Eike Wilm Schulte (born 13 October 1939) is a German operatic

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

. A member of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, from 1988 the Bayerische Staatsoper, he made an international career, singing more than 100 parts at major opera houses such as the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...

, and at festivals including the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

. He participated in several premieres of contemporary opera.

Career

Schulte was born in Plettenberg,

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

. He studied voice at the Musikhochschule Köln, with Josef Metternich among others. He made his debut on stage at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 1966 as ''Sid'' in Benjamin Britten's ''

Albert Herring ''Albert Herring'', Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten. Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera '' The Rape of Lucretia''. The libretto, by Eric Cro ...

''. From 1969, Schulte was a member of the Theater Bielefeld, where he appeared as Papageno in Mozart's ''

Die Zauberflöte ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...

'', as Germont in '' La Traviata'' and in the leading part Alfred Ill in Gottfried von Einem's '' Der Besuch der alten Dame'', opposite Martha Mödl in the title role. From 1973 to 1988 Schulte was a member of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, where he sang major baritone parts, from Mozart (Guglielmo in ''

Così fan tutte (''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...

'') to Wagner (Telramund in ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wo ...

''), Marcel in Puccini's ''

La Bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

'', Lindorf, Coppelius, Dapertutto and Mirakel in '' Hoffmanns Erzählungen'', alongside Hermin Esser in the title role, Elizabeth Parcells as Olympia and Gail Gilmore as Niklaus, and the pharao in Rossini's '' Mosè'', with Nadine Secunde. He performed contemporary operas such as premieres by Volker David Kirchner. From 1988 he has been a member of the Bayerische Staatsoper. During his career, he sang more than a hundred different parts. Schulte appeared as a guest at the

, the

Teatro La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix (mythology), Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especial ...

, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others. He performed at the

, beginning in 1988 as the ''Heerrufer'' (The King's Herald) in ''

'', from 1992 as Wolfram von Eschenbach in '' Tannhäuser'', and in 1998 he stepped in as Gunther in ''

Götterdämmerung ' (; ''Twilight of the Gods''), Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis, WWV 86D, is the last of the four epic poetry, epic music dramas that constitute Richard Wagner's Literary cycle, cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (English: ''The Ring of the Nibelung''). I ...

'', singing but not acting. Throughout his career, he took part in contemporary opera, including premieres. In 1969, he sang in the premiere of Giselher Klebe's '' Das Märchen von der schönen Lilie'' at the Schwetzingen Festival in the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen. He appeared in operas by Volker David Kirchner, as Henrik in ''Die Trauung'' in Wiesbaden in 1974, as Babel in ''Die fünf Minuten des Isaak Babel'' in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

in 1980, and as Ezechiel in ''Das kalte Herz'' in Wiesbaden in 1981. Schulte has appeared in recitals and concerts. He can be seen on video as the Heerrufer and as Beckmesser.Richard Wagner: ''Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg'' ''Deutsche Oper Berlin'' Opera d'Oro, catalog number OPD-112

Awards

Schulte is honorary member of the Hessisches Staatstheater. In 2008, he received the Goethe-Plakette des Landes Hessen, the highest award of the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts.

Sources

* Karl J. Kutsch and Leo Riemens: ''

Großes Sängerlexikon ''Großes Sängerlexikon'' (''Biographical Dictionary of Singers'', literally: Large singers' lexicon) is a single-field dictionary of singers in classical music, edited by Karl-Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens and first published in 1987. The fi ...

''. Third edition. Munich 1999. Volume 4: Moffo–Seidel, pp. 3164/3165.

Career

Awards

Sources

References

External links