Walter Hesse (singer)
Walter Hesse (born January 7, 1921 in Döllensradung ; † April 26, 1997 in Zurich ) was an opera singer (tenor).
career
Walter Hesse trained himself to be a singer largely self-taught . He began his career in 1949/50 as a bass baritone at the Landestheater Innsbruck as a bass baritone, but his voice soon changed. After a short additional study, he switched to the tenor subject .
Hesse's baritone-tinged, but nevertheless safe, voice was able to convince in a wide variety of roles. Unstable and torn characters who suffered in themselves and in society were particularly appealing to him.
Other early stages in his career:
- 1950–55 State Theater on Gärtnerplatz in Munich
- 1955–57 Munster Municipal Theaters
- 1957–63 City Theater Zurich
- 1963/64 permanent guest at the Stadttheater Bern
- 1965–67 director and singer at the Städtebundtheater Hof
After a serious accident, Walter Hesse worked as a lathe operator in a Zurich rubber factory before he found a job again at the Zurich Opera House (formerly Stadttheater) from 1969–1985 - now mainly as a character tenor.
Walter Hesse married Margarete Hesse at a young age, with whom he had two children. After seven years, the couple separated.
roll
Zurich successes as:
- Florestan in Beethoven's Fidelio
- Don José in Bizet's Carmen
- Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
- Hoffmann in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann
- Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème
- Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca
- the title role in Heinrich Sutermeister's Raskolnikow
- the Verdi roles Don Carlo in Don Carlo , Alvaro in La forza del destino and Manrico in Il Trovatore
- Erik in Richard Wagner's The Flying Dutchman
- Max in Weber's Der Freischütz
From 1969, Walter Hesse was able to prove that he also had a comic talent:
- as Uncle Gustav in Paul Burkhard's Das Feuerwerk
- Crunchy witch in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel
- Colonel Ollendorf in Millöckers The beggar student
- Nasoni in Millöckers Gasparone
- Frick or Domino in Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne and Les Brigands
- Don Eugenio de Zuniga in Hugo Wolf's The Corregidor
In the world premiere of Rudolf Kelterborn's An Angel Comes to Babylon in 1977 he sang the great general (director: Götz Friedrich, musical director: Ferdinand Leitner).
He was a guest at the Stadttheater Bern
- 1963/64 as Don José
- Canio in Ruggero Leoncavallos I pagliacci and
- Judge Danforth in the Swiss premiere of Robert Ward's The Crucible (director: Walter Oberer, musical director: Max Sturzenegger).
Further guest engagements at the Stadttheater St. Gallen (1962/63 Prinz in Dvořák's Rusalka and Manrico) as well as in Bremen, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Cologne, the Salzburg State Theater and in Vienna.
literature
- Paul Suter : Walter Hesse . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 836 f.
Web links
- Walter Hesse at Operissimo on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon
- Walter Hesse in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Hesse, Walter |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Opera singer (tenor) |
DATE OF BIRTH | January 7, 1921 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Döllensradung |
DATE OF DEATH | April 26, 1997 |
Place of death | Zurich |