- Friedrich Schorr
Friedrich Schorr (
September 2 ,1888 ,Oradea ("Nagyvarad" at the time) -August 14 ,1953 ,Farmington, New York ) was anAustria n-Hungarianbass-baritone opera singer ofJew ish origin. He later became a naturalized American.The son of a
hazzan who reportedly had a beautiful voice himself, Schorr studied inBrno andVienna . He made his stage debut inGraz (1912-1916). Afterwards he worked inPrague (1916-1918),Cologne (1918-1923),Berlin ("State Opera Unter den Linden", 1923-1931). He had guest appearances at Covent Garden (1924-1931),Metropolitan Opera (1924-1943) and the WagnerianBayreuth Festival (1925-1933). After the rise to power ofNazism in 1933, Schorr emigrated to theUnited States where he lived inNew York City and worked at the "Met" (until 1943) and later as director and concert singer (together withLotte Lehmann ,Lauritz Melchior ,Kirsten Flagstad andHelen Traubel ).Schorr is recognized as the greatest Wagnerian bass-baritone of his generation, arguably of the 20th century, and was famous for his portrayals of Wotan in
Der Ring des Nibelungen and Hans Sachs inDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg . He made a number of recordings both in Europe and America. These recordings (although some of them were produced after he reached his artistic zenith) demonstrate Schorr's clear articulation, his excellent breathing technique and his great emotional expressiveness.External links
* [http://www.cantabile-subito.de/Bass-Baritones/Schorr__Friedrich/hauptteil_schorr__friedrich.html Biography and photographs]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.