6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Peter Seiffert, Acclaimed Star of Wagner's Operas, Is Dead at 71
Peter Seiffert, a German tenor admired for his clear, powerful renditions of Wagner, died on April 14 at his home in Schleedorf, Austria, near Salzburg. He was 71.
His death was announced by his agent, Hilbert Artists Management, which didn't specify a cause but said that Mr. Seiffert had suffered from a 'severe illness.'
Mr. Seiffert was the archetype 'heldentenor,' or heroic tenor in German, one of the rarest and most sought-after types of voices in opera. The leading roles in much of Wagner's work — Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, Tristan, Parsifal — demand big tenor voices of exceptional strength and stamina, able to withstand the most extreme vocal demands over hourslong performances.
Wagner himself wanted a tenor that was the opposite of what he had been hearing in the Italian opera of his day, which he considered 'unmanly, soft and completely lacking in energy,' he wrote in an essay on the performing of the opera 'Tannhäuser.'
Mr. Seiffert had the sort of voice that Wagner sought, in the view of critics: It projected strength. Over the nearly five hours of 'Tannhäuser,' his voice rang out clear and true, from the bottom of his range to the top. The effort was intense.
'You don't become the knight of the High C just for fun and games,' he told the online magazine Backstage Classical in 1996.
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