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Born: April 11, 1938 - Buir, near Köln, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Died: March 5, 2017 - Köln, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany |
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The acclaimed German bass, Kurt Moll, learned to play the guitar and the cello and sang in the school choir in his youth. Then he studied voice at the Köln Hochschule für Musik and with Emmy Müller.
Kurt Moll began his career with the Cologne Opera, of which he became a member at the age of 20, and thereafter was invited to Aachen, where he sang such roles as Sarastro in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer. He sang his first King Marke and Ramfis in Aida in Mainz before becoming a member of the Wuppertal Opera for five years. His career took on international dimensions after he bowed with the Hamburg State Opera in 1969, followed by debuts in Paris, Munich, Vienna, Salzburg and Bayreuth. Moll made his 1972 Teatro alla Scala debut as Osmin.
Kurt Moll made his USA opera debut with San Francisco Opera in 1974 as Gurnemanz in Parsifal and sang King Marke in our staging of Tristan und Isolde that same year. He subsequently appeared with the Company as Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier (1985), Gurnemanz (1988), and as Osmin in W.A. Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1990). He first appeared with the Metropolitan Opera in New York during their 1979 season, appearing as Landgrave in Tannhäuser, Rocco in L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio and Sparafucile in Rigoletto.
Kurt Moll sang in all the world's major opera houses as well as with the major orchestras as a concert soloist. Engagements from his 1999-2000 season have included Parsifal in Paris (Bastille), Vienna, Dresden and Munich; Tristan und Isolde in Florence; Der Rosenkavalier in Munich and Dresden; Der Fliegende Holländer in London; La Forza del Destino (Padre Guardiano) in Hamburg; and Die Meistersinger (Pogner) in Munich. On July 31, 2006, he gave his final operatic performance, stating that for health reasons, he won't appear on a stage again
Kurt Moll made innumerable recordings (among them Parsifal, Fidelio, Der Freischütz, Der Fliegende Holländer, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Meistersinger, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde) under such conductors as Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, Erich Kleiber, Leonard Bernstein, Rafael Kubelík, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. |
