Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender (19 February 1897, Aachen – 13 February 1978,

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

) was a German operatic baritone, particularly associated with Mozart and

Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

roles. He is considered to have been one of the best lyric baritones of the inter-war period.

Life and career

Domgraf-Fassbaender studied first in Berlin with Jacques Stuckgold and Paul Bruns, and later in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

with the prominent Italian dramatic

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

Giuseppe Borgatti (who also taught the English tenor Heddle Nash). His stage debut occurred in 1922 in his native Aachen, as Almaviva in '' Nozze di Figaro''. He sang at the

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the D ...

from 1923 to 1925, at the

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

opera house from 1925 to 1927, at the Staatstheater Stuttgart from 1927 to 1930 and finally at the Berlin Staatsoper from 1930 until 1948. Domgraf-Fassbaender was invited to sing at the

Glyndebourne Festival Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England. History Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...

in England from the festival's foundation in 1934 until 1937, performing Mozart roles. He also appeared at the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...

in Austria in 1937, as Papageno in ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

''. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he performed mostly in Vienna, Munich, Hannover, and Nuremberg, where he was resident producer at the latter city's opera house from 1953 to 1962. In 1954, he began teaching at the Meistersinger-Konservatorium in Nuremberg, where he trained his daughter, mezzo-soprano

Brigitte Fassbaender Brigitte Fassbaender (; born 3 July 1939), is a German mezzo-soprano opera singer and a stage director. From 1999 to 2012 she was intendant (managing director) of the Tyrolean State Theatre in Innsbruck, Austria. She holds the title Kammersäng ...

. He was married to the actress Sabine Peters. Domgraf-Fassbaender had a beautiful voice which he used with sensitive musicianship and an excellent technique. He was an accomplished singer-actor as well, appearing in a few musical films. Domgraf-Fassbaender left a sizeable legacy of audio recordings, many of which are available on CD reissues.

Selected filmography

* '' The Marriage of Figaro'' (1949)

Sources

*''Dictionnaire des interprètes'', Alain Pâris, (

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, SA, Paris, 1989) * ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera'' econd edition (Oxford University Press, London, 1980). {{DEFAULTSORT:Domgraf-Fassbaender, Willi 1897 births 1978 deaths People from Aachen German operatic baritones 20th-century German male opera singers