Klaus König (singer)
Klaus König (born May 26, 1934 in Beuthen , Upper Silesia ) is a German opera singer with a tenor voice .
Life
König grew up in Bad Muskau . He initially trained as a painter and varnisher and worked in his father's company. He later opened his own paint shop in Krauschwitz . From 1965 he studied singing at the Dresden Music Academy .
His debut as an opera singer took place in 1970 at the Cottbus Theater with the role of Riccardo in the opera Die vier Brugg by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari . This was followed by an engagement at the Landestheater Dessau from 1973 , where he sang his first roles as a teenage heroic tenor, including Max in Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber and Erik in Der fiegen Holländer . From 1978 to 1982 König was engaged at the Leipzig Opera House , where his voice developed into the difficult heroic tenor field. With the role of Tristan in Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde , he achieved his breakthrough to an international career in Leipzig in 1980. König was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Dresden State Opera since 1982 . In 1985 he sang the role of Max in the opening performance of the rebuilt Semperoper . He also sang the singer in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss . The performances were recorded for television in 1985 and later also released on CD and DVD.
At the Dresden State Opera he also regularly sang the title heroes in the Wagner operas Tannhäuser and the Singer War on Wartburg , Lohengrin and Parsifal , as well as Florestan in Fidelio , Erik in The Flying Dutchman , Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos .
From 1985 to 1992 König also sang regularly at the Vienna State Opera . There he sang a total of 5 different roles, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos , Erik , Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and the title roles in Tannhäuser and Lohengrin .
König had extensive guest contracts at home and abroad. He has made guest appearances at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe (1983–1985 as Tannhäuser and Tristan ), at the Covent Garden Opera in London (1984 debut as Tannhäuser , 1987 as Bacchus ), at La Scala in Milan (debut 1984 as Tannhäuser ), at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (1985 as Tristan ), at the Teatro San Carlos in Lisbon (1986 as Florestan ), at the Cologne Opera (1987 as Tannhäuser ) and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1988 as Florestan ).
In 1988 he performed the title role in Richard Strauss' opera Guntram at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich . In December 1989 he took over the tenor solo in the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven in the now legendary performance in the Berliner Schauspielhaus under the direction of Leonard Bernstein .
In 1988, König made his successful US debut as Tannhäuser in Houston . In 1991 he sang Bacchus at the Seattle Opera House . In 1994 he made his late debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer .
In the 1990s, König gave further guest performances in other European countries: in Amsterdam (1991 as Siegmund ), at the Hamburg State Opera (1992 as Bacchus ) and at the Teatro Bellini in Catania (1994 as Tannhäuser ). In 1998 he sang Mayor in the opera Peace Day by Richard Strauss at the Dresden State Opera .
In addition to his work as an opera singer, König also worked intensively as a concert singer. In particular, he repeatedly interpreted works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler . König performed several times at the Silesian Music Festival in Görlitz . There he sang in Anton Bruckner's Te Deum in 1996 . In 1998 he took over the tenor solo in Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
From 2000, König gradually ended his professional opera career. His last roles were Aegisth in Elektra and Erste Geharrnischte in Die Zauberflöte . In 2002 he was heard again at the Cottbus State Theater together with Theo Adam and other artists from the Semperoper Dresden as part of a charity gala for the victims of the Dresden flood disaster .
König has received several awards for his artistic achievements. In 1985 he was awarded the National Prize of the GDR III. Awarded class for art and literature. He received the title Kammersänger from the Dresden State Opera .
literature
- Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Third, expanded edition. Munich 1999. Volume 43: Hirata – Möwes, pp. 1859/1860. ISBN 3-598-11419-2
Web links
- Works by and about Klaus König in the catalog of the German National Library
- Klaus King in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of roles by Klaus König in: Chronik der Wiener Staatsoper 1945–1995 , Verlag Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna and Munich 1995, p. 458. ISBN 3-7031-0698-0
- ↑ Guntram ( Memento of the original from October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Archive 1988, homepage of the opera singer Kenneth Garrison
- ^ Leonard Bernstein's symbolic Beethoven review on the occasion of the CD release, KlassikAkzente on May 27, 2009
- ↑ Flashback 27th Silesian Music Festival June 14-16, 1996 in Görlitz
- ↑ Flashback 28th Silesian Music Festival June 10-14, 1998 in Görlitz
- ↑ Theater: Benefizgala (PDF; 3.5 MB) in: Blicklicht , Issue 15, December 2002, p. 27
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | King, Klaus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German hero tenor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 26, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bytom |