Heinz Kruse

Heinz Kruse (born August 29, 1940 in Schleswig ; † July 29, 2008 ibid) was a German opera singer ( tenor ).

Live and act

Heinz Kruse first sang in a children's choir and completed an apprenticeship with a health insurance company. He received his only singing lessons from Traute Albers-Gisevius in Schleswig. He began his singing career as a choir player at the Theater in Hof , then at the Stadttheater Bern and from 1966 to 1968 at the Staatstheater Stuttgart . In 1968 he was engaged as tenor buffo at the Basel Theater. His next stop was the Hamburg State Opera in 1970 , where he celebrated his first major successes in buffo and character roles. He sang Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio , Wenzel in the Bartered Bride , the Witch in Hansel and Gretel , David in the Mastersingers and numerous other roles. Guest performances took him to the Paris Opera in 1978 as Pedrillo, in 1979 to the Toulouse Opera as David and in 1977 to the Bayreuth Festival , where he took on small roles in Tristan and Parsifal . In 1986 he took part in the world premiere of Hans-Jürgen von Bose's The Sorrows of Young Werther at the Schwetzingen Festival .

Active as a hero tenor since 1987 , he devoted himself to roles such as Florestan in Fidelio ( Staatstheater Mainz 1988), Erik in Fliegende Holländer ( Staatsoper Berlin 1991), Parsifal ( Staatstheater Braunschweig 1988/89), the Loge im Rheingold ( Hanover Opera House 1991 , Hamburg 1992), Siegmund in the Walküre (Hanover 1991), Tristan ( Kiel 1991, Hamburg State Opera 1996, Deutsche Oper Berlin 1996) and the Kaiser in Frau ohne Schatten (Braunschweig 1992, Semperoper Dresden 1996) as well as Walther von Stolzing in the Mastersingers ( Karlsruhe 1992/93).

A highlight of his singing career was then in 1993 in Hamburg the title role in Siegfried , which he sang in 1995 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, 1994/95 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and 1996 in Essen . During his performance as Siegfried at the Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam in 1998 he fell after his fight with the dragon and dislocated his arm; the performance had to be canceled. In 2000 he also sang this role at the Vienna State Opera .

His stage repertoire also included Cassio in Othello , Hans in the Bartered Bride , Matteo in Arabella (Hamburg 1990), Andrej Chowansky in Chowanschtschina (Hamburg 1994) and Albi in Der Schatzgräber (Hamburg 1989). In 1990 he made a guest appearance at the Leipzig Opera House as Max in Krenek's Jonny plays on . He also appeared as oratorio and Lieder singer, such as regularly in the Church of St. Nikolai in Hamburg, where he mainly as Evangelist in the Christmas Oratorio , the St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion by JS Bach was heard.

In 2000, Kruse suffered a stroke that ended his career. His daughter Svenja Kruse, who he taught, is now a soprano. His son Björn Kruse (* 1968) works successfully as an opera and theater director. Heinz Kruse impressed critics and audience with his beautiful and expressive voice, his clear articulation resulted in a special understanding of words.

literature

• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon 3rd edition. Verlag KG Saur, Munich 1999, Volume 3, pp. 1929f.

Web links

• “Hamburger Kammersänger Heinz Kruse died” , Der Standard online July 31, 2008