Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
German lyric baritone and conductor (1925-2012) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (born 28 May 1925 in Berlin, died 18 May 2012 in Berg, Upper Bavaria) was a German baritone singer. For more than 30 years he was thought of by many as the greatest male singer in classical music. He was particularly famous for his singing of Lieder (German art songs), but he was also a superbly great singer of opera as well as a concert singer with orchestras. Later in his career he also conducted.
Fischer-Dieskau had a lyrical baritone voice, not a powerful, heroic voice like a Heldenbarton. In spite of that he recorded many operatic roles which are traditionally thought of as being for Heldenbariton: Wotan in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Amfortas in Parsifal, Macbeth in Verdi's opera etc.
He is the most recorded singer of all time.[1] He sang in many languages as well as German: French, Russian, Hebrew and Hungarian.