James King, of Irish descent on his father’s side and German on his mother’s, learnt to play the violin when young and sang in church choirs. During World War II he served with the American navy from 1943 to 1945, after which he studied music and singing at the Louisiana State University, where his teacher Dallas Draper insisted that he learn languages as well. At this time a baritone, he sang in public while at university and after graduating in 1949 went on to earn a Master’s degree from Kansas University. From 1952 King taught at the University of Kentucky, where he was also active as a conductor; but in 1956, realising that he was a tenor, he retrained, taking lessons from Martial Singher, to whom he said he owed his career. He also studied with the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor Max Lorenz.

King soon attracted attention when in 1961 he sang Don José / Carmen opposite Marilyn Horne with the San Francisco Opera, won the American Opera Auditions in Cincinnati with Bacchus / Ariadne auf Naxos and made his European debut as Cavaradossi / Tosca in Florence. After an exhaustive audition process he was engaged by the Deutsche Oper, Berlin as a principal tenor from the start of the 1962–1963 season: in his first year he sang fifty performances of an extensive repertoire that included his first Florestan / Fidelio. He sang his first Lohengrin, which was to become one of his favourite roles, in 1963, and made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Bacchus in the same year, repeating it at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich in 1964, the year of the Strauss centenary. Later roles at Berlin included the Emperor / Die Frau ohne Schatten and Apollo / Daphne, two of the most fearsome parts in the tenor repertoire, which King discharged with aplomb and without apparent strain, as well as Calaf / Turandot, the title role in Don Carlo and Siegmund / Die Walküre.

The last became one of King’s most important roles, which he recorded with Solti for the Decca Ring cycle and with which he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 1965. At Bayreuth he was pre-eminent as Siegmund (1965–1969, 1972–1973, 1975) and was an affecting Parsifal (1967, 1970, 1972–1973) and Lohengrin (1967–1968). An early debutant at the Salzburg Festival, King sang there for the first time in 1962 and then in 1963, as Achilles in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide; later roles included Aegisth / Elektra (1964), Florestan (1968–1970, 1983), the Emperor (1974–1975), Bacchus (1976, 1980– 1982), and Giove / Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (1985–1986).

Having moved in 1965 from Berlin to Munich, where he spent the rest of his European career, King made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 1966 as Florestan and returned often as the Emperor, Calaf, Aegisth, Lohengrin, Don José, Erik / Der fliegende Holländer, Siegmund, Bacchus, Cavaradossi, Walther von Stolzing / Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Captain Vere / Billy Budd (1989) and the Drum Major / Wozzeck, making his final appearance in 1994, as Aegisth. Between 1967 and 1986 King was a regular visitor to the Royal Opera House, London where in addition to his usual repertoire he also sang Manrico / Il trovatore. He appeared as the Emperor at the Paris Opera in 1972 and as Otello at the San Francisco Opera in 1974. At La Scala, Milan he sang the title role in Cherubini’s Anacreon and Paul / Die tote Stadt at Berlin, both in 1983.

King’s career was remarkably long: in 1990 he was still singing the Emperor in Amsterdam, Lohengrin in Nice and Herod / Salome at Salzburg. After the mid-1990s he concentrated on teaching at the University of Indiana, which he had already been doing part-time since 1984, although he still managed to sing Florestan at Vienna and Aegisth at Washington in 1997. His final appearance was as Siegmund at Indiana University in 2000. Among his other notable parts were the title role in Pfitzner’s Palestrina and Radamès / Aida.

At its peak, King’s voice was a pure heldentenor, strong and heroic. He used it with great musicality, never forcing for effect, which may account for its longevity. His tall stature gave him dramatic credibility on-stage. He was also a notable singer in concert, for instance in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).

Between 1936 and 1942 Theo Adam sang in the Dresden Kreuz Choir, before active service in the German army. After World War II he worked as a farm labourer, returning to Dresden in 1946. He then studied to become a teacher, but his voice attracted attention and he received vocal tuition from Rudolf Dittrich. Adam made his operatic début in 1949 with the Dresden Opera, to which he remained attached throughout his long career. His repertoire here was extremely large and included such major rôles as the title parts in Don Giovanni, Boris Godunov, Wozzeck and Cardillac, as well as Baron Ochs/Der Rosenkavalier, King Philip/Don Carlos, Pizarro/Fidelio, Jochanaan/Salome and Scarpia/Tosca. He took part in the reopening performances in 1985 at the Semper Opera House, Dresden, damaged during the war, as Ochs and the Hermit/Der Freischütz. In addition to his work at Dresden, from 1957 Adam was a member of the Berlin State Opera in East Germany, where he was also active as a stage director from 1972. A highlight of his time with this company was the creation of the title part in the first performance of Dessau’s Einstein (1974).

Having first appeared at the Bayreuth Festival in 1952, as Ortel/Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Theo Adam continued to perform there for nearly thirty years. Major rôles which he sang at Bayreuth included Wotan/Der Ring (1963–1975), Sachs/Die Meistersinger (1968–1970, 1973–1975), Gurnemanz/Parsifal (1976–1980), Amfortas/Parsifal (1965, 1972–1973), Heinrich/Lohengrin ((1954, 1959–1960) and Titurel/Parsifal (1954, 1959). He sang frequently at the Salzburg Festival, in a wide range of rôles: Ochs (1969), Pizarro (1970, 1982–1983), Wozzeck (1972), the title part in the world première of Friedrich Cerha’s Baal (1981), Prospero in Berio’s Un re in ascolto (1984), Moses/Moses und Aron (1987–1988), La Roche/Capriccio (1990) and Schigolch/Lulu (1995). In addition he took part in several major concert performances of rarely performed works, including Karl V (Krenek, 1980), Penthesilea (Schoeck, 1982), Dantons Tod (von Einem, 1983) and Die Gezeichneten (Schreker, 1984). In 1994 he appeared at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte.

Adam sang as a guest in many of the world’s major opera houses, in both the Western and Soviet sectors. Internationally he appeared at Buenos Aires, Brussels (1965–1966), Chicago, Lisbon, London (Covent Garden, 1967, Wotan/Das Rheingold), New York (Metropolitan, 1969, Sachs, Wotan/Das Rheingold, Die Walküre), Paris, Rome (1968, Wotan), San Francisco and Vienna (1954–1993). In West Germany he was a guest at Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt and Stuttgart, while in Soviet Europe he appeared at Budapest, Moscow, Prague and Warsaw.

Theo Adam was a commanding presence on stage, although his voice could at times show signs of wear and tear: not surprisingly, given his exceptional schedule of performances and range of parts. He wrote two volumes of memoirs (1983 and 1996) and recorded extensively, both in opera and in sacred music. His Wotan is captured in two complete recordings: Marek Janowski’s studio recording made with the Dresden Staatskapelle (the orchestra of the Dresden Opera), and Karl Böhm’s cycle recorded live at the Bayreuth Festival. Other searching portrayals captured on disc include Hans Sachs, recorded with Herbert von Karajan conducting in Adam’s home city of Dresden, and his Dutchman, recorded in London under the baton of Otto Klemperer. Both these recordings were highly praised at the time of first release, as was his Morosius in another Janowski recording, of Richard Strauss’s Die schweigsame Frau, also recorded in Dresden. Adam’s sympathetic portrayal of the Music Teacher in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos is preserved in the magnificent studio recording conducted by Rudolf Kempe, another son of Dresden.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Singers, Naxos 8.558097-100).

Born in Bonn in 1770, the eldest son of a singer in the Kapelle of the Archbishop-Elector of Cologne and grandson of the Archbishop’s Kapellmeister, Beethoven moved in 1792 to Vienna. There he had some lessons from Haydn and others, quickly establishing himself as a remarkable keyboard player and original composer. By 1815 increasing deafness had made public performance impossible and accentuated existing eccentricities of character, patiently tolerated by a series of rich patrons and his royal pupil the Archduke Rudolph. Beethoven did much to enlarge the possibilities of music and widen the horizons of later generations of composers. To his contemporaries he was sometimes a controversial figure, making heavy demands on listeners by both the length and the complexity of his writing, as he explored new fields of music.

Stage Works

Although he contemplated others, Beethoven wrote only one opera. This was eventually called Fidelio after the name assumed by the heroine Leonora, who disguises herself as a boy and takes employment at the prison in which her husband has been unjustly incarcerated. This escape opera, for which there was precedent in contemporary France, ends with the defeat of the evil prison governor and the rescue of Florestan, testimony to the love and constancy of his wife Leonora. The work was first staged in 1805 and mounted again in a revised performance in 1814, under more favourable circumstances. The ballet The Creatures of Prometheus was staged in Vienna in 1801, and Beethoven wrote incidental music for various other dramatic productions, including Goethe’s Egmont, von Kotzebue’s curious The Ruins of Athens, and the same writer’s King Stephen.

Choral and Vocal Music

Beethoven’s most impressive choral work is the Missa solemnis, written for the enthronement of his pupil Archduke Rudolph as Archbishop of Olmütz (Olomouc) although finished too late for that occasion. An earlier work, the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, is less well known. In common with other composers, Beethoven wrote a number of songs. Of these the best known are probably the settings of Goethe, which did little to impress the venerable poet and writer (he ignored their existence), and the cycle of six songs known as An die ferne Geliebte (‘To the Distant Beloved’). The song ‘Adelaide’is challenging but not infrequently heard.

Orchestral Music

Symphonies

Beethoven completed nine symphonies, works that influenced the whole future of music by the expansion of the traditional Classical form. The best known are Symphony No. 3, ‘Eroica’, originally intended to celebrate the initially republican achievements of Napoleon; No. 5; No. 6, ‘Pastoral’; and No. 9, ‘Choral’. The less satisfactory ‘Battle Symphony’ celebrates the earlier military victories of the Duke of Wellington.

Overtures

For the theatre and various other occasions Beethoven wrote a number of overtures, including four for his only opera, Fidelio (one under that name and the others under the name of the heroine, Leonora). Other overtures include Egmont, Coriolan, Prometheus, The Consecration of the House and The Ruins of Athens.

Concertos

Beethoven completed one violin concerto and five piano concertos, as well as a triple concerto for violin, cello and piano, and the curious Choral Fantasy for solo piano, chorus and orchestra. The piano concertos were for the composer’s own use in concert performance. No. 5, the so-called ‘Emperor’ Concerto, is possibly the most impressive. The single Violin Concerto, also arranged for piano, is part of the standard violin repertoire along with two romances (possible slow movements for an unwritten violin concerto).

Chamber Music

Beethoven wrote 10 sonatas for violin and piano, of which the ‘Spring’ and the ‘Kreutzer’ are particular favourites with audiences. He extended very considerably the possibilities of the string quartet. This is shown even in his first set of quartets, Op. 18, but it is possibly the group of three dedicated to Prince Razumovsky (the ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets, Op. 59) that are best known. The later string quartets offer great challenges to both players and audience, and include the remarkable Grosse Fuge—a gigantic work, discarded as the final movement of the String Quartet, Op. 130, and published separately. Other chamber music includes a number of trios for violin, cello and piano, with the ‘Archduke’ Trio pre-eminent and the ‘Ghost’ Trio a close runner-up, for very different reasons. The cello sonatas and sets of variations for cello and piano (including one set based on Handel’s ‘See, the conqu’ring hero comes’ from Judas Maccabaeus and others on operatic themes from Mozart) are a valuable part of any cellist’s repertoire. Chamber music with wind instruments and piano include the Quintet, Op. 16, for piano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon. Among other music for wind instruments is the very popular Septet, scored for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass, as well as a trio for two oboes and cor anglais, and a set of variations on a theme from Mozart’s Don Giovanni for the same instruments.

Piano Music

Beethoven’s 32 numbered piano sonatas make full use of the developing form of the piano, with its wider range and possibilities of dynamic contrast. Other sonatas not included in the 32 published by Beethoven are earlier works, dating from his years in Bonn. There are also interesting sets of variations, including a set based on ‘God Save the King’and another on ‘Rule, Britannia’, variations on a theme from the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, and a major work based on a relatively trivial theme by the publisher Diabelli. The best known of the sonatas are those that have earned themselves affectionate nicknames: the ‘Pathétique’, ‘Moonlight’, ‘Waldstein’, ‘Appassionata’, ‘Les Adieux’ and ‘Hammerklavier’. Less substantial piano pieces include three sets of bagatelles, the all too well-known Für Elise, and the Rondo a capriccio, known in English as ‘Rage Over a Lost Penny’.

Dance Music

Famous composers like Haydn and Mozart were also employed in the practical business of providing dance music for court and social occasions. Beethoven wrote a number of sets of minuets, German dances and contredanses, ending with the so-called Mödlinger Dances, written for performers at a neighbouring inn during a summer holiday outside Vienna.