Death Wagner singer Peter Seiffert has fallen silent forever at the age of 71
The Wagner tenor Peter Seiffert is dead. He died on Monday near Salzburg after a long illness, his family announced. The German opera singer was 71 years old. He was considered one of the most influential Wagner heroes of his generation.
15.04.2025, 11:53
15.04.2025, 11:54
SDA
Peter Seiffert was practically born into a musical career as the son of opera singer Helmut Seiffert. After his training, the Düsseldorf native made his debut at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg in 1978 before joining the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin in 1980.
Debut in Zurich in 1996
His personal debuts at the Bavarian State Opera, Covent Garden in London, the Vienna State Opera and the Zurich Opera House in 1996 followed in quick succession.
Peter Seiffert would ultimately appear 102 times on the stage of the Haus am Ring, mainly in the great Wagner roles from "Parsifal" to "Tannhäuser" and "Tristan und Isolde". However, Seiffert celebrated his last performance at the State Opera in 2018 as Florestan in Beethoven's "Fidelio".
His ability to interpret Wagner's difficult roles with apparent ease also took Seiffert to the Wagner Mecca of the Bayreuth Festival from 1996 to 2005, where he appeared in "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" and "Lohengrin". He made his debut at the Lucerne Festival in 1994 with the Verdi Requiem with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Daniel Barenboim. Seiffert has also performed at the Bregenz and Salzburg Festivals.
Rhenish cheerful nature
"Away from the opera stage, Peter Seiffert was a very uncomplicated, very entertaining and generous person who will be greatly missed," the Bayreuth Festival paid tribute to the deceased on Tuesday.
Seiffert, who was appointed Austrian Kammersänger in 2013, once described himself to the Austrian news agency APA as a "Rhenish cheerful nature", which he himself considered to be one of his professional secrets: "That also buffers some of the Wagnerian heaviness."
