritone .

Nicolai was born in Kiel in 1929 as the son of the future Admiral Walter Hennecke in Kiel. In May 1944 he was drafted to dig trenches. Fritz Lehmann discovered his talent for singing in 1946 as the director of the Göttingen Handel Festival. There he also worked as an assistant director. Nicolai studied theater studies in Göttingen and completed vocal training in Essen at the Folkwang School and in Munich as a tenor . As a youthful heroic tenor , he made his debut in Ulm and Linz on the Danube. Vocal cord problems resulted in the change of vocal subject to the baritone. Arno Assmann first brought him to the State Theater on Gärtnerplatz in Munich in 1959 . With him he moved to the Cologne Opera five years later , to which he remained as a permanent member of the ensemble until 1989 and where he matured into an acclaimed audience favorite. There he made his debut in the opera Così fan tutte as Guglielmo under the musical direction of Günter Wand . With Così fan tutte in the role of Don Alfonso, his engagement in Cologne also ended. Here he sang in more than 1000 performances in over 50 different roles.

In addition to his engagement in Cologne, he was also committed to other stages. Herbert von Karajan engaged him in 1977/78 as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro at the Salzburg Festival . He also sang the title role in Don Giovanni in Vienna and Munich and other roles. In 1988 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in the role of Eisenstein in the operetta Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss .

He was appointed professor at the Cologne Music Academy in 1982. He taught here until 1991.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f On the death of Claudio Nicolais . Obituary at Der Opernfreund , September 23, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Greetings, you noble singer! The great baritone Claudio Nicolai will be 90 oper.koeln
  3. ^ Baritone Claudio Nicolai passed away at klassik.com
  4. ↑ Obituary: Oper Köln Baritone Claudio Nicolai Dies at 91 operawire.com
  5. ↑ a b On the death of the baritone Claudio Nicolai die-deutsche-buehne.de
personal data
SURNAME Nicolai, Claudio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brennecke, Klaus; Hennecke, Klaus (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 2020
Place of death La Palma , Spain