Friedrich Schorr
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Friedrich Schorr (September 2, 1888, Oradea (Nagyvarad at the time) - August 14, 1953, Farmington, New York) was an Austrian-Hungarian bass-baritone opera singer of Jewish origin. He later became a naturalized American.
The son of a hazzan who allegedly had himself a beautiful voice, Schorr studied in Brno and Vienna. He made his stage debut in Graz (1912-1916). Afterwards he worked in Prague (1916-1918), Cologne (1918-1923), Berlin (State Opera Unter den Linden, 1923-1931). He had guest appearances at Covent Garden (1924-1931), Metropolitan Opera (1924-1943) and the Wagnerian Bayreuth Festival (1925-1933). After the rise to power of Nazism in 1933, Schorr emigrated to the United States where he lived in New York City and worked at the Met (until 1943) and later as director and concert singer (together with Lotte Lehmann, Lauritz Melchior, Kirsten Flagstad and Helen Traubel).
Schorr is recognized as the greatest Wagnerian bass-baritone of his generation, arguably of the 20th century, and was famous for his portrayals of Wotan in Der Ring des Nibelungen and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He made a number of recordings both in Europe and America. These recordings (although some of them were produced after he reached his artistic zenith) demonstrate Schorr's clear articulation, his excellent breathing technique and his great emotional expressiveness.
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This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of 17 September 2006.
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