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The German tenor, Martin Finke, studied singing at at the Folkwang-Musikhochschule Essen, especially with Hilde Wesselmann.
Martin Finke began his stage career in 1966 with an operetta company under the direction of tenor Cristo Bajew, was engaged since 1967 at the Stadttheater von Augsburg and came in 1971 to the Opernhaus von Köln, where he worked for more than 25 years. Since 1975 he was connected to the Staatsoper Stuttgart. In the same year 1975 he participated in the Festival of Bayreuth as Augustin Moser in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and as one of the miners in Parsifal. Guest performances at the Münchner Staatsoper, at the Operntheatern of Hannover, Nürnberg, Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, at the Deutschen Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg, at the Festivals of Schwetzingen and Bregenz (1984 as Spoletta in Tosca), at the Opernhaus von Zürich, in Rome, Lyon, at the Teatro Liceo Barcelona (1983 as Jacquino in L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio), at the Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels (1985 as David in the Meistersinger), at the Festival of Perugia and at the Pittsburgh Opera. On August 15, 1986 he sang at the Salzburg Festival in the premiere of Die schwarze Maske (The Black Mask) by K. Penderecki and also performed with this production in 1986 at the Wiener Staatsoper); on December 6, 1980 at the Stuttgarter Staatsoper in the Hermann Reutter's opera Hamlet.
Martin Finke has proven himself as a singer as well as a performer in buffo and character in a repertoire, the highlights of which are roles like the in the W.A. Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail, Monostatos in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Jacquino in Fidelio, Valzacchi in the Rosenkavalier (Cologne, 1986), Mime in the Der Ring des Nibelungen (Nice Opéra 1988) and David in the Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. In 1991 he sang at the Opernhaus von Köln in the German premiere of Der Meister und Margarita by York Höller; in the same year 1991 at the Festival of Eutin and at the Milan's La Scala the role of Monostatos. He was also highly esteemed as an oratorio (J.S. Bach's Passions, George Frideric Handel's Messiah, L.v. Beethoven's Missa solemnis) and Lieder singer; Also on stage as an interpreter of operetta roles.
Recordings: HMV-Electrola (Beppe in Bajazzo, Intermezzo by R. Strauss, Die Verschworenen by Schubert, Die schöne Helena by Offenbach, Land des Lächelns and Giuditta by Lehár), Philips (Ariadne auf Naxos by R. Strauss), RBM (Doktor und Apotheker by Dittersdorf). |
