"To earn my living, I played jazz music on the side. At night I blew the trumpet, played the accordion, sang popular songs; in the morning, after snatching a few hours of sleep, I studied Monteverdi and Lully at college."

Wunderlich excelled in German lieder, in operetta, in the truly lyric tenor roles in La Traviata, Eugene Onegin, Barbiere. With Mozart's tenor characters though, the fit was perfect - where many (most) singers struggle with the balance between the words and the music (you can practically see them counting), this tenor's musical instincts make it seamless. You can't tell where the words stop and the music takes over, or the other way 'round.

Tamino and Belmonte seemed made for him, and he brought a nobility and strength to Don Ottavio that is seldom heard, making Ottavio a worthy adversary. In his recordings of the arias, the technical challenges appear not to bother him at all, leaving him free to express the emotion - and he does. Wunderlich's Don Ottavio [photo, at left] is intense and angry, not one who stands by, blending into the wallpaper.

The voice is apparently effortless and even, yet has all the elegant virility and intensity you want from a tenor, without ever sounding pushed or harsh. It is, perhaps, the most beautiful voice you'll ever hear. He always credited his breath control that helped so much with his singing to his having studied the French horn as a youngster.

"The tour of Das Lied von der Erde was not the first time I sang with the 'wonder tenor,' Fritz Wunderlich.... But on this occasion we had the opportunity to blow a 'lip-horn duet' together. Before we mounted the stage of the Hanover Stadthalle, I heard Fritz humming the Hunter Chorus from Freischütz in his dressing room. I immediately added the second voice, imitating a horn, and what followed was a walk through the horn literature. Finally even Keilberth, whose attention had been caught, began to listen and nearly exploded with laughter. Wunderlich had in fact been a professional horn player before he chose to sing."

- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
from his memoir, Reverberations

 

Just coming into his vocal prime years at the age of 35, and with his Metropolitan Opera debut scheduled three months away, Wunderlich was on the brink of a very busy international career. It would never happen. One evening in Heidelberg, Wunderlich tripped and fell down a stone stairway at a friend's castle and never recovered consciousness. Frozen in time because of his untimely death, he remains forever young - and the "what-if's" remain endlessly compelling. He'll never give one-too-many performances that makes us think perhaps he should have retired... he'll never embark on yet another farewell tour.
Hubert Geisen, his long-time collaborator and accompanist for recitals, remembers "his whole being, his heart, was in every tone he sang." Had the world not lost this great artist, the phrase "The Three Tenors" would never have come into existence, for Wunderlich was a contemporary of Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti - and his reputation justifiably belongs at that level - though the voice was less spinto, far more lyric.

Fortunately for us, there are quite a few recordings available.

I first heard him in Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde, on the Klemperer recording that I think is still the best available of this astonishing piece. Other recordings by Fritz Wunderlich, I play over and over again. I simply never, ever tire of this voice. Explore some of these recommended recordings and video, below.

GREAT TENORS
VOL. 1

Caruso (excerpt from his silent film My Cousin, with “Mattinata” by Leoncavallo added as a soundtrack, with the composer at the piano)
... Gigli (“Un tal gioco,” “Recitar... Vesti la giubba” and the Pagliacci finale)
... Slezak, Tauber (“E lucevan le stelle” from Melodie der Liebe)
... Rosvaenge (“Postillon's Lied” from Der Postillon von Longjümeau)
... Wittrisch, Schmidt, Kiepura, Björling
... Wunderlich (“Kuda, kuda” from Eugene Onegin)

B&W/Color - NTSC or PAL VHS - Packaged in a black sleeve.

GREAT TENORS  VOL. 2

Corelli (with Simionato), Björling, Di Stefano, Bergonzi, Gedda, Bonisolli, Kraus, Luchetti, Vanzo, Wunderlich.
B&W/Color - NTSC or PAL VHS - Packaged in a black sleeve.

"Volume 2 comprises, for the most part, more recent tenors, many of them superb. The most endearing portion of the tape comes next: Franco Bonisolli singing “Di quella pira” at the Verona Arena, an interpretation in true gladiatorial spirit. We abandon all artistic pretense (Why shouldn’t we? He does!) .... Bonisolli provides elemental excitement with a couple of splendid high Cs of no little duration. Then, when he has traversed the stage and milked the audience for all the applause it can muster, he does the whole damned thing over again, even better the second time. The audience goes mad!

"If the Bonisolli extravaganza is not the highlight of this tape for you, then it will almost surely be Carlo Bergonzi’s “Ma se m’è forza perderti.” (It would be interesting to hear Bergonzi’s thoughts on Bonisolli!) Overcoming ... a downright facetious wig, Bergonzi sings gorgeously and maintains a Verdian line that must be the despair of all other post-Martinelli Italian tenors.

"Next to last is Fritz Wunderlich’s “O wie Ängstlich,” a model of good Mozart tenor singing."    - Joe Pearce

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