Franz Mazura

Franz Mazura was born on April 12, 1924 in Salzburg, Austria.

He was drafted in the army in 1942, but after World War II, he studied with Frederick Husler at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, and worked during his studies as an actor at the Landestheater Detmold.

He made his debut on the opera stage as a bass at the Staatstheater Kassel in 1949. He then worked at the Staatstheater Mainz, Staatstheater Braunschweig, and Nationaltheater Mannheim, where he was a member of the ensemble from 1958 to 1963. In Mannheim, he was cast more in baritone roles. He recalled the time there as especially pleasant, singing a repertoire of 60 roles and enjoying the collaboration among colleagues.

From 1960, he performed at the Salzburg Festival, first as Cassandro in Mozart's La finta semplice, then from 1970 as Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio.

He was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1963.

He performed at the Bayreuth Festival from 1971 for 25 years and at the Metropolitan Opera for 15 years.

Although he was typecast as a villain, he appeared at Bayreuth a few times in other roles, such as Gurnemanz in Parsifal in 1973, with Eugen Jochum conducting, and Wanderer in Siegfried in 1988, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

He was an actor, known for The Metropolitan Opera Presents (1977), Lulu (1979) and Parsifal (1993). He was married to Elisabeth Friedmann.

Mazura took part in world premieres, such as the double role of Dr. Schön and Jack the Ripper in the world premiere of the completed version of Alban Berg's Lulu at the Paris Opera in 1979, and as Abraham in Giorgio Battistelli's Lot in 2017.

He was made a Kammersänger in 1980 and an Honorary Member of the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 1990.

Among Mazura's roles at the Met was Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen in 1981, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.

Mazura was made an honorary member of the Nationaltheater Mannheim in 1990.

Mazura appeared in 2006 in the narrating role of Charon in Henze's Das Floß der Medusa, which was performed for the composer's 80th birthday at the Berliner Philharmonie, conducted by Simon Rattle, and with Christian Gerhaher as Jean-Charles and Camilla Nylund as La Mort.

He was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010.[.

In 2015, he received the German theatre prize Der Faust for Lifetime Achievement.

Mazura's career as an opera singer was extremely long. He performed in 2017 in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli's opera Lot, in the role of Abraham, at age 93.

He has had (so far) an amazingly long career: seventy years from his debut in 1949 until his most recent performance., which was on April 21, 2019. He sang in an opera by Wagner (Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg) at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin. And on April 22 he celebrated his 95th birthday.