Oszkár Kálmán (19 June 1887 – 17 September 1971) was a Hungarian

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

, remembered as the first

Bluebeard "Bluebeard" ( ) is a French Folklore, folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in . The tale is about a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives an ...

. He was Jewish and born in Kisszentpéter (in present day

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

) and in 1913 made his debut as Sarastro 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 ...

in Budapest, where created the title role of

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

's opera '' A kékszakállú herceg vára'' in 1918. He was among the first singers of

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (, ; , ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education. ...

's opus nine songs at the Budapest conservatory. By the 1920s, he was resident at the Berlin Staatsoper, and in 1929 he took part in the premiere of Brecht's '' Badener Lehrstück vom Einverständnis'' with music by

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith ( ; ; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German and American composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advo ...

. In 1941, he was singing Osmin at the Goldmark Theatre in Budapest.''Jewish Budapest: Monuments, Rites, History''
by Kinga Frojimovics, Géza Komoróczy, Viktoria Pusztai, Andrea Strbik, Central European University Press, 1999. Kálmán died in Budapest in 1971 .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalman, Oszkar 1887 births 1971 deaths Operatic basses Hungarian Jews 20th-century Hungarian male opera singers