Brendel, Wolfgang
Brendel, Wolfgang
Brendel, Wolfgang, German baritone; b. Munich, Oct. 20, 1947. After vocal studies, he began his career in Kaiserslautern. He joined the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1971, and became Kammersànger there in 1977. On Nov. 20, 1975, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro; then appeared at the San Francisco Opera as Rodrigo in Don Carlo (1979), at Milan’s La Scala as Count Almaviva (1981), at the Chicago Lyric Opera as Miller in Luisa Miller (1982), and at the Bayreuth Festival as Wolfram in Tannhauser (1985). He made his debut at London’s Covent Garden as Conte Di Luna in IlTrovatore on Oct. 12, 1985. In 1990 he sang Eugene Onegin in Chicago. He portrayed Amfortas at La Scala in 1992. In 1997 he appeared as the Dutchman at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He appeared in opera centers throughout Europe and the U.S.; his most noted roles include Rossini’s Figaro, Papageno, Eugene Onegin, Amfortas, Silvio, and Pelléas.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire