Raimund Herincx
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Raimund Herincx (born August 1927) is a British operatic bass baritone.
Throughout his remarkable and extremely varied international career, Herincx performed in most of the world's great opera houses and with many of the world's leading symphony orchestras, having been equally in demand in international opera and in the choral and orchestral field.
Because of this he holds the undisputed world record for major roles and works performed, his astonishing repertoire amounting to just under 500.
He is also featured in many recordings, some of which are creator's recordings and others, first recordings.
During the first ten years of his career he sang, as principal baritone, with both the Welsh National Opera and Sadler's Wells Opera companies - singing in over 400 performances and 40 major roles.
A parallel international career developed as he was engaged for guest appearances in the opera houses of Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Concert appearances in Rome, Madrid, Athens, Lisbon and Stockholm were also part of his itinerary.
His BBC Promenade Concert debut was in 1961 and, as a result, he took the English language concert repertoire into many European concert halls including the premieres of works by Walton, Tippett, Vaughan Williams, Elgar and Britten.
His debut at the Royal Opera House was in 1968. He then appeared in many roles in Italian, English, German, Russian and French for that company and starred in three world premieres including The Knot Garden (Faber) by Michael Tippett on December 2, 1970 conducted by Sir Colin Davis and produced by Sir Peter Hall.
Meanwhile, appearances for the English National Opera included many major roles, notably as Wotan in Wagner's Ring Cycle. This was to have a profound effect on his future career, the huge complex work bringing him great personal success in Europe and North and South America.
From 1976, when he joined the Metropolitan Opera of New York, much of his career was in the USA and was Wagner orientated. He subsequently appeared in most of the major cities for the leading American opera companies.
Both in Britain and America he is well known as a voice teacher and therapist and devotes some of his time to cancer research, guiding and helping patients with voice and throat problems.
In the UK, he has taught at the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, and the Universities of Cardiff and Aberdeen; whilst in the USA he has taught at the Universities of Washington and California (UCLA) and lectured for the Yale Club and the Juilliard School. He continues to teach regularly at the North East of Scotland Music School in Aberdeen.
In the sphere of international music competitions he became well known as an adjudicator and examiner, having appeared regularly as a jury member for competitions such as the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the Mary Garden award. In this capacity he is frequently invited overseas as the British representative on international juries.
His command of languages has sustained regular engagements to give Master Classes in Europe, America and the UK.
More recently he has become much in demand as a lecturer, speaker and translator and is also frequently engaged as a musical journalist and critic.
His numerous recordings include Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage and The Knot Garden, Handel's Messiah, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Tavener's The Whale, plus Vaughan Williams' Pilgrim's Progress and Sir John in Love
In 1991 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Aberdeen. He now lives in Bath, is married to Astra Blair and has three children, Nikki, Gemma and Gareth. He has three grandchildren, named Sam, James and Jack.
