Josef Herrmann (20 April 1903 - 19 November 1955) was a German

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

, notable for his performances in the operas of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

. He was born in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

and made his professional debut at

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...

. He subsequently sang with the opera companies at Stettin (

Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

), Königsberg and Nuremberg before becoming principal baritone in Dresden, where, in the 1940s, he sang roles such as Scarpia in '' Tosca'' and Iago in ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on 5 February 1887. Th ...

'', as well as the German repertory. In 1942, he sang in the première of Heinrich Sutermeister's literaturoper ''Die Zauberinsel'' (based on The Tempest). In 1950, he appeared as The Wanderer and Gunther at

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, Milan, in performances of '' Der Ring des Nibelungen'' conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Herrmann died at Hildesheim at the age of 52.

Selected recordings

*''Der Ring des Nibelungen'': live performances from La Scala conducted by Furtwängler, 1950 (Opera d'Oro) *Lebendige Vergangenheit: Josef Herrmann ( Preiser Records, 1995)

Sources

New Grove Dictionary of Opera ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' is an encyclopedia of opera, considered to be one of the best general reference sources on the subject. It is the largest work on opera in English, and in its printed form, amounts to 5,448 pages in four volu ...

, vol 2, . 1903 births 1955 deaths Musicians from Darmstadt People from the Grand Duchy of Hesse German operatic baritones Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany 20th-century German male opera singers {{Germany-opera-singer-stub