Gerd Nienstedt
Gerd Nienstedt (10 July 1932 – 14 August 1993) was a German and Austrian opera singer, bass and bass-baritone. After an international career at major opera houses and the Bayreuth Festival, he was also a theatre director, stage director and academic voice teacher. Career. Karl Gustav Gerhard Nienstedt was born in Hanover. He studied voice at the "Opernschule" there with Otto Köhler. His first engagement was in 1954 at the ', where he made his debut as the king in "Lohengrin". He sang in Gelsenkirchen from 1955 to 1959, with the ' to 1961, with the Cologne Opera from 1962  to 1972, and with the Frankfurt Opera. In 1965, he participated in the premiere of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's "" in Cologne, singing the part of Haudy. He performed also in the Frankfurt production of the opera. Nienstedt performed at the Bayreuth Festival every summer from 1962 to 1976, in 14 parts such as Klingsor in "Parsifal", Gunther in "Götterdämmerung", Donner in ', Hunding in ', Fafner (the dragon) in "Siegfried", and Kothner in "". He was a member of the Vienna State Opera from 1964 to 1973, became an Austrian citizen and was awarded the title '. He performed at the in Brussels several  times between 1964 and 1983, including the parts Orest in "Elektra" by Strauss, Rocco in Beethoven's "Fidelio", Marke in ' and Gurnemanz in "Parsifal". He sang in 1968 at the "" the part of King Wladislaw in Smetana's "Dalibor", conducted by Rafael Kubelik, and in 1971 at La Scala the title role of Alban Berg's "Wozzeck", conducted by Claudio Abbado and alongside Evelyn Lear as Marie. In concert, Nienstedt sang the bass part in Bach's "St Matthew Passion" at the 1977 . Herbert von Karajan conducted the "Wiener Singverein" and the Berlin Philharmonic, with Peter Schreier as the Evangelist  and Jose van Dam as the . In 1979 he performed in the premiere of the three-act version of Alban Berg's "Lulu" the parts of the animal tamer and Rodrigo, staged by Patrice Chéreau and conducted by Pierre Boulez, a performance recorded on DVD. Again with Boulez, he was in 1987 a soloist in Schoenberg's " in the Royal Albert Hall. From 1973, Nienstedt worked in the direction of the Bielefeld Opera, of the ' from 1981 to 1985. and of the ' from 1985 to 1987. Nienstedt was director and artistic director of the ' from 1982 to 1988. He appeared  occasionally, for example in 1980 as the narrator in a performance of Honegger's ' by the and the in the , with soloists Klesie Kelly and Claudia Eder. As a teacher, he taught voice at the opera class of the Peter Cornelius Conservatory of Mainz, from 1987 acting at the opera class of the ' (now Hochschule für Musik Detmold), and as professor of voice at the ' (now "). He died in Vienna.