Arnold van Mill

Arnold van Mill ( born March 26, 1921 in Schiedam / the Netherlands; † 5 October 1996 in Hamburg) was a Dutch opera singer ( bass). He became famous by the great bass roles in the operas of Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Career

Debut

His debut had van Mill, 1941 in The Hague as Wagner in Charles Gounod's opera Faust. From 1947 to 1951 he appeared at the Opera of Antwerp.

Bayreuth

Arnold van Mill got his big break when he was called in the first post-war season of the Bayreuth Festival of Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner at the Green Hills and henceforth excelled in all the major bass roles. So he sang the Titurel in Parsifal, the Hans Foltz in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the Hunding in Die Walküre, King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, the Daland in The Flying Dutchman, the Fafner in Siegfried and Fasolt in Das Rheingold.

International career

After his debut in Bayreuth van Mill occurred at the great opera stages of the world: Vienna State Opera, La Scala in Milan, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has worked with conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Hans Knappertsbusch, Jascha Horenstein and Keilberth. In the 1950s he became the house bass by Decca Records in London.

Hamburg

Particularly connected van Mill was the Hamburg Opera. Here he sang up to and including 1971 and later also as a guest.

1962, the honorary title Kammersänger he was awarded.

He worked as a singing teacher at the Hamburg Academy singers with young singing talents. His last appearances were in 1976, as commander in Mozart's Don Giovanni and as a kitchen maid in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges.

Discography (selection)