Peter Hofmann is arguably the greatest heldentenor of our era, a blue-eyed, golden-maned German singer widely regarded as the leading Wagnerian hero of the contemporary opera stages of Europe. But if he is a Siegfried of the divine vision, his is a talent that extends from the grand opera of Bayreuth into the world of rock music, where he has earned enormous fame and fortune through best-selling recordings and sold-out concert tours.
In December 1985 and January 1986 he played the title role in Lohengrin, in the company of Eva Marton as Eva and Leonie Rysanek as Ortrud, and then in April of this year the title role in Parsifal, opposite Leonie Rysanek as Kundry.
On opening night of the 1986-1987 Metropolitan Opera season Peter Hofmann will portray Siegmund, noble son of Wotan, amorous brother of Sieglinde, and doomed father of Siegfried, in Die Walkure, the first chapter to be mounted in a new production of the entire tetralogy of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner's most monumental achievement. In fact, it was in the Ring cycle that American audiences first came to know this arresting star of stage and screen, for in the televised Chereau production for the Wagner centennial Hofmann undertook the role of Siegmund in Die Walkure and that of Siegfried in Siegfried and Gotterdammerung, the last two segments of the cycle initiated by Das Rheingold.
With the chiseled features and athletic build of a Teutonic warrior god, he sings with a bravura ease equal to that of any divo of our day, and his presence on the stage is somewhere between magnetic and mesmeric. A performance by Peter Hofmann, as any one of Wagner's supermen, is a transfixing experience not to be missed.
I met with Hofmann on a number of occasions during his visits to New York and found him to be an original thinker, a highly independent man of the world, and a gentleman openly devoted to his family. His story, his words of wisdom, and his insight into the nature of the performing arts are rich with relevance for any who share his interest in culture.
Paul Gregory: Mr. Hofmann, you have moved from the world of pop and rock into the world of opera. How did that happen?
Peter Hofmann: Well, I discovered my voice--my operatic voice, that is. Actually, there was one rock-and-roll concert that we put on in which the microphone broke down, and thus I had to sing without it. I just tried it--to sing without amplification--and the audience could hear me, which was a big surprise. One guy from the audience came up and said, "My God, you could sing opera," and that's when I actually started thinking about it.
Gregory: That must have been back in the 1960s.
Hofmann: The early sixties. I was about 15 or 16.
Gregory: I believe that you had started your own rock band and were entertaining American soldiers at NATO army bases around Germany. (He nods assent in removed amusement). Berlin night clubs also?
Hofmann: No, just small gigs, to make a little money. You know, those were the days, not so long after the war, when Germany was poorer than America. Rock and roll had come over in the late fifties in the person of Elvis… You know, I can imitate him.
Gregory: Well, you did on stage at the Met last week in Die Meister singer von Nurnberg.
Hofmann: I did??? (He looks innocently shocked, but pleased, and I nod). Oh, my God!! (He is either embarrassed or
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