Fritz Wunderlich Essentials

Born in 1930, lyric tenor Fritz Wunderlich was the child of a violinist and choirmaster, but his professional life in music began after he was discovered singing while working in a bakery. Wunderlich had a flair for Mozart, and he recorded a wonderfully clear, elegant performance of the lead in A Magic Flute. Wunderlich's connection to Mozart is also sadly ironic; he died from a fall at around the same age as the composer (35), after singing in the Mozart-oriented Salzburg festival. Wunderlich made tasteful recordings of Wagner and Verdi, among other opera composers. But his second major gift was the singing of lieder (art songs), and he remains famous for his understated, lucid interpretation of Robert Schumann's Romantic song cycle Dichterliebe.