Olaf Bär

Olaf Bär ( born December 19, 1957 in Dresden ) is a German singer with the voice baritone.

Life

Olaf Bär grew up in a working class family in Dresden. His parents themselves had no artistic ambitions, but were interested in classical music and noticed early on the musical talents of her son. So he came at the age of 3 years to his first stage appearance when his parents responded to a newspaper advertisement of the state Sachsen in Radebeul, in which a boy for the ( silent ) role of the child was wanted in Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly. Bear played the role under the direction of Klaus Tennstedt 25 times, thus reducing his interest in classical music was strengthened further. Under financial sacrifices his parents bought him a piano, and he received - the age of four - piano lessons with Hildegard Wehner.

Even before school entry, he could read and write and was therefore under-challenged in school. On the advice of his former class teacher, parents looking for alternatives. In 1967, he joined with 9 years in the Dresden Cross Choir, where he was allowed to take on solo tasks soon. Two recordings of music by Mozart ( The Magic Flute, 1970) and Schütz ( Historia resurrection of Jesus Christ, 1971) document the time as a boy soprano. After his voice broke Bear joined the male choir of the Cross choir, where he was also employed as a soloist.

With 18 years bear left the Cross choir and initially did his military service before 1978 by Christian Elßner study singing as a lyric baritone recorded at the Dresden University of Music " Carl Maria von Weber". In 1981 he made ​​his operatic debut in a high school production. In 1982 he won the International Dvorak Competition in Karlovy Vary first prize and received in the same year Felix Mendelssohn scholarship. 1983 followed by two more first prizes: the singing competition of opera houses in the German Democratic Republic and the International Walther Gruner Song Competition in London. With the London price a recital at the Wigmore Hall was connected, in which, accompanied him Geoffrey Parsons, a member of the competition jury at the piano. Thus began an artistic partnership that lasted until Parsons ' death in 1995.

From 1983 to 1985 bear belonged to the studio the Semperoper in Dresden from 1985 to 1991, he was there a permanent member. Although he had not received the youth initiation and was not a member of the SED (or another block party ), it such a great freedom to travel was acknowledged that he was able to build an international career as an opera and concert singer. So he made his debut in 1985 at London's Covent Garden, in 1986 in Aix -en- Provence, Vienna, Milan and Frankfurt am Main, 1987 at Glyndebourne and 1988 in Chicago and worked with renowned conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, Georg Solti or Neville Marriner. End of the 1980s, the Semper Opera House awarded him the title of a chamber singer.

1989/90 came singing bear by technical errors in a vocal crisis, overcome - with professional help - took almost two years to complete. Meanwhile, he has appeared in all the major music centers of the world, including Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Zurich, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Stockholm, Paris, Rome, Naples, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Washington, DC and Philadelphia. Other tours have taken him to Australia, New Zealand and Japan. At international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Festival, the Schubertiade Vorarlberg, or RuhrTriennale he is a regular guest. In 2002, he debuted at the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. He has sung under such conductors as Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Riccardo Muti, Roger Norrington, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Simon Rattle and Franz Welser -Möst.

1998 was awarded to the city of Zwickau Olaf Bär of Robert Schumann Prize. Since December 2004 he is full professor at the Dresden Academy of Music and directs the Song class. His regular piano accompanist are today Helmut German, Camillo Radicke and Wolfram Rieger.

Olaf Bär is married to the dancer Carola Tautz bear and lives in Dresden.

Repertoire

Olaf Bär is equally emerged as opera, oratorio and lieder singer. His stage repertoire ranges from the 18th to the 20th century (including the roles of Mozart, Weber, Schubert, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Humperdinck, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Strauss, Korngold ), where Mozart and Richard Strauss are in the foreground (such as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, Papageno and speaker in The Magic Flute; Lord of Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, Harlequin and music teacher in Ariadne auf Naxos, Olivier and Count in Capriccio ). In the 1980s, Olaf Bär was involved in three opera premieres (Jan Trieder: Master Mateh, 1983; Siegfried Matthus: The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke, 1985; Eckehard Mayer: The Golden Pot, 1989). The role of the Schumann Hans Neuenfels ' "Opera for Piano" Schumann, Schubert and the snow ( first performed in 2005 in Bochum) was written for Olaf Bär.

In the spiritual domain Baer et al Works by Fasch, Zelenka, Telemann, J. S. Bach, Handel, CPE Bach, Haydn, Brahms, Fauré, Duruflé and Britten sung. His song repertoire includes both the standard works by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf, as well as less frequently sung pieces by composers such as Weber, Marschner, Goetz, Humperdinck and Schoeck. Bear is considered one of the greatest song interpreters of his generation; His presentation is characterized by rather soft, lyrical vocal tone and clear articulation text. Baer's model as an artist is Peter Schreier.

Recordings

When Olaf Baer's first recital at the Wigmore Hall in 1983 representatives of the record company EMI were present who completed an exclusive contract with him. From 1985 to 1997 formation so - initially in co-production with the East German VEB German records Berlin - a total of 18 song recordings with the accompanists Geoffrey Parsons and (from 1994) Helmut German, also a Mozart aria recital with the conductor Hans Vonk. Parallel appeared - especially when the labels Philips, Archiv Produktion, Decca and Capriccio - 12 operas and 17 church music recordings under Baer's participation.

Due to declining sales in the classical CD industry ( which also bear's last two CDs were affected ) has been terminated his exclusive contract with EMI in 1998; a planned CD with songs by Schreker and Marx was not realized. Since then, only four CDs with solo recordings (with the Denon label, Capriccio, Musicaphon and Glor ) and published a few operas and church music recordings.

Writings

• Robert Schumann's songs from the perspective of the interpreter. In: Irmgard Knechtges - Obrecht (ed.): Dedicated to Robert Schumann. Festschrift of the Robert Schumann Society Dusseldorf occasion of its 25th anniversary. Dohr, Cologne 2004. 87ff.