Gunther Emmerlich (born 18 September 1944) is a German opera singer (

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

) and show presenter. He is also committed and proficient as a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

performer and as a player of the

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

Life

Gunther Emmerlich was born during the final year of the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, from which his father never returned, in Eisenberg, a small town between

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. His mother died at the age of just 49 when he was eleven. In medical terms, the cause of her death was

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

, although Emmerlich believes that an underlying cause was continuing grief, following the death of her husband. He was spared the orphanage thanks to his elder brother and sister, with whom he remained following his mother's death. After successful completion of his school career he moved on to study civil engineering (demolition) at

. On ending this training he switched to music, between 1967 and 1972 studying to be an opera singer at the

Franz Liszt Academy The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

. Between 1972 and 1992 he was a permanent member of the Dresden State Opera Company. A particular showpiece role was that of Osmin in

Seraglio A seraglio, serail, seray or saray (from fa, سرای, sarāy, palace, via Turkish and Italian) is a castle, palace or government building which was considered to have particular administrative importance in various parts of the former Ott ...

. He starred in a celebrated performance at

Axion Esti An axion () is a hypothetical elementary particle postulated by the Peccei–Quinn theory in 1977 to resolve the strong CP problem in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). If axions exist and have low mass within a specific range, they are of interes ...

, conducted by the composer,

Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( el, Μιχαήλ "Μίκης" Θεοδωράκης ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He Film score, scored for the films ''Zorba the Greek (film) ...

. Other favourite roles included Falstaff in

The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

, Sarastro in

Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...

, Milkman Tevye in

Fiddler on the Roof ''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on ''Tevye and his Daughters'' (or ''Tevye the ...

, Eliza's father in

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...

and Sallah Shabati in the musical of the same name by

Ephraim Kishon Ephraim Kishon (: August 23, 1924 – January 29, 2005) was a Hungarian-born Israeli author, dramatist, screenwriter, and Academy Award, Oscar-nominated film director. He was one of the most widely read contemporary satire, satirists in Israel, ...

. During the 1980s in the German Democratic Republic Emmerlich embarked on a parallel career as a

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

presenter. Between 1987 and 1990 he hosted the television cabaret show Showkolade. Following

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governmen ...

, for many years Emmerlich was the presenter of Zauberhafte Heimat (''"Homeland charms"''), a popular show transmitted from

, featuring popular music. This and other regular appearances have made him a firm favourite with television audiences across both sides of the pre-1990 internal border. Since 2004 he has hosted the Folk Music Prizes gala (''"Krone der Volksmusik"''). From its revival in 2006 till 2015, Emmerlich hosted the Dresden Opera Ball. He is a member of the "Semper House Band" which takes most of its members from the orchestra of the

Dresden State Opera The Semperoper () is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper Ballett. The building is located on the Th ...

, and is dedicated to performing

Personal

He is married to the actress Anne-Kathrein Emmerlich (born Anne-Kathrein Kretschmar): the marriage has produced two recorded children. It was reported in 2014 that the two had separated. Gunther Emmerlich also has a son from an earlier relationship.

Awards and honours

* 1990

Bambi Award The Bambi, often called the Bambi Award and stylised as BAMBI, is a German award presented annually by Hubert Burda Media to recognize excellence in international media and television to personalities in the media, arts, culture, sports, and ot ...

* 1997

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emmerich, Gunther People from Stadtroda Musicians from Thuringia German operatic basses East German musicians 20th-century German musicians German television presenters Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1944 births Living people 20th-century German male musicians