Peter Hofmann

[Mandryka]

This fine singer died in November

Peter Hofmann had a career in opera and in rock. I only know him through his work as a Wagnerian heldentenor. And I cherish his Siegmund with Boulez (he really did have snake eyes!) and his Parsifal with Karajan (where he is one of the finest on record in the music in the second half of Act 2). He was also Bernstein's choice for Tristan.

He was just 66 when he died, after quite an extended and uncomfortable illness I believe.

[springrite]

He was the one singer who during his all too brief operatic career got me into Wagner, for which I am grateful.

Here is a report on his passing:


A hero's life - the death of Peter Hofmann

He was an opera singer, a rocker, the "Phantom of the Opera". But he waged his biggest battle against disease - and lost.

Peter Hofmann exemplified as few have done, what a Heldentenor is. At 32 he sang Siegfried at Bayreuth. From Paris to New York he played the Wagnerian heroes again and again. Literally. For with his blond curls and his hulking appearance, he was closer than most singers to the image of Siegmund and Siegfried, Parsifal, and Tristan. But in real life he was a hero in popular music as well as on the musical stage. And above all in his long struggle with a consuming disease. Peter Hofmann has now lost that struggle. He has died in a hospital in the Upper Franconian city of Selb. He was 66 years old.

Hofmann's career was a unique heroic drama. Born in 1944 in Marienbad, Bohemia, he grew up in Darmstadt. He wanted to be a rock singer and landed in a rock 'n' roll band. But that wouldn't be all. The boy who had been the Hessian Youth pole vault champion, wanted to go higher. He enlisted in the armed forces, became a paratrooper, and used his severance pay to finance vocal study at the Academy of Music in Karlsruhe. In 1972 he was Mozart's Tamino, in 1976 Wagner's Siegfried - what a storming of the heights!

A Wagner hero for the present

But opera was not enough for Hofmann. Long before the term "crossover" was introduced, the Heldentenor interpreted pop and rock songs, and showed with leather and motorcycle that Wagner heroes are valid in the present. The income from his pop recordings alone would have been enough for a peaceful retirement. He also appeared at the side of Richard Burton in the series "Wagner," his television debut.

But the search for ever new challenges came to a dramatic halt. At the end of the 80's it was unmistakable that Hofmann could no longer cope with the vocal requirements of opera. As the "Phantom of the Opera" in the Hamburg production, he found in 1990 a modern replacement. But after 1994 he was diagnosed with early signs of Parkinson's disease, and it became clear that for his Heldenleben, time was running out. Once again, in 1997, he slipped into a new role, in "Old Firehand" at the side of Gojko Mitic at the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg. But two years later there were no more drugs to keep the disease in check. He bought an old farm house in Bayreuth, wrote his autobiography, and supported research with his "Peter Hofmann Parkinson Project." Otherwise, no interviews, no talk shows, no parties.

"Suddenly, nothing worked any more"

In 2001 he made an exception for "Die Welt." "I took everything much too lightly," he said then. He believed he had suffered a dizzy spell; he was not thinking of a serious illness, nor were the critics, who would rather he had spent the evening in bed. But the symptoms grew stronger, from indisposition to a constant battle against blockades, as he called them. "Suddenly, nothing worked any more. One is subject to panic. One has to concentrate all one's efforts on the body. When I wake up in the morning, I sometimes do not know how it's going to go." What was left was the memory of a time when he "could sing two performances of 'Die Walküre' in a row."

Most recently, not even that memory remained for him. A few years ago, Hofmann was also overwhelmed by dementia, was confined to a wheelchair, and was at the mercy of the help of others. Having to bear it made him into a different kind of hero. It was Hoffman's tragedy that he had to suffer it in his own body.

As "Bild" reported, Peter Hofmann will be buried on Monday in the circle of his closest family.

http://www.welt.de/kultur/article11307395/Ein-Heldenleben-Zum-Tode-von-Peter-Hofmann.html

[mjwal]

I remember his excellent rendition (vocally and histrionically) of Siegmund in Wiesbaden a year or two before he was called to Bayreuth. I find that his voice deteriorated fairly quickly after 1980 or so. There is a Giulini Lied von der Erde (LA 1980) on line, with a great Tatiana Troyanos - http://ceolnasidhe.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html - he's no Urlus, there are moments of strain, but he surprised me with his feeling for this.