Hermann, Roland
Hermann, Roland
Hermann, Roland, German baritone; b. Bochum, Sept. 17, 1936. He attended the Univs. of Freiburg im Bresgau, Mainz, and Frankfurt am Main, and received his vocal training from Margarete von Winterfeldt, Paul Lohmann, and Flaminio Contini. In 1961 he took 1st prize in the competition of the German radio stations. In 1967 he made his operatic debut as Mozart’s Figaro in Trier, then joined the Zürich Opera in 1968. He also sang opera in Munich, Cologne, Buenos Aires, Paris, Berlin, and other cities. His engagements as a soloist with orchs. and as a recitalist took him to many of the major music centers of Europe, the U.S. (debut with the N.Y. Phil., 1983), and the Far East. In addition to such operatic roles as Don Giovanni, Wolfram, Germont, and Amfortas, he sang in such rarely performed works as Schumann’s Genoveva, Marschner’s Der Vampyr, Busoni’s Doktor Faust, and Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. He also sang in several premieres, among them Keltenborn’s Der Kirschgarten (Zürich, 1984) and Höller’s Der Meister und Margarita (Paris, 1989).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire