Opera Singer, Composer. A respected tenor, the creator of more than 80 works, and the founder of a noted conservatory, he is for better-or-worse remembered as the father of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich. The child of a piano maker, he was raised in what was then the Kingdom of Saxony and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Dresden where he met and married Elisabeth Kranz, daughter of the institution's head. Heydrich performed as a contrabassist with the Meiningen Court Orchestra, but switched his focus to singing and appeared at the Weimar and Sonderhausen Court Theatres. He spent 1893 singing Wagnerian roles at the Cologne Opera and on April 2, 1895 was the tenor lead for the Mainz world premiere of Hans Pfitzner's "Der arme Heinrich". Also in 1895, he composed his own first opera, a piece entitled "Amen" in which the lead character is named Reinhard. Over the next seasons he performed in a number of venues including Magdeberg, Aachen, and the Court Theatre of Braunschweig, then in 1899 at Halle an der Salle founded the Halle Conservatory (today, the G.F. Handel Conservatory) where for many years he was a sought-after voice teacher. As a composer, he produced four operas, works stylistically similar to Wagner's, including "Frieden" (1907) and the 1914 "Zufall", as well as a goodly number of Lieder pieces, a few Chamber works, and a Symphony in D-Major, most of his output receiving performances in Leipzig and Cologne. Heydrich lived out his days in Dresden and died following a protracted illness.
Opera Singer, Composer. A respected tenor, the creator of more than 80 works, and the founder of a noted conservatory, he is for better-or-worse remembered as the father of SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich. The child of a piano maker, he was raised in what was then the Kingdom of Saxony and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Dresden where he met and married Elisabeth Kranz, daughter of the institution's head. Heydrich performed as a contrabassist with the Meiningen Court Orchestra, but switched his focus to singing and appeared at the Weimar and Sonderhausen Court Theatres. He spent 1893 singing Wagnerian roles at the Cologne Opera and on April 2, 1895 was the tenor lead for the Mainz world premiere of Hans Pfitzner's "Der arme Heinrich". Also in 1895, he composed his own first opera, a piece entitled "Amen" in which the lead character is named Reinhard. Over the next seasons he performed in a number of venues including Magdeberg, Aachen, and the Court Theatre of Braunschweig, then in 1899 at Halle an der Salle founded the Halle Conservatory (today, the G.F. Handel Conservatory) where for many years he was a sought-after voice teacher. As a composer, he produced four operas, works stylistically similar to Wagner's, including "Frieden" (1907) and the 1914 "Zufall", as well as a goodly number of Lieder pieces, a few Chamber works, and a Symphony in D-Major, most of his output receiving performances in Leipzig and Cologne. Heydrich lived out his days in Dresden and died following a protracted illness.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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