Peter Hofmann (singer)

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Peter Hofmann (born August 22, 1944 in Marienbad , Sudetenland ; † November 29, 2010 in Selb , Fichtelgebirge ) was a German opera singer ( tenor ) who was also known as a rock musician .

Life

Peter Hofmann grew up in Darmstadt and started with 16 years as a singer and guitarist in various rock and roll - bands . As a student at the Ludwig-Realgymnasium (today Lichtenbergschule ) he did competitive sports and was among other things the Hessian youth champion in pole vault and decathlon .

As a regular soldier he served with the paratrooper troops in Lebach and Bergzabern and was most recently a staff sergeant . During this time he began taking singing lessons with Emmy Seiberlich in Karlsruhe. After leaving the German Armed Forces, he began studying at the Karlsruhe University of Music in 1969 .

He made his operatic debut in 1972 at the Lübeck Theater as Tamino in Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte . From the 1974/1975 season onwards, Hofmann was engaged at the Wuppertal Opera House for two seasons until the summer of 1976 . In 1975 he made a guest appearance with the role of Lodge in Das Rheingold at the Dortmund Opera House . In 1976 he sang the role of Siegmund in Richard Wagner's Die Walküre for the first time in Wuppertal . In this role he also made guest appearances at the Stuttgart State Opera and the Hamburg State Opera in early 1976 , before his final breakthrough as an opera singer in the summer of 1976 with Siegmund at the Bayreuth Festival in the Jahrhundertring under the musical direction of Pierre Boulez . In 1976 Hofmann received a five-year contract at the Stuttgart State Theater , where he was a permanent member of the ensemble. He performed there regularly until 1983.

Afterwards Hofmann mainly took on Wagner roles at the most important opera houses in the world such as the Opéra Garnier (Paris) and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He sang the title roles in Tristan und Isolde , Lohengrin , Parsifal and Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - roles in which he stood out not only because of his powerful singing, but also because of his gigantic appearance with unusually long blond curls for an opera singer.

In July / August 1989 Hofmann had his last appearances at the Bayreuth Festival with Siegmund. Hofmann continued to perform as an opera singer until 1992 in Wagner roles. In 1992 he sang the title role again in Wagner's Parsifal stage festival at the Nationaltheater Mannheim .

At the same time, Hofmann continued to devote himself to rock music and successfully released several records on which he interpreted well-known rock and pop ballads . This excursion into popular music was rewarded with four gold and two platinum records . The first album Rock Classics received double platinum after a short time. The albums Unsre Zeit , Peter Hofmann 2 , Monuments and Rock Classics Vol. 2 were awarded gold in Germany. The latter album was also awarded gold in Austria. In the period that followed, Hofmann was active in both opera and light music and at times presented himself as a rocker in leather clothing and heavy motorcycles . He never wanted to be an opera singer in the traditional sense.

From 1990 he played the title role in three hundred performances of The Phantom of the Opera , with which the newly built Theater Neue Flora in Hamburg began operations. Peter Hofmann received awards such as various Bambis up to a Grammy .

In 1997 Hofmann was seen alongside Gojko Mitić at the Karl May Games in Bad Segeberg as Old Firehand in Winnetou and Old Firehand .

In 2003 the biography Peter Hofmann - Singing out of passion was published . In October 2012 the book of his brother Fritz Hofmann Peter Hofmann was published - Stories from an eventful life as a singer .

From his first marriage he had two sons, his second marriage to the opera singer Deborah Sasson was concluded in 1983 at the Kemnath registry office and lasted until 1990. Hofmann lived for many years at Schönreuth Palace in Upper Palatinate , then for a few years in the former schoolhouse in Friedersreuth near Pressath and then withdrew for several years until his death with his third wife Sabine (née Zimmerer) and their daughter Laura, born in 2003, in the district of Wunsiedel in the Fichtelgebirge .

In 1994 Hofmann discovered the first signs of Parkinson's disease , but was initially able to control the effects with the help of medication and continue to perform as a singer. He publicly announced his illness in 1999 and stopped performing after his Christmas tour in 2000. In the advanced stages of the disease he could hardly speak, no longer eat independently and was dependent on a wheelchair. For years he supported Parkinson's research with his Peter Hofmann Parkinson research project.

On the night of November 30, 2010, Hofmann died in a clinic to which he had been admitted a few days earlier with suspected pneumonia .

A memorial room is dedicated to him in the Kemnath City Library. Numerous photos will be shown, a painting showing him as Siegmund in Bayreuth, the first of his many gold records and a DVD documentation. A bronze bust takes the central place in the room.

On March 16, 2018, on the initiative of his brother Fritz, a memorial plaque was inaugurated at the house where Peter Hofmann was born in Marienbad.

Others

Since his military service as a paratrooper in Merzig , Hofmann cultivated a close friendship with the wolf researcher Werner Freund , who was his military instructor. Hofmann was the godfather of the wolf Peter in the wolf park in Merzig.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH
1982 Rock Classics DE1 (60 weeks)
DE 		AT1 (30 weeks)
AT 		-
First published: October 1982
1984 Peter Hofmann 2 Ivory Man DE2 (30 weeks)
DE 		AT7 (8 weeks)
AT 		CH20 (8 weeks)
CH
First published: March 1984
1985 Our time DE13 (11 weeks)
DE 		AT9 (6 weeks)
AT 		-
First published: November 1985
1987 Rock Classics 2 DE15 (15 weeks)
DE 		AT12 (10 weeks)
AT 		-
First published: October 1987
1988 Monuments DE17 (8 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: December 1988
1992 Love Me Tender - Peter Hofmann sings Elvis DE13 (16 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: April 1992
1994 Country Roads DE45 (7 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: September 1994
1996 Rock Classics - Love Songs DE51 (10 weeks)
DE 		- -
First published: December 1996

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More publishments:

  • 1986: Live '86
  • 1990: Wild and lonely heart
  • 1998: Rock Classics: Your Songs

Classic

musical

  • 1990: Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Phantom of the Opera - Highlights of the Hamburg performance (Ensemble der Neue Flora Hamburg with Anna Maria Kaufmann)

Christmas

  • 1989: Peter Hofmann (and the London Symphony Orchestra) Silent Night (Andrew Pryce Jackman)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ munzinger.de Nekrolog on www.munzinger.de
  2. ↑ A Lohengrin, the rock star was an obituary in: Mannheimer Morgen from December 1, 2010
  3. ↑ Awards: DE AT
  4. ↑ After Parkinson's disease; Heldentenor Peter Hofmann died In: Spiegel Online from November 30, 2010
  5. ^ "Tenor Peter Hofmann marked by serious illness" ( Memento of July 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Augsburger Allgemeine , June 4, 2008
  6. ↑ Star tenor Peter Hofmann is dead www.t-online.de, November 30, 2010
  7. ↑ Commemorative plaque inaugurated at the birthplace of Peter Hofmann - successful completion of a joint project . Private website about Mariánské Lázně / Marienbad. Post dated March 18, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  8. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Marienbad
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 2010
Place of death Same