Franz Crass

Although occasionally billed like a bass baritone, Franz Crass was a higher bass with a musical instrument of unusual warmth and suppleness. In a day and time where most German basses provided weighty, droning noises, Crass’ very gorgeous instrument ideally match such functions as Sarastro (he sang the Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte aswell), Rocco in Fidelio, as well as the Hermit in Der Freischütz. Not really until the introduction of Kurt Moll was there a Western bass quite therefore mellifluous. After his 1st few recordings, specifically people that have Otto Klemperer, Crass was asked to defend myself against many engagements, both in the studio room and on-stage. After research at Cologne’s Hochschule für Musik, where he proved helpful extensively with teacher Clemens Glettenberg, Crass had taken several initial place awards provided by academies and broadcasting agencies. In 1954, he was provided a contract with the Städischen Bühnen Krefeld/München-Gladbach and continued to be there for just two years before signing up for Hanover’s Landestheater. In 1959, he started an extended association using the Bayreuth Celebration, executing in Lohengrin and coming back in Der fliegende Holländer the next year. In old age, he made an appearance there in a number of operas documented for commercial discharge. Unfortunately, a few of his co-workers in Parsifal and Lohengrin had been in poor tone of voice and Boulez’s performing of the previous was superficially fast. From 1962 to 1964, Crass performed using the Cologne Opera, shifting thereafter towards the Hamburg Condition Opera. As his profession extended, he was a regular visitor in Munich, Vienna, at La Scala, with Covent Garden. Trips to America had been fewer as well as the singer’s one creation on the Chicago Lyric Opera (Fidelio) demonstrated the effects from the deafness that ultimately ended his profession. Although his Rocco was still good-looking in audio, consistent flatness of pitch demonstrated worrisome. During his perfect, Crass recorded a lot of his finest functions. At least two live shows of his Dutchman had been preserved, matched up in vocal splendor just by Hans Hotter’s WWII-era record. Crass was the outstanding Sarastro in Karl Böhm’s Zauberflöte that also presented the elegant Tamino of Fritz Wunderlich. Numerous recordings of Bach show just how much better the composer’s bass arias audio when sung by a complete and genuinely gorgeous voice.