Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau – Biographical Sketch

1925
28 May: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau born in Berlin to Albert Fischer-Dieskau (1865–1937), a headmaster, and Theodora Klingelhöffer (1884–1966), a teacher

1941
Begins vocal training with Georg A. Walter

1942
Begins vocal studies with Hermann Weißenborn at the Berlin Musikhochschule

1943
First public appearance at the community hall of the Berlin suburb Zehlendorf. School-leaving exam (high-school graduation). Drafted into the German army

1945
Prisoner-of-war at an American camp in Italy

1947
Resumes his studies with Weißenborn. First radio recording: Schubert’s Winterreise

1948
Opera debut as Posa in Verdi’s Don Carlos, Ferenc Fricsay conducting, at the Städtische Oper, Berlin

1949
Marries the cellist Irmgard Poppen; the marriage produces three sons: Mathias (1951), Martin (1954) and Manuel (1963). First recording: Brahms’s Four Serious Songs for Deutsche Grammophon. Sings Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser for the first time, Städtische Oper, Berlin. Guest engagements with the Vienna State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, Munich

1950
Awarded Kunstpreis Berlin (Berlin Arts Prize)

1951
Edinburgh Festival debut. Salzburg Festival debut singing Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen under Wilhelm Furtwängler. First recordings with Gerald Moore.

1952
First lieder recital with Jörg Demus

1953
Debut in the title-role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Karl Böhm conducting, at the Städtische Oper, Berlin

1954
Bayreuth Festival debut as Wolfram in Tannhäuser


1955
First North American tour. Awarded Golden Orpheus, Mantua

1956
Debut as the Count in Mozart’s Figaro, Salzburg

1957
Debut as Verdi’s Falstaff, Städtische Oper, Berlin

1960
Debut as Berg’s Wozzeck, Städtische Oper, Berlin

1961
Premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers at the Schwetzingen Festival. Appears as Don Giovanni at the opening of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. Appointed professor at Berlin’s Hochschule der Künste (Academy of Arts)

1962
Premiere of Britten’s War Requiem in Coventry. Mozart Medallion, Vienna

1963
First tour of Japan. Appears as Barak in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten at the re-opening of the National Theatre, Munich. Death of Irmgard Fischer-Dieskau

1965
Covent Garden debut as Mandryka in Strauss’s Arabella under Georg Solti. Marries the actress Ruth Leuwerik

1966
Sings Falstaff with Leonard Bernstein conducting at the Vienna State Opera (production by Luchino Visconti)

1966–72
Complete recording with Gerald Moore of Schubert’s lieder for male voice

1967
Farewell concert for Gerald Moore in London

1968
Appears as Wotan in Wagner’s Das Rheingold under Herbert von Karajan at the Salzburg Festival. Lieder recitals with Bernstein in New York. Premiere of Henze’s The Raft of the Medusa in Hamburg. First book publication Texte deutscher Lieder (The Fischer-Dieskau Book of Lieder, published in New York in 1977)

1969
First lieder recital with Daniel Barenboim

1971
First tour of Israel. Premiere of Aribert Reimann’s Zyklus in Nuremberg


1973
Concert tours and recordings as conductor. Lieder recitals with Sviatoslav Richter in Warsaw, Prague and Budapest

1974
Tour with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducting debut in America

1976
First sings Hans Sachs in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Deutsche Oper, Berlin

1977
Marries the singer Julia Varady. Concert tour to Leningrad and Moscow

1978
Premiere of Reimann’s Lear at the National Theatre, Munich

1980
First exhibition of his paintings

1981
Ernst von Siemens Prize, Munich. Premiere of Siegfried Matthus’s Portrait of Holofernes in Leipzig. Speaking role in German TV film adaptation of Kleist’s Das Käthchen von Heilbronn

1982
First performance of Reimann’s Requiem in Kiel

1983
Retires from the opera stage. Beginning of his teaching activities as professor at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin

1984
Premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Umsungen. Awarded medallion of Prussian Order of ”Pour le mérite” and Maximiliansorden, Munich

1985
First performance of Peter Ruzicka’s Der die Gesänge zerschlug

1990
Légion d’Honneur, Paris

1992
End of his singing career. First appearances as reciter

Since 1993
Public masterclasses. Awarded Berlin’s Ernst Reuter Plaque

Since 1994
Increasingly frequent appearances as conductor and reciter, including orchestral works by Schoenberg und Ullmann


1995
Becomes Honorary Senator, University of the Arts, Berlin

2000
Freedom of the city of Berlin

2002
Honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University

2003
Conducts Brahms’s Requiem at the Salzburg Festival

2004
100 of his paintings exhibited at the Fischerbau in Polling (Bavaria). Awarded Praemium Imperiale, Tokyo. Conducts in Berlin, Salzburg and Schwarzenberg

2005
In May receives Polar Music Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Salzburg Festival appearances as conductor (Schumann) in a gala 80th-Birthday Concert and narrator (Zimmermann: Ich wandte mich . . .)

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has written numerous books, several of which are available in English translation. His autobiography, Reverberations, appeared in 1989. Among his most recent publications are Eduard Mörike, Der Nacht ins Ohr (1998), Die Welt des Gesangs (1999) and Hugo Wolf (2003).