Fritz Wunderlich

All Music Guide:

Friedrich Karl Otto Wunderlich was born in Kusel, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, on September 26, 1930 to a musical family; his father was a conductor and his mother was a violinist. He directed his own dance band to earn money to support his vocal studies at the Freiburg Musikhochschule. He appeared in a student production of "Die Zauberflöte" by Mozart in the leading role of Tamino in 1954 and was hired by the Stuttgart Opera in 1955. He sang some smaller parts, then as his first leading part again sang Tamino. He remained with Stuttgart until he was hired by the Frankfurt Opera company, staying there from 1958 to 1960. He first appeared in the Salzburg Festival in 1959, where he sang the part of Henry in Richard Strauss's "Die schweigsame Frau." He became a member of the Munich Opera in 1960, and from 1962 also was a regular at the Vienna State Opera.

He quickly earned a reputation as a great lyric tenor, perhaps the leading German lyric tenor in the middle part of the twentieth century. He had a clear, strong, tenor voice, which he used in a pleasingly unaffected manner, with a nice attention to style. While he became internationally famous in his Mozart parts, he also expanded to the lyrical Verdian repertory, such as Alfredo in "La Traviata," and similar parts such as Lensky in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin." He was adventurous in his repertory, playing the role of Tiresias in the first performance of Carl Orff's "Oedipus der Tyrann" in Stuttgart in 1959, and sang the part of Christoph in Werner Egk's "Die Verlobung in San Domingo" in Munich in 1962. He contemplated expanding further, into the lyrical Wagnerian roles. This was not to be, as he died in an accident at his home in Heidelberg on September 17, 1966. His last appearance was as Tamino when the Stuttgart Opera visited the Edinburgh Festival earlier that summer.

Wikipedia:

Friedrich "Fritz" Karl Otto Wunderlich (September 26, 1930 – September 17, 1966) was a German lyric tenor, famed for his singing of the Mozart repertory and Italian and German opera and lieder. He died in an accident when he was only 35. In a survey published in the BBC Music Magazine of April 2008, Wunderlich was voted the fourth greatest tenor of all time.

Biography

Fritz Wunderlich was born in Kusel in the Palatinate. His mother was a violinist and his father was a choir-master. For a short time, the family kept the inn "Emrichs Bräustübl". Fritz's father lost his job due to pressure imposed upon him by local Nazis, in addition to suffering from a severe battlefield injury. He committed suicide when Fritz was five years old.

The story regarding Wunderlich's discovery parallels many of his contemporaries (notably Nicolai Gedda and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau). As a young man Wunderlich worked in a bakery. At the insistence of neighbors and passers-by who had witnessed his musical gifts and beautiful voice, Wunderlich decided to begin studies in music. He managed to obtain a scholarship in order to pursue his studies at the Freiburg Music Academy where he studied French horn and voice.

Wunderlich was soon noted as a brilliant young tenor, especially in Mozartian roles, but he later expanded his reach to the full range of the lyric tenor repertoire.

He occasionally sang minor Wagner roles such as the Steuermann in The Flying Dutchman, Walther von der Vogelweide in Tannhäuser, and the Hirt in Tristan und Isolde.

Recordings

It was the fashion during Wunderlich's career for German theaters to perform operas in the local rather than original language. Therefore, most of his recordings of the standard operatic repertoire are sung in German, including Verdi's Rigoletto and Don Carlos. (He sang his recording of the Verdi Requiem in distinctly Germanic Latin.) Wunderlich achieved the highest distinction within the German repertory. Of special importance is a recording of Mozart's The Magic Flute, conducted by Karl Böhm, in which Wunderlich gave a critically acclaimed performance as Prince Tamino, opposite baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the role of Papageno.

Wunderlich's crystal-clear voice and intelligent, restrained interpretation also led him to impressive renditions of the Lieder cycles of Schubert and Schumann with pianist Hubert Giesen. His famous recording of Schumann's Dichterliebe remains a gold standard of this genre. Many tenors since have emulated Wunderlich's interpretation of this cycle.

Another notable recording he left is J. S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio, with fellow singers Gundula Janowitz, Christa Ludwig, and Franz Crass, conducted by Karl Richter. Also astonishing is an album of pre-Bach sacred songs, featuring music of Schütz, Telemann, Buxtehude, and other less well-known composers.

At the time of his death, he had been recording Haydn's The Creation, with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Wiener Singverein under Herbert von Karajan, the other soloists being Christa Ludwig, Gundula Janowitz, Walter Berry and Fischer-Dieskau. Wunderlich had completed recording his arias, but Werner Krenn was hired to record the recitatives. Several recorded live performances of Wunderlich singing the whole part, under Karajan, survive.

Available videos include a full-length performance (in German) as Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, and a recital of operatic arias.

Accidental death

Wunderlich's promising career was cut short by an accident while he was on a hunting vacation (his hobbies included hunting, guns, and fast cars). He fell from a stairway in a friend's country house in Oberderdingen near Maulbronn, and died in the University Clinic of Heidelberg just days before his 36th birthday. He is buried in Munich's Waldfriedhof cemetery.