Schunk, Robert
Schunk, Robert
Schunk, Robert, German tenor; b. Neu-Isenburg, Jan. 5, 1948. He was a pupil of Martin Grundler at the Frankfurt Hochschule für Musik. In 1973 he made his operatic debut as Jack in The Midsummer Marriage in Karlsruhe, where he sang until 1975; then appeared in Bonn (1975–77), Dortmund (1977–79), and at the Bayreuth Festivals (from 1977), where he was heard as Siegmund, Melot, Erik, and Walther in Tannhäuser. As a guest artist, he appeared in operas in Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Cologne, Berlin, Geneva, Chicago, and San Francisco. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. as Florestan on Dec. 10, 1986. In 1987 he sang for the first time at London’s Covent Garden as the Emperor in Die Frau ohne Schatten. His other roles include Don Carlos, Weber’s Max, Hoffmann, Walther von Stolzing, and Parsifal.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire