Hölle, Matthias

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Hölle, Matthias

Hölle, Matthias, German bass; b. Rottweil am Nekkar, July 8, 1951. He was a student of Georg Jelden in Stuttgart and of Josef Metternich in Cologne. In 1976 he joined the Cologne Opera, where he made frequent appearances until 1987. From 1981 he sang at the Bayreuth Festival, where he became best known for such roles as Hunding, Fasolt, Titurel, and King Marke. He appeared in the premiere of Stockhausen’s Donnerstag aus Licht in Milan in 1981, and returned there in 1984 to create the role of Lucifer in that composer’s Samstag aus Licht. On Dec. 10, 1986, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in N.Y. as Rocco. He portrayed Don Fernando in Brussels in 1989, and Hunding in Bonn in 1992. Following his first appearance at London’s Covent Garden in 1994 as Hunding, he returned there in 1996 as Fafner.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire