Heinz Hoppe

26 January 1924 Saerbeck – 7 April 1993 Mannheim

Young Hoppe fought WWII, and returned from Soviet war captivity in 1948, wishing to become a singer. After studies at the conservatory in Detmold (first as a baritone, then of course as a tenor), he began in Münster in 1953 (debut as Händel's Serse). He went to Bremen in 1955, and in 1957 to Hamburg, where he spent the rest of his career (until 1970 or 1973, depending on sources). He made many guest appearances (Frankfurt, Munich, Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, La Scala – but even though many of his biographies claim that he also sang at the Met, it's not true).

He gained great popularity in Germany, sang a lot on radio and TV, and made plenty of records. His repertory was wide: on stage a specialist for Mozart and 20th century opera, he was also a respected lieder interpreter, and sang a great deal of operetta.

After his career, he was a professor for solo singing at the Mannheim-Heidelberg academy of music.

Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 2

I would like to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recording (Turco in Italia).