A unique voice, developed out and pure gold: Peter Seiffert was a sound Grandzza. An obituary for the tenor.
“Circe! Circe!” The first calls are for Bacchus, disgustingly high and still sung behind the stage, most tenors are already on the attack. But here, in autumn 2015 at the Bavarian State Opera, you got the feeling that the man only starts. And: he enjoys it. It was one of Peter Seiffert’s last opera appearances. He was already in early age, and Kirill Petrenko had to occasionally conduct the star back on the trail. Regardless, Seiffert was not the most accurate, most accurate in his guild. But if you have such a voice, such light gold, you will be forgiving everything.
Seiffert died at his place of residence near Salzburg on Monday. He was 71 years old, and one can assume that if it hadn’t been to this serious illness, he would still be on stage. Because he sings, you heard that everyone in his games was heard as a pleasure. And because his voice was allowed to develop exemplary: from the tenderly sampled fenton in Otto Nicolai’s “Funny Women from Windsor”, which he sang under Wolfgang Sawallisch on the Bavarian State Opera to the difficult Tannhäuser hero.
Instinct singer in the best sense
Even if this unique voice stretched and widened: Peter Seiffert always sounded the same. His heroes were a sound child. And later, even if it went to the dark roles, men who walked through a pleasure garden – although this can be understood. Seiffert also lived out the Bacchus in private life. The native of Düsseldorf was able to enjoy life. With a Grandzza, a Was-Kostet-Die-World charm that was reflected in his interpretations. Seiffert was Sonnyboy and sole entertainer away from the stage: self -irony, a never hurtful humor, anecdotes bursting with punch lines. At a guest performance by the Bavarian State Opera in Tokyo, Seiffert à la Hape Kerkeling parliamented in a fantasy Japanese for minutes, to the surprise and amusement of the locals. A television show would also have been granted this man.
Seiffert, but he knew that himself, was certainly not a brooder, not an intellectual. None who put his art on the gold scale – and yet he produced exactly that precious metal every evening. He was the typical example of an instinct singer, Fritz Wunderlich might have been related to him, who simply did everything right and convinced with it. And the instinct also led him through his career. From the ensemble of the German Opera on the Rhine to the German Opera Berlin until he no longer needed the convenient permanent position. The stages tore around him. It was only around the Mozart singer Seiffert, then around the young hero (Erik, Max, Florestan), finally the vowel heavyweight, the Siegmund, Tristan or Tannhäuser.
Last Munich appearance with Mahler
One of his roles was the Lohengrin. He sang it for the first time and fresh after the change in Munich, again under Sawallian and in a resumption of the production of August Everding, later also, much more mature, at the Bayreuth Festival. A knight, to which the origin of the abstinented grail world was never completely accepted – but love for Elsa. The embodied in Bayreuth Seiffert’s second wife, the soprano Petra-Maria Schnitzer. Previously, he was married to singer Lucia Popp. Both found each other about the Munich production of the “funny women”, the early cancer death of Lucia Popp in 1993 had not wound Seiffert for a long time.
This exceptional tenor should not be constricted to the German subject, although he dominated it for decades. Seiffert also risked Verdi’s title role in Munich – and completed the killer game with left. Or he let himself be committed to Verdis Messa da Requiem from time to time and, with his heart-in “Ingemisco” solo, was shaped by many colleagues. In 2021 he wanted to say goodbye to the Siegmund in the Festspielhaus Füssen, Corona prevented this “Valkyrie”.
Only, of course, that Seiffert was also the ideal interpreter for Gustav Mahler’s “song from the earth”. At his last Munich appearance in March 2016, worlds collided with each other in this concert. Here Bariton Christian Gerhaher, who knocked every syllable, every interval. And there Seiffert, who vibrated the bacchants of his pieces. “Now take the wine! Now it’s time, enjoyed!”, He hurled the enthusiastic audience in the national theater. “Empty your gold mugs to base! Life is dark, is death!”
