Ernst Friedrich Diez or Dietz (17 March 1805 – December 1892) was a German lyric tenor who sang leading roles in the opera houses of Germany and Austria. He is most closely associated with the Munich Hofoper (now known as the Bavarian State Opera) where he was a member of the company from 1837 to 1849.

Life and career

Diez was born in

Waldkirch Waldkirch is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located 15 kilometers northeast of Freiburg im Breisgau. While the English translation of its name is ''Forest Church'', it is known as the "town of mechanical organs", where fairground organs ...

in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

region of Germany and trained as a singer in Vienna with

Conradin Kreutzer Conradin Kreutzer or Kreuzer (22 November 1780 – 14 December 1849) was a German composer and conductor. His works include the operas ''Das Nachtlager in Granada'' and incidental music to ''Der Verschwender'', both produced in 1834 in Vienna. ...

. He began his career in Pressburg in 1826, moving to the

Teatro Grande The Teatro Grande is the main performance venue for the city of Brescia, Italy. The venue hosts performances of operas, musicals, plays, concerts, ballet, modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance whic ...

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in 1828. From 1830 he sang in Berlin and Mannheim before becoming a permanent member of the Munich Hofoper in 1837, although he continued to appear occasionally as guest singer in Vienna in both opera and

lieder In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French sp ...

. In Munich he sang in the world premieres of two operas by

Franz Paul Lachner Franz Paul Lachner (2 April 1803 – 20 January 1890) was a German composer and conductor. Biography Lachner was born in Rain am Lech to a musical family (his brothers Ignaz, Theodor and Vinzenz also became musicians). He studied music with ...

—''Alidia'' (1839) and ''Catharina Cornaro, Königin von Cypern'' (1841).Österreichisches Musiklexiko
"Diez, Ernst Friedrich"
Retrieved 23 June 2014 .Eisenberg, Ludwig (1903)
''Großes biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Bühne im 19. Jahrhundert''
pp. 200–201. P. List He married the young soprano Sophie Hartmann in 1841. They appeared together in several productions at the Hofoper, including the Munich premiere of Lortzing's ''

Zar und Zimmermann ''Zar und Zimmermann'' (''Tsar and Carpenter'') is a comic opera in three acts, music by Albert Lortzing, libretto by the composer after Georg Christian Römer's ''Der Bürgermeister von Saardam, oder Die zwei Peter'', itself based on the French pl ...

''—she as Marie and he as the Marquis de Chateauneuf. After his retirement from the stage in 1848, he dedicated himself to teaching young singers. Sophie Diez died in 1887 after a 40-year career at the Hofoper. Ernst Friedrich survived her by five years, dying in Munich at the age of 87. He is buried with his wife in the

Alter Südfriedhof The Alter Südfriedhof (''Old South Cemetery'') also known as "Alter Südlicher Friedhof" is a cemetery in Munich, Germany. It was founded by Duke Albrecht V as a plague cemetery in 1563 about half a kilometer south of the Sendlinger Ga ...

cemetery in Munich.Friedhöfe in München
Grab - Friedrich Diez (Grave - Friedrich Diez)
Retrieved 23 June 2014 .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diez, Ernst Friedrich German operatic tenors 1805 births 1892 deaths 19th-century German male opera singers