Hermann Prey – Portrait

The internationally acclaimed baritone Hermann Prey was born in Berlin in 1929. He made his breakthrough in 1956 as Figaro in the Vienna State Opera's production of Rossini's "Barber of Seville". His resounding success as Figaro in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1969 staging of Rossini's "Barber of Seville" at the Salzburg Festival stamped him as the Figaro of that era. Recorded a few years later by Unitel, this production has taken on an almost legendary status. Prey soon became a Mozart singer par excellence, portraying Guglielmo ("Così fan tutte"), Almaviva ("The Marriage of Figaro"), Papageno ("The Magic Flute") and, of course, Figaro. His unforgettable interpretation of this role in Ponnelle's production of "The Marriage of Figaro" is preserved for all times by Unitel in a 1976 recording with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Kiri Te Kanawa and Mirella Freni. Prey also enjoyed great popularity in the United States, appearing in operas in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Houston and New York. After his Met debut as Wolfram in "Tannhäuser" in 1960, he regularly sang at that house until 1995. In addition to Mozart and Rossini, Prey's other favorite composers included Lortzing, Donizetti, Strauss and Wagner. Prey made his Bayreuth debut in 1965. It was there that he transformed the Meistersinger's Beckmesser into a sympathetic figure, a poet tinged with melancholy, in Wolfgang Wagner's early 1980s production. This performance is also preserved on film by Unitel. Hermann Prey was never exclusively an opera singer, however. His other specialty was the German song. As a kind of ambassador of the German lied, he filled concert halls all over the world. Prey sang Schubert and Schumann, Brahms and Mahler in a way that always emphasized naturalness and spontaneity over analytical profundity and scholarship. But his inquisitiveness also led him to explore the treasures of the German song from the Middle Ages to the present day. A special fondness for Schubert moved him to set up a Schubert festival in the Austrian town of Hohenems, where he planned to perform all of Schubert's works. His interpretations of Schubert's songs have - with those of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau - set standards for lieder singing in the 20th century. Unitel is proud to offer Prey's recordings of Schubert's "Die schöne Müllerin", "Schwanengesang" and "Die Winterreise" on video, as well as lieder by Robert Schumann and Richard Strauss.