Olaf Bear

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Olaf Bär (born December 19, 1957 in Dresden ) is a German singer with the baritone voice .

Life

Olaf Bär grew up in a working class family in Dresden. His parents had no artistic ambitions themselves, but were interested in classical music and noticed their son's musical talents early on. So he got his first stage appearance at the age of 3 when his parents replied to a newspaper advertisement from the Landesbühnen Sachsen in Radebeul , in which a boy was wanted for the (silent) role of the child in Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly . Bär played the role 25 times under the direction of Klaus Tennstedt , which further strengthened his interest in classical music. At financial sacrifice, his parents bought him a piano and, at the age of four, he received piano lessons from Hildegard Wehner.

He was able to read and write even before starting school, which meant he was not challenged at school. On the advice of his class teacher at the time, the parents looked for alternatives. In 1967, at the age of 9, he joined the Dresden Kreuzchor , in which he was soon allowed to take on solo roles. Two recordings with music by Mozart ( Die Zauberflöte , 1970) and Schütz ( Historia der Auferstehung Jesu Christi , 1971) document the time as a boy soprano . After his voice broke , Bär switched to the male choir of the Kreuzchor, where he was also used as a soloist.

At the age of 18, Bär left the Kreuzchor and initially did his military service before taking up vocal studies as a lyric baritone with Christian Elßner at the Dresden University of Music "Carl Maria von Weber" in 1978 . In 1981 he made his operatic debut in a university production. In 1982 he won first prize at the International Dvořák Competition in Karlovy Vary and in the same year received the Felix Mendelssohn Scholarship. In 1983 two more first prizes followed: at the singing competition of the opera houses of the GDR and at the International Walther Gruner Lied Competition in London . The London Prize was linked to a recital at Wigmore Hall, with Geoffrey Parsons , member of the competition jury, accompanying him on the piano. This began an artistic partnership that lasted until Parsons' death in 1995.

From 1983 to 1985 Bär belonged to the studio of the Dresden Semperoper , from 1985 to 1991 he was a permanent member of the ensemble. Although he had not received the youth consecration and was not a member of the SED (or any other bloc party ), he was given enough freedom to travel that he was able to build an international career as an opera and concert singer. He made his debut in 1985 at Covent Garden in London , 1986 in Aix-en-Provence , Vienna , Milan and Frankfurt am Main , 1987 in Glyndebourne and 1988 in Chicago, and has worked with renowned conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner , Georg Solti and Neville Marriner . At the end of the 1980s, the Semperoper awarded him the title of chamber singer .

In 1989/90 Bär got into a vocal crisis due to technical vocal errors, which - with professional help - took almost two years to overcome. He has now performed in all major music centers around the world, including Berlin , Munich , Hamburg , Zurich , Amsterdam , Brussels , Dublin , Stockholm , Paris , Rome , Naples , Madrid , Barcelona , Toronto , New York , San Francisco , Washington, DC and Philadelphia . Further tours took him to Australia , New Zealand and Japan . He is a regular guest at international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival , the Wiener Festwochen , the Schubertiade Vorarlberg and the RuhrTriennale . In 2002 he made his debut at the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth . He sang under conductors such as Colin Davis , Christoph von Dohnányi , Bernard Haitink , Nikolaus Harnoncourt , Riccardo Muti , Roger Norrington , Seiji Ozawa , André Previn , Simon Rattle and Franz Welser-Möst .

In 1998 Olaf Bär was awarded the Robert Schumann Prize of the city of Zwickau . Since December 2004 he has been a full professor at the Dresden University of Music and leads the song class. His regular piano accompanists today are Helmut Deutsch , Camillo Radicke and Wolfram Rieger .

Olaf Bär is married to the dancer Carola Tautz-Bär and lives in Dresden.

repertoire

Olaf Bär has emerged as an opera , oratorio and lieder singer . His stage repertoire ranges from the 18th to the 20th century (including roles by Mozart , Weber , Schubert , Verdi , Wagner , Strauss , Humperdinck , Leoncavallo , Puccini , Strauss , Korngold ), with Mozart and Richard Strauss in the foreground (including Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro , Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni , Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte , Papageno and speaker in Die Zauberflöte ; Herr von Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier , Harlequin and music teacher in Ariadne on Naxos , Olivier and Graf in Capriccio ). In the 1980s, Olaf Bär was involved in three opera premieres ( Jan Trieder : Meister Mateh , 1983; Siegfried Matthus : Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke , 1985; Eckehard Mayer : Der goldene Topf , 1989). The role of Schumann in Hans Neuenfels ' "Opera for Piano" Schumann, Schubert and the Snow (premiered in Bochum in 2005 ) was written especially for Olaf Bär.

In the spiritual field, Bär u. a. Works by Fasch , Zelenka , Telemann , JS Bach , Handel , C.Ph.E. Bach , Haydn , Brahms , Fauré , Duruflé and Britten . His song repertoire includes the standard works by Beethoven , Schubert , Schumann , Brahms and Wolf as well as pieces sung less often by composers such as Weber , Marschner , Goetz , Humperdinck and Schoeck . Bär is considered to be one of the most important song interpreters of his generation; his lecture is characterized by a rather soft, lyrical voice and clear text articulation. Bär's artistic role model is Peter Schreier .

Recordings

Representatives of the record company EMI were present at Olaf Bär's first recital in 1983 at Wigmore Hall , and they signed an exclusive contract with him. From 1985 to 1997 - initially in coproduction with the East German VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin - a total of 18 song recordings with the piano accompanists Geoffrey Parsons and (from 1994) Helmut Deutsch , as well as a Mozart aria recital with the conductor Hans Vonk . At the same time, 12 opera and 17 church music recordings were released - mainly by the Philips , Archiv Produktion , Decca and Capriccio labels - with Bär's participation.

Due to falling sales in the classic CD industry (which also affected Bär's last two CDs), his exclusive contract with EMI was terminated in 1998; a planned CD with songs by Schreker and Marx was no longer realized. Since then only four CDs with solo recordings (on the labels Denon , Capriccio , Musicaphon and Glor ) as well as a few opera and church music recordings have been released.

Fonts

  • Robert Schumann's songs from the perspective of the interpreter. In: Irmgard Knechtges-Obrecht (Ed.): Robert Schumann Dedicated. Festschrift of the Robert Schumann Society Düsseldorf on the occasion of its 25th anniversary. Dohr, Cologne 2004. pp. 87ff.

literature

  • James Jolly: word or tone? In: Gramophone . 65, No. 774, November 1987, p. 8.
  • Thomas Voigt: Olaf Bär: whiz kid, audience favorite, self-critic. In: FonoForum . 34, Issue 1, 1989, pp. 22-25.
  • Wilfried Schütze: What no applause covers: Chamber singer Olaf Bär. In: FF included . 44, issue 22, 1989, p. 47.
  • Sabine Näher: Olaf Bär: Migration of Souls. Interview. In: dies .: The Schubert song and its interpreters. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1996, pp. 1-11.
  • Joseph So: Olaf Bär: l'Art du chant / The Art of Song. In: La Scena Musicale. 3, issue 9, 1998, p. 6f.
  • Hilary Finch: Singing around the world. Hilary Finch talks to baritone Olaf Bär about the ups and downs of the singing profession. In: Gramophone . 76, No. 909, December 1998, p. 20.
  • Klaus Kalchschmid: Text and meaning. Interview with Olaf Bär. In: opera world . 44, issue 12, 2003, pp. 36-39.
  • Sabine Näher: Olaf Bär: Let the inside become visible. Interview. In: dies .: Then the song's magic spell is released. Interpreters in conversation about Robert Schumann and the wonderful world of the song. Kamprad, Altenburg 2010. pp. 20–31.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bear, Olaf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baer, ​​Olaf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German singer (baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden