Franz Völker (31 March 1899,

Neu-Isenburg Neu-Isenburg (, ) is a town in Germany, located in the Offenbach (district), Offenbach district of Hesse. It is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Regional Authority, Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area and has a population of 38,204 (2020). The town i ...

Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...

– 4 December 1965,

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 the ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

) was a dramatic

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

who enjoyed a major European career. He excelled specifically as a performer of the

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s of

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

. He was discovered by the conductor Clemens Krauss and he studied singing at

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, where he made his début as Florestan in Beethoven's only operatic work, ''

Fidelio ''Fidelio'' (; ), originally titled ' (''Leonore, or The Triumph of Marital Love''), Opus number, Op. 72, is the sole opera by German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. The libretto was originally prepared by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of ...

'', in 1926. Engagements followed in Vienna, Munich, Berlin, and London, where he appeared at the

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

, in 1934 and 1937. He also performed often at the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival () is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer, for five weeks starting in late July, in Salzburg, Austria, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's operas are a focus of ...

and the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

, earning considerable public and critical acclaim. Roles that he sang during this period, in addition to Florestan , included '' Parsifal'', '' Lohengrin'', Siegmund in Wagner's '' Die Walküre'' and Max in Weber's '' Der Freischütz''. Later in his career, he sang the lead role in Verdi's ''

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

''. He taught singing in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, Germany, after retiring from the stage during the 1950s. He appears in the title role of a fine complete live recording of ''Lohengrin'', conducted by Robert Heger, made in Berlin in 1942.With Ludwig Hofmann (Heinrich), Maria Müller (Elsa), Margarete Klose (Ortrud), Jaro Prohaska (Telramund), Walter Grossmann (Heerrufer) and the Berlin State Opera Orchestra and Chorus. Preiser 90043 (3 CDs); Opera Magic, BEL 24114 (3 CDs); Grammofono 2000 AB 78863-65 (3 CDs); Cantus Classics CACD 5.00208-09 (2x2 CDs). Review by Alan Blyth in '' Gramophone'', 27 March 2006. He made many recordings of operatic arias, duets and scenes. These recordings are now available on CD. They capture the warmth, strength and sensitivity of his singing during its prime and confirm his reputation as one of the finest Germanic tenors of the 20th century. He also made recordings of popular songs, some of which can be found on YouTube, including "Heute Nacht Oder Nie".

References and notes

External links

Brief description in GermanHistory of the Tenor – Sound Clips and Narration
1899 births 1965 deaths People from Neu-Isenburg German operatic tenors People from the Grand Duchy of Hesse 20th-century German male opera singers {{Germany-opera-singer-stub