Peter Seiffert (born 4 January 1954) is a German

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

Biography

Born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

, Seiffert studied at the Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf and made his debut in 1978 at the Deutschen Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf/

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...

. In 1979, he was awarded a second place in the

Deutscher Musikwettbewerb The Deutscher Musikwettbewerb (German music competition; ) is a national music competition in Germany for classical soloists and chamber music ensembles held annually by the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council). It was first held in 1975 a ...

(German Music Competition), and appeared on the TV show '' Anneliese Rothenberger gibt sich die Ehre'' (''Anneliese Rothenberger has the honour'' f meeting .... In 1986, he married the soprano

Lucia Popp Lucia Popp (born Lucia Poppová; 12 November 193916 November 1993) was a Slovak operatic soprano. She began her career as a soubrette, and later moved into the light-lyric and lyric coloratura soprano repertoire and then the lighter Richard Str ...

, 15 years his senior. She died in 1993, after which he married another soprano, Petra-Maria Schnitzer. He established his career at the Bayreuth Festival, regularly appearing in the title role of ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wolf ...

'', which he last performed in 2005 with his wife Schnitzer in the role of Elsa. In 2003 he was awarded the

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording The 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 m ...

, for his performance of

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 ...

, under Daniel Barenboim. Today, he is a sought-after

Heldentenor A heldentenor (; English: ''heroic tenor''), earlier called tenorbariton, is an operatic tenor voice, most often associated with Wagnerian repertoire. It is distinct from other tenor '' fächer'' by its endurance, volume, and dark timbre, which ...

, singing many of the title roles of

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 ...

's best-known operas.

Sources

Most of the information in this article is taken from the German Wikipedia article.

External links

*
Biography at the Bayerischen Staatsoper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seiffert, Peter German operatic tenors 1954 births Living people Musicians from Düsseldorf Österreichischer Kammersänger 20th-century German male opera singers 21st-century German male opera singers Robert Schumann Hochschule alumni