he German tenor Peter Seiffert, one of the foremost Wagnerian voices of his generation, has died at the age of 71.
Born in Düsseldorf in 1954, Seiffert studied at the Musikhochschule Düsseldorf and made his professional debut in 1978 at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. He initially made a name for himself as a Mozart and German lyric tenor, performing roles such as Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Max (Der Freischütz), and Fenton (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor).
His international breakthrough came in 1990 with a widely praised performance of Lohengrin at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a role that would become one of his trademarks. His Bayreuth Festival debut followed in 1996 as Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, a role he reprised there in subsequent seasons. Between 1996 and 2005, he returned to Bayreuth regularly, also performing Lohengrin.
Seiffert gradually expanded his repertoire to include more dramatic and demanding roles, often praised for his musical sensitivity and phrasing. In the Wagnerian canon, he sang Parsifal, Siegmund (Die Walküre), Tristan (Tristan und Isolde), and Tannhäuser—a performance that earned him a Grammy Award in 2003, under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. He also sang Florestan (Fidelio), Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos), and the Emperor in Die Frau ohne Schatten.
Among his notable recordings are:
- Wagner’s Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Die Meistersinger (with Daniel Barenboim)
- Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (with Simon Rattle)
- Strauss’s Arabella and Die Frau ohne Schatten
- Beethoven’s Fidelio (with Nikolaus Harnoncourt)
- Weber’s Der Freischütz (with Harnoncourt)
- Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 (with Riccardo Chailly)
In 1986, Seiffert married Slovak soprano Lucia Popp, with whom he was together until her death in 1993. He later married German soprano Petra-Maria Schnitzer, with whom he often shared the stage.
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