Trivia

He was a regular guest also on radio and television, and one of the most popular tenors of his time.

Heinz Hoppe was a German lyric tenor in opera, lied and operetta, who performed internationally.

He studied voice at the Detmold Conservatory on a scholarship, where Gerd Husler converted him from baritone to tenor.

During the Second World War he fought on the Eastern Front and did not return from Soviet captivity to his home country until 1948.

A long-time member of the Hamburg State Opera, he appeared in world premieres.

From 1956 to 1970, he was First Lyrical Tenor at the Hamburg State Opera.

Genuine in everything he sang, Hoppe was able to lend artistic expression to the folktune-like simplicity of a melody without sounding artificial.

He also appeared in operetta and lieder recitals, especially with pianist Sebastian Peschko.

He took part in world premieres, in 1960 of Henze's Der Prinz von Homburg, and in 1964 of Ernst Krenek's Der goldene Bock.

Heinz Hoppe was been the incarnation of the "olk singer": that rare species of singer possessing the necessary vocal qualities to pursue a career in opera or recital while maintaining a natural, "folk" instinct for spinning human emotion into sound.

Heinz Hoppe participated in numerous opera and operetta recordings as well as over 200 radio recordings.

He was a professor of voice at the Musikhochschule Heidelberg-Mannheim from 1977 to 1989.

Hoppe made his stage debut in 1953 in the title role of Handel's Xerxes at the Theater Münster.

He gave regular guest performances in the Frankfurt Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

Hoppe was awarded the title Kammersänger in Hamburg.

In 1961, he was Lysander in the German premiere of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

He sang in Paris, in New York, at La Scala in Milan, in Madrid and in Lisbon, among others.

He appeared as a regular guest on Heinz Schenk's television show Zum Blauen Bock.

His operetta recordings were mainly made at the NDR in Hamburg and Hanover; later Hoppe also worked with the conductor Franz Marszalek, who coupled him with the soprano Ingeborg Hallstein for Polydor Records.

From 1955, he was a member of the Theater Bremen.