Tansel Akzeybek (born 1978) is a German operatic tenor of Turkish descent.
Akzeybek was born in 1978 [1] in Berlin. When he was five years old, he returned with his family to their home town İzmir. [2] Akzeybek did not speak Turkish at the time and therefore had to practise with his grandmother in order to join the school. Until he was 14 years old, Akzeybek played in the youth team of the Altay S.K. [1] [3] After his parents recognised his talent as a singer, Akzeybek received singing lessons at a private music school [1] and his father also gave him a keyboard. At the age of 15 Akzeybek became a wedding singer. [2] Akzeybek passed the entrance examination at the state Dokuz Eylül University of İzmir with the maximum score and started to study singing there. During this time Akzeybek also performed in the army music corps during state visits. At the age of 18 he attended an opera performance for the first time with Jules Massenet's Werther . [4] At 19, Akzeybek became a member of the opera choir and in 1998 he sang his first solo in Beethoven's Fidelio as the First Prisoner. After completing his studies, Akzeybek was engaged at the opera in İzmir. [1] As he saw few further opportunities for development for himself in his home country, Akzeybek said, because there was no independent opera tradition there, he followed the advice of a horn player friend who occasionally worked with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and moved from İzmir to Lübeck in 2004, even though he said he no longer spoke a word of German. [1] [2] In Germany, Akzeybek studied for three more semesters at the Lübeck Musikhochschule with Anke Eggers and, after graduating, in master classes with Lia Lantieri, Katia Ricciarelli and René Kollo. In 2009, he received a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Association in Bayreuth, followed by engagements in Dortmund, Bonn, Salzburg and finally Berlin, where he was a member of the ensemble of the Komische Oper Berlin. He played Tamino in The Magic Flute and Tony in West Side Story . [5]
Akzeybek holds German citizenship since 2013. From 2014, Akzeybek returned to İzmir for a short time, where he sang the title role in the 2015 premiere of a Harry Potter opera staged by Murat Göksu at the Mozart Academy. [6] [2] Am 25. Juli 2015 eröffnete Akzeybek in seiner Rolle eines jungen Seemanns in Tristan und Isolde. [7] [8]
José Plácido Domingo Embil is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, German, Spanish, English and Russian in the most prestigious opera houses in the world. Although primarily a lirico-spinto tenor for most of his career, especially popular for his Cavaradossi, Hoffmann, Don José and Canio, he quickly moved into more dramatic roles, becoming the most acclaimed Otello of his generation. In the early 2010s, he transitioned from the tenor repertory into exclusively baritone parts, including Simon Boccanegra. As of 2020, he has performed 151 different roles.
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American spinto soprano who was the first African-American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera. She regularly appeared at the world's major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and La Scala; at La Scala, she was also the first African American to sing a leading role. She was particularly renowned for her performances of the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida.
Harry Gustaf Nikolai Gädda, better known as Nicolai Gedda, was a Swedish operatic tenor. Debuting in 1951, Gedda had a long and successful career in opera until the age of 77 in June 2003, when he made his final operatic recording. Skilled at languages, he performed operas in French, Russian, German, Italian, English, Czech and Swedish, as well as one in Latin. In January 1958, he created the part of Anatol in the world premiere of the American opera Vanessa at the Metropolitan Opera. Having made some two hundred recordings, Gedda is one of the most widely recorded opera singers in history. His singing is best known for its beauty of tone, vocal control, and musical perception.
Lawrence Winters(néLawrence Lafayette Whisonant; 15 November 1915 King's Creek, South Carolina – 24 September 1965 Hamburg, Germany), bass-baritone, was an American opera singer who had an active international career from the mid-1940s through the mid-1960s. He was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. He began his opera career at the New York City Opera in 1946 during a time when the NYCO was one of the few American opera companies hiring black artists. He sang a varied repertoire there through 1955, after which his career was largely based in Europe until his death at the age of fifty.
Dame Eva Turner was an English dramatic soprano. Determined from an early age to become an opera singer, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and then joined the chorus of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. She was allotted increasingly important solo roles, and by 1920 was the company's prima donna.
Albano Antonio Carrisi, better known as Al Bano, is an Italian tenor and actor. Having sold over 25 million records globally and career spanning seven decades, he is one of the most recognisable Italian singers in the world. He has gained worldwide notability due to his four and a half octave vocal range as well as his personal and professional association with Romina Power, daughter of Hollywood actor Tyrone Power, lasting until the 1990s. Carrisi is acclaimed for singing with operatic affinity in pop, rock and italo disco repertoires with extensive head voice and minimal usage of falsetto vocal register. As of 2023, he has participated in 15 editions of the Sanremo Music Festival, tying the record for most participations with Anna Oxa, Milva, Peppino di Capri and Toto Cutugno; this includes a victory in 1984 duetting with Power. He additionally took part in the Sanremo Giovani selection in 1965.
Régine Crespin was a French soprano who had a major international career in opera and on the concert stage between 1950 and 1989. She started her career singing roles in the dramatic soprano and spinto soprano repertoire, drawing particular acclaim singing Wagner and Strauss heroines. She went on to sing a wider repertoire that embraced Italian, French, German, and Russian opera from a variety of musical periods. In the early 1970s Crespin began experiencing vocal difficulties for the first time and ultimately began performing roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire. Throughout her career she was widely admired for the elegance, warmth and subtlety of her singing, especially in the French and German operatic repertories.
Chris Merritt is an American tenor.
The Balık Sisters are an opera act composed of Turkish identical twin sisters Didem Balık and Sinem Balık. Didem is a mezzo-soprano while Sinem is a soprano. The sisters, who claim to be the only identical twin opera singers performing professionally, are also known by the nickname "the Opera twins." Since 2000, Didem and Sinem have been living and performing in Vienna, Austria.
Karl Erb was a German tenor who made his career first in opera and then in oratorio and lieder recital. He excelled in all these genres, and before 1920 gave classic performances of key roles in modern works, and created lead roles in those of Hans Pfitzner. He was the first husband of Maria Ivogün and was considered by many the ideal Evangelist in Bach's St Matthew Passion.
Johanna Jachmann-Wagner or Johanna Wagner was a mezzo-soprano singer, tragédienne in theatrical drama, and teacher of singing and theatrical performance who won great distinction in Europe during the third quarter of the 19th century. She was a niece of the composer Richard Wagner and was the original performer, and in some respects the inspiration, of the character of Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. She was also the original intended performer of Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen, but in the event assumed other roles.
William Dooley was an American bass-baritone singer who performed with many prominent opera companies. He began his career in Germany in the late 1950s, ultimately becoming a leading performer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1962 to 1964. He then embarked on a highly successful career at the Metropolitan Opera where he sang regularly between 1964 and 1977. Between 1977 and 1982 he sang in 19 performances at the Vienna State Opera, after which he remained active as a freelance artist on the international stage through the early 1990s.
Rudolf Watzke was an operatic and concert bass singer.
Victor von Halem was a German operatic bass. He was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin for nearly 30 years as well as a guest singer in the major opera houses and festivals of Europe and North America. He sang a wide repertoire encompassing over 100 roles, including King Philipp in Verdi's Don Carlo and Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Horst Günter was a German operatic baritone and voice teacher.
Anny von Stosch was a German operatic soprano
Otto Köhler was a German operatic baritone and voice teacher.
David Ameln is a German operatic tenor (tenorbuffo).
Jens Thoben is a German clarinetist, an orchestra and a chamber musician. He is faculty professor for clarinet and chamber music at Lübeck Academy of Music and certified teacher of Lichtenberger® Applied Physiology of the Voice. His musical interest is broad and applies in particular to formats that cross genres.
Lea Piltti was a Finnish opera singer and voice pedagog, one of the leading coloratura sopranos of the 1930s and 40s, and one of Finland's most successful singers on the international stage.