József Simándy (

Kistarcsa Kistarcsa () is a town in Pest County, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. A site of the Kistarcsa concentration camp during the Holocaust. Later an internment camp of State Protection Authority for political prisoners during the 1950s. Histo ...

, 18 September 1916 –

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, 4 March 1997) was a Hungarian tenor with German origins. His name in Hungarian form is ''Simándy József'', his original family name is ''Schulder''. A student of Emilia Posszert, he joined the chorus of the Hungarian State Opera in 1940; in 1946, he made his debut as Don José in ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

'' in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

. In 1947, he returned to the Budapest Opera, where he was the leading heroic tenor until 1984. He performed regularly in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

as well, from 1956 until 1960. Besides heroic tenor roles, Simándy took on lyric and spinto parts as well; he was best known for his Radames, Lohengrin, and

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 ...

. Recordings include two operas by Ferenc Erkel, '' Bánk bán'' and '' Hunyadi László'', in both of which he sang the title role.

References

1916 births 1997 deaths Hungarian operatic tenors People from Pest County 20th-century Hungarian male opera singers Hungarian people of German descent People from Kistarcsa {{Hungary-opera-singer-stub