Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender

Willi Domgraf - Fassbaender (actually Fassbaender; born February 19, 1897 in Aachen, † February 13, 1978 in Nuremberg ) was a German opera singer (baritone ).

Life

Fassbaender studied in Aachen at Felix knobs and in Berlin with Jacques of gold and Paul Bruns and finally in Milan at Giuseppe Borgattis singing. He made his debut in 1922 in Aachen at the city's Municipal Theater as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro.

1923-1925 worked Fassbaender at the German Opera House in Berlin, from 1925 to 1927 at the Düsseldorf Opera and from 1927 to 1930 at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In the Stuttgart Fassbaender added time because of frequent confusion with his colleague William Cooper his surname nicknamed " Domgraf " added.

From 1930 to 1948 Domgraf - Fassbaender sang regularly at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. After the " seizure of power" of the Nazis, he joined the NSDAP in May 1933. He was at this time particularly as a Mozart interpreter a name; his signature role was Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. He sang this role including at the Glyndebourne Festival. But also in Italian roles was Domgraf - Fassbaender successful, about as Rigoletto, Marcello in La Bohème, or as Charles Gérard in Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier. He was often regarded as the most Italian baritone in Germany called. Common partners were the Danish tenor Helge Rosvaenge and Romanian ( Moldovan ) soprano Maria Cebotari.

In the opera film The Bartered Bride by Smetana 's opera he sang Hans, although this role is actually for a tenor.

After 1948 Domgraf - Fassbaender settled in Nuremberg, where he among other things, worked as senior director of the Municipal Theatre and held since 1954 a professor at the Meistersinger Conservatory.

The artist was a sought-after voice teacher. His students included, for example, Rita Streich and his daughter, the mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender.

Willi Domgraf - Fassbaender was married to actress Sabine Peters.

Clips

• The Magic Flute - Toscanini - Salzburg 1937 - Act 1
• The Magic Flute - Toscanini - Salzburg 1937 - Act 2

Alexander Kipnis - Sarastro, Julia Osváth - Queen of the Night, Jarmila Novotná - Pamina, Helge Rosvaenge - Tamino, Willi Domgraf - Fassbaender - Papageno, Dora Komarek - Papagena, Alfred Jerger - Speaker, William Wernigk - Monostatos (live July 30, 1937 Salzburg Festival )