Peter Klein (singer)

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Peter Klein (born January 25, 1907 in Zündorf near Cologne , † October 4, 1992 in Vienna ) was a German-Austrian opera singer ( tenor ), tenor buffo and character tenor at the Vienna State Opera and singing teacher .

Life

Peter Klein was born the son of a master brewer and innkeeper. He was a student of Karl Niemann in Cologne. During his apprenticeship he already took on smaller roles at the Reichshallentheater in Cologne, and received his first engagement at the Düsseldorf Opera. Further engagements in Cologne, Kaiserslautern, Berlin, Dresden, Zurich and Hamburg followed. Peter Klein was permanently engaged at the Vienna State Opera from 1942 until his retirement in 1972, of which he became an honorary member in 1982.

Peter Klein worked annually at the Salzburg Festival from 1946 to 1956 and for many years also at the Bregenz Festival and had numerous guest appearances at other opera houses ( Covent Garden , Met , Bolshoi ). Since 1956 he has also devoted himself to the training of young singers and became a professor at the Vienna Conservatory , where he led the opera class for many years. Among his students is Alfred Šramek .

When he came to Savonlinna (Finland) for a summer course , he re-established the Savonlinna Opera Festival there in 1967 , which was originally founded in 1912 by the well-known Finnish soprano Aino Ackté but had not taken place since 1930. In return, Peter Klein was awarded various decorations and decorations , honored by the Finnish President with the Order of the Lion of Finland , Medal Pro Finlandia.

Peter Klein was a member of the legendary Vienna Mozart Ensemble . He was not only known for his vocal versatility and his great clarity of words, he was also a brilliant stage actor, which made him very popular, especially with the Viennese audience.

After leaving the stage, Peter Klein lived in his adopted home Vienna, where he died on October 4, 1992, at the age of 86, until his death, but regularly visited his hometown, to which he also felt very attached, which also resulted in numerous expressed poems written by him in traditional Kölsch .

He received an honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 40, row 1, number 27).

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Central name archive. (pdf, 361 kB) In: Official Gazette of the City of Cologne. July 25, 2018, pp. 304/308 , accessed July 28, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Little, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian opera singer (tenor), character tenor at the Vienna State Opera and singing teacher
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Zündorf near Cologne
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1992
Place of death Vienna