Frey, Paul

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Frey, Paul

Frey, Paul, Canadian tenor; b. Heidelberg, Ontario, April 20, 1941. He received vocal instruction from Douglas Campbell and Victor Martens, and then studied at the Univ. of Toronto Opera School with Louis Quilico and at the Royal Cons, of Music in Toronto. In 1976 he made his debut as Werther with Opera in Concert. He joined the Basel Opera in 1978, where he made his debut in that same role. In 1985 he sang Lohengrin in Karlsruhe, and then portrayed that role with great success in Mannheim in 1986. In 1987 he appeared in that role at his Bayreuth Festival debut. On Sept. 23, 1987, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Strauss’s Bacchus. He sang Lohengrin at his first appearance at London’s Covent Garden in 1988. After appearing as Huon in Oberon at Milan’s La Scala in 1989, he was engaged as Siegmund at the Cologne Opera for the 1990–91 season. In 1994 he created the title role in Jost Meier’s DreyfusDie Affare at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He appeared as Schoeck’s Venus in Geneva in 1997. Among his other roles were Mozart’s Titus and Don Ottavio, Florestan, Max, Parsifal, and Strauss’s Flamand and Emperor.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire