'Brigitte Fassbaender' (; born
3 July,
1939 in
Berlin), is a
mezzo-soprano opera singer.
Biography
She is the daughter of screen actress Sabine Peters and the celebrated German baritone, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. The family settled in Nuremberg after World War II.
She is a lesbian herself
[1] and has a large lesbian following
[2].
Career
Brigitte Fassbaender studied singing with her father, the celebrated baritone
Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, at the
Nuremberg Conservatory and joined the
Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1961, where her first leading role was Nicklausse in ''
The Tales of Hoffmann''. She first sang Octavian (''Der Rosenkavalier'') in Munich in 1967, and it was in this role that she launched her international career in 1971 at Covent Garden, and made her
Metropolitan Opera debut in 1974. In addition to her operatic triumphs, she also achieved success in the concert hall as a
Lieder singer. She played Prince Orlofsky in a 1984 movie version of Strauss' ''
Die Fledermaus''.
She has given master classes for years, and has been Intendantin (artistic director) of the Tiroler Landes Theater in Innsbruck, Austria, for seven or eight seasons, and stages several opera productions there each year. She made dozens of recordings -- operas, Lieder (including Schubert's 'Winterreise' and 'Schwanengesang'), oratorios (Bach's ''Christmas Oratorio'', Handel's ''Messiah'', etc.) and appeared in numerous televised opera productions now available on DVD (e.g., such signature roles as Octavian in ''Der Rosenkavalier'' and Orlofsky in ''Die Fledermaus'', both conducted by frequent collaborator Carlos Kleiber, whose birthday [not year] she shares). She has received the Bavarian State Opera's honorific 'Kammersaengerin' or 'Court Singer.'
References
1. http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=music&article=340
2. http://www.glbtq.com/arts/divas,2.html
External links
Short biography