Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (born 28 May 1925) is a now retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, and one of the most famous lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period. At his peak, he was greatly admired for his interpretive insights and the note-perfect control of the tonal qualities and shadings of his voice. He was notable, too, for his exceptional rhythmic sense and incisive diction (sometimes, critics asserted, a...
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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (born 28 May 1925) is a now retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, and one of the most famous lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period. At his peak, he was greatly admired for his interpretive insights and the note-perfect control of the tonal qualities and shadings of his voice. He was notable, too, for his exceptional rhythmic sense and incisive diction (sometimes, critics asserted, at the expense of an ideally smooth legato vocal line). Fischer-Dieskau has also performed and recorded many operatic roles.
His voice was a high, light, almost reedy baritone with lots of head-voice resonance. In spite of this, he performed and recorded (with mixed success) such heroic bass-baritone roles as Wotan, Hans Sachs, Friedrich von Telramund, Amfortas, the Dutchman, Mandryga, Jokannan, and Orest, and, Verdian bellowing baritone roles like Jago, Renato, MacBeth, Rigoletto, and even Scarpia. His stage-personality was invariably...
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