Hermann Prey

As a young teenager the German baritone singer Hermann Prey narrowly escaped being drafted into the German army after the allied forces entered Berlin and hostilities ceased. Prey went on to study voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and won the Hessischer Rundfunk prize at Frankfurt in 1952. He began to perform recitals and made his opera debut the following year playing Moruccio in Eugen d'Albert's 'Tiefland'. Following a series of performances of the opera with Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Prey joined the Hamburg State Opera where he remained until 1960. Prey's natural ebullience made him a popular casting choice for directors looking for a leading baritone to play parts written in the comic Italian opera style. His virtuosic performances and natural comic acting ability endeared him to audiences around the world and he began to get film and TV parts performing opera; he played Figaro in the 1976 film 'Le Nozze di Figaro' produced by the French opera director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Prey became a popular TV celebrity in Germany often appearing with Fritz Wunderlich. Later in his career Prey taught at the University of Music in Hamburg. He died in Krailling, Bavaria at the age of 69 in 1998.

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