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Thomas Bernard Heppner CC (born January 14, 1956) is a renowned Canadian tenor and broadcaster, now retired from singing, who specialized in opera and other classical works for voice.
Heppner, of Mennonite descent, was born in Murrayville, British Columbia, and lived in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. [1]
He began his musical studies at the University of British Columbia and first attracted national attention when he won the CBC Talent Festival in 1979. He later studied opera at University of Toronto.
Heppner won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 1988 which launched his career in major productions world wide.
He is associated with the Wagnerian repertoire, but he performed a range of operas from the German, French and Italian canons.
Heppner performed frequently with opera companies in the United States (including the New York Metropolitan Opera) and Europe, and concert appearances with symphony orchestras.
Heppner achieved renown with the 1993 recording of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch and the Bavarian State Orchestra.
He has appeared in the DVD recordings of the Met's productions of Beethoven's Fidelio , Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde , three of his signature roles.
He first performed Tristan with the Seattle Opera in 1998, and in November 1998 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado. Heppner also performed and recorded Wagner's "Gotterdammerung" with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
He specialized in operatic roles including the title part in Lohengrin , the title part in Otello , and Berlioz's Aeneas. Heppner recorded Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 1995 with Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He performed Beethoven's "Fidelio" at the Salzburg Festival with Solti in 1996, which would be the conductor's final operatic performances, and recorded the work that same year with Sir Colin Davis conducting. Also with Sir Colin Davis, Heppner recorded the role of Aeneas in Berlioz' "Les Troyens".
Heppner has recorded on multiple labels, participating in complete operas and solo albums of arias and songs. He was signed to an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon (DG). His first solo recording for DG, made in 2001, was Airs Français. It won a Juno Award.
Heppner has received Honorary Doctorates from Queen's University (2006), McMaster Divinity College (2005), York University (2003), Memorial University of Newfoundland (2003), University of Toronto (2002), McGill University (2002), and University of British Columbia (1997).
Heppner was awarded the National Arts Centre Award, a companion award of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards in 1995. [2] He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999, was promoted to Officer in 2002 and Companion in 2008. He performed at closing ceremonies of two Winter Olympic Games. In Turin in 2006, he sang the Canadian national anthem. Four years later, in Vancouver, he sang the Olympic Hymn. Both times, he mixed English and French. In June 2016, Heppner was made a laureate of the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards, with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Classical Music. [3]
Heppner announced his retirement from singing in April 2014. [4] Heppner felt unable to be a "part-time singer", feeling that "No matter how often you sing, if you're going to sing at a good level, a quality level, you've got to keep it up all the time. And I was finding that to be a little bit difficult. So that, plus the fact that I've been experiencing a little bit of unreliability in my voice –and that causes some anxieties –I decided it was time". [4]
Post-retirement, Heppner accepted a brief role in a musical production of Titanic at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto in May 2015. [5]
Heppner became a broadcaster on Canadian radio, hosting Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and Backstage with Ben Heppner on CBC Radio. [4] He retired from broadcasting in September 2021. [6]
Heppner plans to continue hosting master classes and coaching singers for roles, and appearing on voice competition juries. [4] The Ben Heppner Vocal Music Academy, a public school in Scarborough, named after Heppner, opened in 2012. [7]
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music. One of the most famous Lieder performers of the post-war period, he is best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly "Winterreise" of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release.
Helen Jeanette Donath is an American soprano with a career spanning fifty years.
Cheryl Studer is an American dramatic soprano who has sung at many of the world's foremost opera houses. Studer has performed more than eighty roles ranging from the dramatic repertoire to roles more commonly associated with lyric sopranos and coloratura sopranos, and, in her late stage, mezzo-sopranos. She is particularly known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.
Dame Gwyneth Jones is a Welsh dramatic soprano, widely regarded as one of the greatest Wagnerian sopranos in the second half of the 20th century.
René Pape is a German operatic bass. Pape has received two Grammys, was named "Vocalist of the Year" by Musical America in 2002, "Artist of the Year" by the German opera critics in 2006, and won an ECHO award in 2009.
Simon John O'Neill is a New Zealand-born operatic tenor. In 1998, his image appeared on the New Zealand one-dollar performing arts postage stamp.
Roberto Abbado is an Italian opera and symphonic music conductor. Currently he is Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 he has been appointed music director of Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. From 2018 he's Music Director of the Festival Verdi in Parma. Previously he held the position of Chief Conductor of Münchner Rundfunkorchester.
Alessandra Marc, born Judith Borden is an American dramatic soprano who has appeared at many of the world's opera houses and orchestras. Marc is particularly known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi, music of the Second Viennese School, and the title role in Puccini's Turandot.
José Francisco Araiza Andrade, is a Mexican operatic tenor and lied singer who has sung as soloist in leading concert halls and in leading tenor operatic roles in the major opera houses of Europe and North America during the course of a lengthy career. Born in Mexico City, he studied singing at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música de México and later in Germany, with Mozartian tenor Richard Holm, and lieder interpretation with Erik Werba. He made his operatic debut in 1970 in Mexico City as First Prisoner in Beethoven's Fidelio. Araiza initially came to international prominence singing in Mozart and Rossini operas, but in the 1980s broadened his repertoire to include Italian and French lyric tenor roles and Wagnerian roles such as Lohengrin and Walther von Stolzing. He was made a Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera in 1988. Now retired from the opera stage, he teaches singing and serves on the juries of several international singing competitions.
Bernd Weikl is an Austrian operatic baritone, particularly known for his performances in the stage works by Richard Wagner. He also has written books and directed operas.
Brian Large is a television director and author. He is among the world's foremost TV directors specializing in opera and classical music.
Matthew Rose is an English operatic bass.
Eva Johansson is a Danish operatic soprano.
Reiner Goldberg was a German operatic heldentenor who made an international career performing and recording. He appeared at the Berlin State Opera from 1972, and was a member of the ensemble from 1981. Goldberg achieved attention when he sang the role of Wagner's Parsifal for a 1982 opera film directed by Hans-Jürgen Syberberg. He then became known for performing the tenor roles of Wagner's stage works in leading opera houses in Europe and worldwide, such as the Bayreuth Festival where he appeared from 1986 as Tannhäuser, Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Siegfried in both Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, and Erik in Der fliegende Holländer. He performed at the Metropolitan Opera as Siegfried, conducted by James Levine and alongside Hildegard Behrens as Brünnhilde, resulting in a recording that won a Grammy Award.
Gerd Nienstedt was a German and Austrian opera singer, bass and bass-baritone. After an international career at major opera houses and the Bayreuth Festival, he was also a theatre director, stage director and academic voice teacher.
Petra Lang is a German opera singer. Beginning as a mezzo-soprano, from 2012 a soprano, she is known for her interpretation of music by Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler. She made an international career in both opera and concert. She has performed at the Bayreuth Festival from 2005, singing the title role of Isolde in 2016.
Warwick Olney Fyfe is an Australian operatic heldenbaritone who has an international career. Winner of the Helpmann Award for Best Male in an Operatic Feature Role for his performance as Alberich in Opera Australia's 2013 Bi-Centenary Cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the State Theatre in Melbourne. In August 2017 a career highlight was singing Klingsor in a concert performance of Richard Wagner's Parsifal starring Jonas Kaufmann with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House.
Mahler Symphony No. 4 is a 73-minute studio album on which Mahler's Fourth and his song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen are performed by Frederica von Stade and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Yoel Levi. The recording was released in 1999.
The following lists note recordings in opera and recital of soprano Jessye Norman.
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