Paul Kuen

8 April 1910 Neuburg an der Kamel – 4 Februar 1997 Sulzberg im Allgäu

Paul Kuen sings

Boris Godunov: Fließet, fließet, heiße, bitt're Tränen

In RA format

Kuen's father was a teacher, and a composer of military music, so music had always been a part of his life. When the father was a soldier in WWI, little Paul helped sustain the family by singing in the village where they lived, for some bread or apples.
Destined to become a teacher like his father, he soon switched to an apprenticeship as a piano maker, and exercised that profession for several years. When tuning the piano of the singer and voice teacher Adalbert Ebner, he sang for him, Ebner was swept off his feet, and offered to teach him for free. So Kuen took voice lessons in his spare time. Before being fully trained, and before having even looked for a contract as an opera singer, he quit his job at the piano plant.
He was lucky, and got his first contract the same year, 1932, at the tiny theater of Konstanz, where he stayed for one season. His next stages were Bamberg, Sankt Gallen and Gießen, for one season each, followed by two seasons each in Freiburg, Plauen, Königsberg (modern Kaliningrad) and Nürnberg. Kuen was a comprimario with a voice; although he rarely sang main parts, he was able to; and he learned his roles very quickly. When stepping in as Pinkerton for a sick colleague in Königsberg, he had three hours to learn the role that he had only known from listening (when singing Goro); he actually got ready in those three hours, and sang without disaster.
After WWII, he hesitated to accept offers by the State Operas in Dresden and Vienna, because his dream was to sing in Munich. And in 1946, he actually got a contract there, and stayed for the rest of his career (until 1967, with occasional guest appearances into the 1970s).
His great breakthrough was his first Mime at the Bayreuth Festival in 1951 (to be repeated every year until 1957); already during the war, he had made friends with Wieland Wagner, who had promised he would be Mime in Bayreuth as soon as the festival would reopen. Many international guest appearances followed, mostly as Mime and David: the Monnaie in Brussels became his second homebase, he sang throughout France, Belgium and the Netherlands, at Covent Garden, at the Met, in Naples, in Vienna.

Repertory
Der Vetter aus Dingsda (Fremder) – Konstanz, Stadttheater, 9 November 1932
Die Zauberflöte (Tamino) – Konstanz, Stadttheater, 15 May 1933
Die Blume von Hawaii (Prinz) – Konstanz, Stadttheater
Die Geisha (Katana) – Konstanz, Stadttheater
Boccaccio (Lotteringhi) – Bamberg, Stadttheater, 1933
Das Nachtlager von Granada (Gomez) – Bamberg, Stadttheater
Alt-Wien (Stelzer) – Bamberg, Stadttheater
Der Vogelhändler (Adam) – Bamberg, Stadttheater
Der Bettelstudent (Janicki) – Bamberg, Stadttheater
Il mondo della luna (Cecco?) – Bamberg, Stadttheater
Das Dorf ohne Glocke (Kremer) – Bamberg, Stadttheater
Die Fledermaus (Eisenstein) – Bamberg, Stadttheater
Die Kosakenbraut (Fedor) – St. Gallen, Stadttheater, 1934-35
Das Land des Lächelns (Sou-Chong) – St. Gallen, Stadttheater, 1935
Der Günstling (Fabiani) – Giessen, Stadttheater, 1936
Le nozze di Figaro (Basilio) – Giessen, Stadttheater, 1936
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (David) – Freiburg, Stadttheater, 27 July 1938
Faust (Siebel) – Freiburg, Stadttheater
Der fliegende Holländer (Steuermann) – Freiburg, Stadttheater
Zar und Zimmermann (Peter Iwanow) – Freiburg, Stadttheater
Così fan tutte (Ferrando) – Plauen, Stadttheater, 1938-40
Carmen (José) – Plauen, Stadttheater, 1938-40
Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Pedrillo) – Königsberg, Stadttheater, 1940-42
Der Freischütz (Kilian) – Königsberg, Stadttheater, 1940-42
Pagliacci (Beppo) – Königsberg, Stadttheater, 1940-42
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (Junker) – Königsberg, Stadttheater, 1940-42
Madama Butterfly (Pinkerton) – Königsberg, Stadttheater, 1940-42
Der Freischütz (Max) – Nürnberg, Opernhaus, 5 November 1942
Prodaná nevěsta (Vašek) – Nürnberg, Opernhaus, 13 May 1943
Mariana (Pietro) – Nürnberg, Opernhaus
Die Opernprobe (Reinthal) – Nürnberg, Opernhaus
Das Apfelfest (Dobrian) – Nürnberg, Opernhaus
Siegfried (Mime) – Nürnberg, Opernhaus
Kát'a Kabanová (Váňa) – München, Prinzregententheater, 1946
Gianni Schicchi (Gherardo) – München, Prinzregententheater
Tiefland (Nando) – München, Prinzregententheater
La traviata (Alfredo) – Augsburg, Stadttheater, 1946
Otello (Cassio) – München, Prinzregententheater, 22 February 1948
Salome (Erster Jude) – München, Prinzregententheater, 1948
Boris Godunov (Missail) – München, Prinzregententheater, 1950
Mathis der Maler (Capito) – München, Prinzregententheater
Tobias Wunderlich (Fink) – München, Prinzregententheater
Das Rheingold (Mime) – Bayreuth, Festspielhaus, 1951
Die Kluge (Strolch) – München, Prinzregententheater
Antigone (Wächter) – München, Prinzregententheater
Hänsel und Gretel (Hexe) – München, Prinzregententheater
Der Rosenkavalier (Valzacchi) – Monte Carlo, Garnier, 29 March 1954
Falstaff (Cajus) – München, Prinzregententheater, 1954
Louise (Noctambule, Pape des Fous) – München, Prinzregententheater, 10 March 1955
Ariadne auf Naxos (Tanzmeister, Brighella) – München, Prinzregententheater, 1956
Don Juan de Mañara (Deuxième Religieux) – München, Prinzregententheater, 29 March 1956
Khovanshchina (Scrivener) – München, Prinzregententheater, 8 November 1956
Wozzeck (Hauptmann) – München, Prinzregententheater, 29 May 1957
Der Barbier von Bagdad (Mustapha) – Bregenz, Festspiele, 1959
Otello (Rodrigo) – München, Prinzregententheater, 17 December 1958
Les contes d'Hoffmann (Andrès, Cochenille, Pitichinaccio, Franz) – New York, Met, 9 January 1962
Die Zauberflöte (Monostatos) – Wien, Theater an der Wien, 30 May 1962
Die Frau ohne Schatten (Der Bucklige) – München, Nationaltheater, 29 March 1964
Tosca (Spoletta) – München, Nationaltheater, 1964
Lanzelot (Bürgermeister) – München, Nationaltheater, 27 April 1971

Other roles
Die Zauberflöte (Erster Geharnischter, Erster Priester, Zweiter Priester)
Le nozze di Figaro (Curzio)
Lohengrin (Erster brabantischer Edler, Zweiter brabantischer Edler)
Tannhäuser (Heinrich)
Tristan und Isolde (Junger Seemann, Hirt)
Feuersnot (Tulbeck)
Ariadne auf Naxos (Scaramuccio)
Capriccio (Taupe)
Daphne (Zweiter Schäfer)
Die Liebe der Danae (ErsterKönig)
Fidelio (Jaquino)
Carmen (Remendado, Dancairo)
Zar und Zimmermann (Châteauneuf)
Rigoletto (Borsa)
Il trovatore (Ruiz)
Aida (Messaggero)
La forza del destino (Trabuco)
Oedipus rex (Der Hirte)
Palestrina (Budoja, Theophilius, Erscheinung der Meister)
Die Hochzeit des Jobs (Jakob)
Výlety páně Broučkovy/The excursions of Mr. Brouček (Miroslav)
Evgenij Onegin (Triquet)
Don Pedros Heimkehr (Valente)
Die Zaubergeige (Richter)
Peer Gynt (Erster Kaufmann)
Der Mond (Dritter Bursche)
Die Bernauerin (Welscher Spielmann, Tenorsolo)
Johanna auf dem Scheiterhaufen (Schreiber, Person des Weinfestes)
Dantons Tod (Sechelles)
Karl V. (Ferdinand)
Il re cervo (Coltellino)
Die Heimkehr (Chicot)
Simplicius Simplicissimus (Gouverneur)
Il barbiere di Siviglia (Fiorello)
Il tabarro (Liederverkäufer)
Madama Butterfly (Goro, Yamadori)
Les contes d'Hoffmann (Spalanzani, Niklausse)
Der Waffenschmied (Georg)
Die beiden Schützen (Peter)
I quattro rusteghi (Filipeto)
Schwarzer Peter (Roderich)
Der Rosenkavalier (Italienischer Sänger)
Godiva (Orgar)
Die Hochzeitsfackel
Salambo by Böttcher (Spendius)
Aurora (Pippo)
Turandot (Pang)
Fra Diavolo (Beppo)
Gasparone
Wenn Liebe erwacht
Der Zigeunerbaron (Barinkay)
Ein Kaiser ist verliebt (Rober)
Schwarzwaldmädel
Dichter und Bauer
Der Zarewitsch
Der Opernball (Dorémil)
Das Musikantenmädel (Karl)
Die Dorothee (Halmer)
Meck und Muck (Freihold)
Das Dreimäderlhaus (Schubert)
Das Hollandweibchen (Prinz)

Reference: Stimmen die um die Welt gingen, no. 57, December 1997

Go Home