Róbert Ilosfalvy

Róbert Ilosfalvy [ ˈroːbɛrt ˈiloʃfɒlvi ] (born June 18, 1927 in Hódmezővásárhely ; † January 6, 2009 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian opera singer ( tenor ). He is considered one of the most important Hungarian singers.

Life

Róbert Ilosfalvy's vocal talent was discovered during his school days in the church choir and in the middle school choir. During his military service he sang individual solos in the choir of the Hungarian People's Army. From 1949 to 1953 he studied singing in Budapest with Imre Molnár, Györgyné Jászó ( Margit Clauser , 1887–1963) and Andor Lendvai (1901–1964).

In 1954 he made his debut in Budapest as Laszló Hunyadi in Ferenc Erkel's eponymous National Opera after the aria Stolzing from the year before Wagner's Die Meistersinger ( "bright morning ...") and the aria "Home, home" from Erkel's opera bán Bánk a international singing competition in Bucharest .

In the following years Ilosfalvy could be heard in the operas of Ferenc Erkel, but also as Tamino in Mozart's Magic Flute , Stolzing in Wagner's Meistersingern , Herzog in Verdi's Rigoletto , Manrico in the Troubadour , Alvaro in Macht des Schicksals and Alfredo in La traviata and even as To hear Otello , although his voice was not suitable for this heroic tenor role . Don José in Bizet's Carmen and the big roles from Puccini's operas were tailor-made for him - especially Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut , Rodolfo in La Bohème , Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and Johnson in Das Mädchen aus dem Goldenen West . In 1958 he took an excursion into the modern age and sang in a production by Oedipus Rex ( Igor Stravinsky ). Ilosfalvy was also successful in classical operettas and as an oratorio singer , not least in Haydn's Creation and Verdi's Messa da Requiem .

One of the high points of his work in Budapest was the performance of Puccini's La Bohème with Erzsébet Házy as Mimi, György Melis as Marcello and Róbert Ilosfalvy as Rodolfo (1957). The conductor was Lamberto Gardelli (1915–1998). The production was also the basis for a vinyl recording of the entire opera in Hungarian.

After an acclaimed production by Manon Lescaut in 1961, Ilosfalvy received his first invitations to guest performances abroad (Amsterdam, Genoa, Moscow, Vienna), where he a. a. performed at the side of Galina Vishnevskaya , Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau . The young Hungarian conductor István Kertész , who was leading the London Symphony Orchestra at the time , invited him to New York's Carnegie Hall to sing the tenor part in Zoltán Kodály's Psalmus Hungaricus . This seemed to be the international breakthrough for Ilosfalvy. In the trade press he was even treated as the potential successor to Jussi Björling , who died in 1960 , and whose voice certainly showed certain similarities. On the international opera stage, he succeeded famous Hungarian tenors such as Kálmán Pataky , József Simándy (1916–1997) and Sándor Kónya .

Ilosfalvy was one of the most popular artistic personalities in Hungary. In 1962 he received the Liszt Prize, the highest honor for musicians, and two years later he was awarded the Kossuth Prize , the most important national cultural prize in Hungary.

István Kertész brought the singer to the Cologne Opera House , where he had taken on the position of chief conductor. Ilosfalvy made his debut there in 1966 as Des Grieux. For the performance he had to rehearse the role in German. The success was overwhelming, and so the Hungarian stayed with the Cologne Opera until 1982. There he was heard in the most important Verdi and Puccini roles - with the exception of Otello and Kalaf ( Turandot ). He celebrated his greatest success in 1971 in an internationally acclaimed production of Puccini's The Girl from the Golden West .

In addition to his permanent engagement, he has made guest appearances abroad, for example in Amsterdam, Munich, Vienna, London, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Apparently he was never signed to the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

After his return to Hungary in 1982 he was again a member of the Budapest State Opera, of which he was a lifelong honorary member since 1992.

Ilosfalvy is considered the most important Hungarian opera tenor since Kálmán (Koloman v.) Pataky (1896–1964). His voice was extraordinarily beautiful in sound, which made him the ideal Puccini tenor, while he remained rather pale in the dramatic roles of the Verdi operas.

Web links

• Róbert Ilosfalvy at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon
• Short German biography with photos
• List of Ilosfalvy's roles and discography
• Works by and about Róbert Ilosfalvy in the catalog of the German National Library
• Tamino Classical Forum