came Where Theo Adam in appearance, he had been obvious and unmistakable anyway. His form with the majestic and yet finely cut face, to the full, at the end of schlohweiße hair, and fell, and were amazed at where he was. A few years ago it was almost with his wife to the premiere evenings in the Central Lodge of the Semper Opera in Dresden. It was his town: Here he was on 1. August, 1926, the son of the decoration painter, was born; here he had sung as a child in the cross choir; here he went in 1949, when the city was still largely in ruins, for the first Time on the Opera stage – as a hermit in the “Freischütz” by Carl Maria von Weber. And this is precisely the role he has at 30. November 2006 in Dresden, Germany, eighty years of age, also from the stage adopted.

Jan Brachmann

editor in the features section.

F. A. Z.

Adam’s Repertoire was immense. It ranged from the cantatas and passions of Johann Sebastian Bach, to his own composing contemporaries. With perseverance, exemplary precision and creative empathy, he sang modern roles such as the doctor Nice and Schigolch in “Lulu” by Alban Berg, the Cadmos in the “bass arid” his vintage Hans Werner Henze, the extremely demanding title roles in “Einstein” by Paul Dessau, and “Charles V” by Ernst Krenek. enjoyed The “Baal” by Friedrich Cerha he brought to the premiere. Narrow specialization was foreign to him.

Not eight to ten years, Adam was old, as he had for Hitler’s Germany in the war. And, similar to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, you listened to Adam that he had been robbed of his youth. In the first preserved recordings of his voice shows maturity, sounding traces of the experience and of fate. Naivety and self-forgetful Sweetness were his thing never. Again and again the rapid maneuverability of the sounds used surprised, the liveliness with which he knew how to make recitative in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For him, singing heightened dramatic was to Speak, or – in the case of Bach – proclamation, at least as regards the attention to the vocal Text, in terms of.

elegance

Would sound Nice in a pleasing sense, Adam’s voice is rare. But she always kept an elegance, a Dignity, even in the late decrepitude. The accuracy of his diction, and the shading ability of even strong effort made him one of the great singers in the roles of Richard Wagner. At the Bayreuth festival he had in 1952, for the first Time sung, from 1963 to 1975, he sang there, enduring the Wotan in the “Ring of the Nibelungen”. Hans Sachs in “die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” or king brand included in “Tristan and Isolde” as well as the Ochs in “der Rosenkavalier” by Richard Strauss to the important roles that he sang in Vienna, London or New York.

The GDR, he remained faithful, belonged to over the decades, the Ensemble of the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin and was moderated by starting in 1977, the television show “Theo Adam”, the classical music in the mass media presented and the promotion of young musicians dedicated. As a fairly telephoto gene appearance overcame Adam this task, in the he-liked with a extremely Dresdner of joy at the representation, even, shiny, and kept in a completely unbürger of the country of the remnants of a bourgeois salon culture. The thing is, the music has brought more recognition than ridicule.

The popularity of Theo Adam as his nine-year-younger colleague, Peter Schreier was in the GDR, large, and not without envy remained. But you remained on this Land is limited. Worship he who belonged to the tribe of artists of the Salzburg festival is enjoyed around the world.