Kurt Moll (11 April 19385 March 2017)
was a German operatic
bass singer who enjoyed an international career and was widely recorded.
His voice was notable for its range, a true
basso profondo
Basso profondo (Italian: "deep bass"), sometimes basso profundo, contrabass or oktavist, is the lowest bass voice type.
While ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' defines a typical bass as having a range that is limited to the second E below ...
, including full, resonant low and very-low notes with relaxed vibrato; also for its unusual combination of extreme volume-capacity and a purring, contrabassoon-like timbre.
Although he had a powerful voice and stamina adequate for the most demanding parts, he was not a thunderer, and never performed as Wagner's vocally athletic, bellowing bassos
Hagen
Hagen () is the Largest cities in Germany, 41st-largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany. The municipality is located in the States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the R ...
,
Hans Sachs
Hans Sachs (5 November 1494 – 19 January 1576) was a German ''Meistersinger'' ("mastersinger"), poet, playwright, and shoemaker.
Biography
Hans Sachs was born in Nuremberg (). As a child he attended a singing school that was held in the churc ...
, nor
Wotan
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the ''Nibelun ...
. His interpretations tended to be restrained and intelligent, even in comedic roles like Osmin in Mozart's ''
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
' () ( K. 384; ''The Abduction from the Seraglio''; also known as ') is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's ''Belmont und Constanze, oder Die ...
'' and Baron Ochs in ''
Der Rosenkavalier
(''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...
''.
Career
Moll was born in
Buir, near
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
, Germany.
As a child, he played the cello and hoped to become a great cellist. (He also had ambitions to be an industrialist/businessman.) He sang in the school choir whose conductor encouraged him to concentrate on singing. He studied voice at the
Musikhochschule Köln
A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...
. He joined the
Cologne Opera
The Cologne Opera (German: Oper der Stadt Köln or Oper Köln) refers both to the main opera house in Cologne, Germany and to its resident opera company. History of the company
From the mid 18th century, opera was performed in the city's court th ...
at age 20 and remained a member of the ensemble until 1961. He then sang for three years at the
Mainz Opera and five years at the
Wuppertal Opera
Opernhaus Wuppertal (Wuppertal Opera House) is a German theatre in Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. It houses mostly performances of operas, but also plays, run by the municipal Wuppertaler Bühnen. The house is also the venue for dance perfo ...
. In 1969, he accepted an engagement with the
Hamburg State Opera
The Hamburg State Opera (in German: Staatsoper Hamburg) is a German opera company based in Hamburg. Its theatre is near the square of Gänsemarkt. Since 2015, the current ''Intendant'' of the company is Georges Delnon, and the current ''General ...
, and then performed in major opera houses of Europe.
He made his
Bayreuth Festival
The Bayreuth Festival (german: link=no, Bayreuther Festspiele) is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of operas by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived ...
debut in 1968 as the nightwatchman in ''
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
(; "The Master-Singers of Nuremberg"), WWV 96, is a music drama, or opera, in three acts, by Richard Wagner. It is the longest opera commonly performed, taking nearly four and a half hours, not counting two breaks between acts, and is traditio ...
'', and sang there for several years as Fafner in ''
Der Ring des Nibelungen
(''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibe ...
'', Marke in ''
Tristan und Isolde
''Tristan und Isolde'' (''Tristan and Isolde''), WWV 90, is an opera in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg. It was compose ...
'' and Pogner in ''Die Meistersinger''.
He made his American debut with the
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California.
History
Gaetano Merola (1923–1953)
Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when h ...
as Gurnemanz in Wagner's ''
Parsifal
''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival'' ...
'' in 1974, a role he reprised with the company in 2000. He made his debut at the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...
on the opening night of the 1977–78 season, appearing as the
Landgrave
Landgrave (german: Landgraf, nl, landgraaf, sv, lantgreve, french: landgrave; la, comes magnus, ', ', ', ', ') was a noble title used in the Holy Roman Empire, and later on in its former territories. The German titles of ', ' ("margrave"), a ...
in Wagner's ''
Tannhäuser
Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and ...
''. He also sang there as Rocco in Beethoven's ''
Fidelio
''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Op. 72, is Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly, with ...
'' and Sparafucile in Verdi's ''
Rigoletto
''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play ''Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had cont ...
''.
He made many recordings of opera, sacred music,
Charpentier
Charpentier () is the French language, French word for "carpenter", and it is also a French surname; a variant spelling is Carpentier. In English, the equivalent word and name is "Carpenter (surname), Carpenter"; in German, "Zimmermann (disambigua ...
's ''
Te deum
The "Te Deum" (, ; from its incipit, , ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to AD 387 authorship, but with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Ch ...
'' H.146, Magnificat H.74 in 1990 with
Neville Mariner
Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English violinist and "one of the world's greatest conductors". Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner #14 of th ...
and
lied
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 s ...
er. Moll can be heard as Ochs in seven complete recordings of ''
Der Rosenkavalier
(''The Knight of the Rose'' or ''The Rose-Bearer''), Op. 59, is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel ''Les amours du chevalier de Faublas'' ...
'', as Sarastro in six recordings of Mozart's ''
Die Zauberflöte
''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 includ ...
'', as Marke in six sets of Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'', and as the Archangel Raphael in three recordings of Haydn's ''
Die Schöpfung
''The Creation'' (german: Die Schöpfung) is an oratorio written between 1797 and 1798 by Joseph Haydn (Hoboken catalogue, Hob. XXI:2), and considered by many to be one of his masterpieces. The oratorio depicts and celebrates the creation of the ...
''. His recording for the Orfeo label of Schubert's philosophical ''"Lieder für Bass"'' set a new standard for these songs; he also recorded Schubert's song-cycle ''
Winterreise
''Winterreise'' (, ''Winter Journey'') is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert ( D. 911, published as Op. 89 in 1828), a setting of 24 poems by German poet Wilhelm Müller. It is the second of Schubert's two song cycles on Müller' ...
'', and an album of dramatic/heroic ballads by
Carl Loewe
Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe (; 30 November 1796 – 20 April 1869), usually called Carl Loewe (sometimes seen as Karl Loewe), was a German composer, tenor singer and conductor. In his lifetime, his songs ("Balladen") were well enough known for s ...
. Besides German, Italian, and Latin, he recorded a few roles in Russian, including Pimen in ''
Boris Godunov
Borís Fyodorovich Godunóv (; russian: Борис Фёдорович Годунов; 1552 ) ruled the Tsardom of Russia as ''de facto'' regent from c. 1585 to 1598 and then as the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. After the end of his ...
'' and the Old Convict in ''
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District'' by
Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...
. He can be seen in many roles on commercial video, including Sarastro (twice), Osmin, the
Commendatore
Commendatore (singular), Commendatori (plural), is an Italian word originating from the latin phrase In commendam and meaning "Commander". It may refer to:
Position, rank, title
* Commander (order) ( it, Commendatore), the title of honour "Comma ...
,
Bartolo, Hunding in Wagner's ''
Die Walküre
(; ''The Valkyrie''), WWV 86B, is the second of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). It was performed, as a single opera, at the National Theatre Munich on ...
'' (three times), Fafner in ''Das Rheingold'' and ''
Siegfried
Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace".
The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...
'', in Gurnemanz in ''Parsifal'', and Ochs (three times).
Awards and honors
He won three
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
s (1981, 1985, and 1989) for various opera CDs, and a
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Classical Music/Dance for his performance as Hunding on the PBS television series ''
Live from the Metropolitan Opera
''Live from the Metropolitan Opera'' (or: ''Live from the Met'') was an American television program that presented performances of complete operas from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network.
Th ...
'' (also known as ''The Metropolitan Opera Presents''), in 1991. In Germany he held the prestigious title
Kammersänger
Kammersänger (male) or Kammersängerin (female), abbreviated Ks. or KS, is a German honorific title for distinguished singers of opera and classical music. It literally means "chamber singer". Historically, the title was bestowed by princes or ...
. Moll was Bayerischer, Hamburger und Wiener Kammersänger.
Retirement
Moll retired from the stage in 2006, after singing the Nightwatchman at the
Bavarian State Opera
The Bayerische Staatsoper is a German opera company based in Munich. Its main venue is the Nationaltheater München, and its orchestra the Bayerische Staatsorchester.
History
The parent ensemble of the company was founded in 1653, under Ele ...
in Munich.
He gave a master class in January 2011 at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
.
Moll lived in Cologne with his family until his death.
Film
* ''Kurt Moll – Ein Mann, ein Bass.'' portrait, Germany 2000, 60 min., directed by Eckhart Schmidt, produced by Raphaela Film GmbH and Preview Release GmbH in coproduction with
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...
See also
*
Mozart: ''Le nozze di Figaro'' (Georg Solti recording)
Notes
References
External links
*
The voice of the Almighty, in Haydn's CREATION, YouTube videoHaydn's ST. CECILIA MASS YouTube videoKurt Moll anticipates death (YouTube, audio only) 22 October 1984
* Alexander Werner
Säen und sehen, wie es wächst(in German) interview on 21 June 2005 in Hotel an der Oper, Munich, in: ''Standpunkte'', June 2007, p. 46–47
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moll, Kurt
1938 births
2017 deaths
20th-century German male opera singers
21st-century German male opera singers
People from Rhein-Erft-Kreis
German operatic basses
Grammy Award winners
Österreichischer Kammersänger