Walter Berry

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Walter Berry (born April 8, 1929 in Vienna ; † October 27, 2000 there ) was an Austrian opera singer ( bass baritone ).

Life

Berry took piano lessons at an early age and was a soloist in church choirs as a child. From 1946 he studied with Hermann Gallos at the music academy in his hometown and in 1949 joined the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera , where he initially proved himself in small roles. He also made his first radio recordings.

In 1952 he sang Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute for the first time , which at that time was actually still firmly in the hands of Erich Kunz , whose successor in Vienna he was to become in the years to come. From 1953 he appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival , initially in smaller roles.

He became internationally known when he took over the title role in Alban Berg's Wozzeck in 1955 as part of the reopening of the Vienna State Opera .

From 1957 Berry began to appear internationally at all major opera houses in Europe. From 1960 he appeared - in addition to his never-ending connection with the Vienna State Opera (in which he played no fewer than 77 roles) - regularly at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the National Theater in Munich , and from 1966 at the New York Met . As a song interpreter, Berry emerged together with the pianist Sebastian Peschko and above all with Erik Werba .

In the 1960s in particular, he was regarded as the world's leading singer, particularly of the comic bass-baritone roles in Mozart's operas, especially Papageno, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro , Leporello in Don Giovanni . In addition, Berry mainly sang roles by Wagner (e.g. Kurwenal in Tristan and Isolde and Wotan in the Ring of the Nibelung ) and Richard Strauss ( Ochs in Rosenkavalier , Barak in Frau ohne Schatten , La Roche in Capriccio ), the Don Pizarro in Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio and again and again modern roles such as Wozzeck or the baritone part in Béla Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (in Hungarian). But the great singer failed because of a dream role, namely Hans Sachs ( Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg ), which he was supposed to sing at the Bayreuth Festival, but had to give up the role after the last rehearsals.

Grave in the Heiligenstadt cemetery

In total, he sang over 120 roles during his long career. In addition to operas, he also appeared in oratorios and gave recitals , mainly with works by Franz Schubert and Gustav Mahler .

In addition to his reliability and ability to express himself, Berry was especially famous for his humor, and feared among colleagues - at Berry you never knew which prank he was planning.

In addition to his solo activities, he also worked as a teacher, since 1990 he has held a professorship at the University of Music in Vienna. His students include Angelika Kirchschlager , Adrian Eröd , Hans Peter Kammerer , Lars Woldt , Markus Werba and Petra-Maria Schnitzer .

Since 1957 he was married to the internationally known mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig . Son Wolfgang was born in 1959 and the couple divorced in 1970. Berry was then married twice, most recently to his student, the soprano Elisabeth Flechl . Berry was appointed chamber singer in 1963 and received numerous awards.

In 1998 Berry appeared in an episode of the crime series Tatort .

The internationally renowned chamber singer succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 71 in his Vienna apartment, where he lived with his third wife.

He was buried in the Heiligenstädter Friedhof (Part A, Group 1, Number 263) in Vienna in an honorary grave . In 2007 the Walter-Berry-Weg in Vienna- Döbling (19th district) was named after him.

Awards

Discography (selection)

literature

  • Paul Lorenz: Christa Ludwig, Walter Berry. Bergland, Vienna 1968
  • Elisabeth Birnbaum: Walter Berry. The biography With a greeting from Marcel Prawy and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Berlin: Henschel, 2001. - ISBN 3-89487-379-5
  • Not only tenors: Verlag Jugend und Volk Wien - Munich, 1986 - ISBN 3-224-16910-9

Web links

Commons : Walter Berry  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Inscription Deutschordenshof, passage: Walter Berry 1969 (accessed June 10, 2014)
personal data
SURNAME Berry, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer (bass baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 2000
Place of death Vienna