Richard Holm (tenor)

Richard Holm ( born August 3, 1912 in Stuttgart, † 20 July 1988 in Munich) was a German opera singer (tenor ), who worked for 30 years at the Munich State Opera. International, he gained good reputation, particularly as a Mozart singer.

Life and artistic work

Richard Holm was born in Stuttgart. He studied singing at the Conservatory of Music for the Performing Arts in Stuttgart. His debut as an opera singer in 1937 at the Kiel Opera House, where he found his first engagement after completing his studies. From 1942 to 1945 he sang at the Nuremberg Opera House. Since the season 1948, he was a member of the Munich State Opera.

Richard Holm worked in Munich in important world premieres of modern operas with: 1957, The Harmony of the World by Paul Hindemith, 1963 in Betrothal in San Domingo by Werner Egk and 1978 in Lear by Aribert Reimann.

In 1975 he played there also the role of Gustav von Aschenbach in Death in Venice by Benjamin Britten. His role as an old, faithful Earl of Kent in Lear was his last impressive role portrait on the stage of the Munich State Opera.

Richard Holm sang from 1949 to 1952 every year at the Salzburg Festival and embodied there Jaquino in Fidelio and Mozart roles Tamino, Idamente and Annio. Guest performances Holm also in 1950 for the festival to Glyndebourne, 1952-1953 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and London.

Richard Holm was also a major concert singer and voice teacher sought as a professor at the Musikhochschule in Munich. Among his students, among others belonged the tenor Francisco Araiza.

Repertoire

Richard Holm sang at the beginning of his career, especially the lyric tenor specialist in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( Belmonte, Tamino ) and the lyrical buffo compartment ( Jaquino, David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), in later years, great character roles came as in Der Ring des Nibelungen and Novagerio in Palestrina (1952 WDR) should lodge. 1963 took over Richard Holm at the Bavarian State Opera and the title role in Palestrina. Its intense character portrait was released as a live recording on CD.

For the broadcasting Richard Holm undertook also rare trips to the operetta: In 1950, he worked at the Northwest German Radio ( NWDR ) in dreamland by Eduard Künneke with; repeatedly sang in operetta recordings of 1954 for the Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), so in 1954 in The Violet of Montmartre by Emmerich Kálmán and 1957 in Madame Dubarry.