Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, (born May 28, 1925, Berlin, Germany—died May 18, 2012, Berg, Bavaria) German operatic baritone and preeminent singer of lieder, distinguished for his lyrical voice, commanding presence, and superb artistry.
Fischer-Dieskau studied with Georg Walter before serving in World War II and with Hermann Weissenborn afterward. In 1947 he made his concert debut in Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem at Freiburg, and the next year his opera debut as Posa in Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos at the Städtische Oper, Berlin, where he became a leading baritone.
Fischer-Dieskau performed in principal opera houses and festivals in an exceptional range of classic and modern roles from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Almaviva and Don Giovanni to John the Baptist in Richard Strauss’s Salome. His roles in the works of Richard Wagner include the Herald in Lohengrin, Wotan in Das Rheingold, and Wolfram in Tannhäuser. In England he won fame in a concert performance of Frederick Delius’s A Mass of Life in 1951 and in Franz Schubert’s song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise in 1952. His first appearance in the United States was in 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a Johann Sebastian Bach cantata and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. In 1962, at Coventry, Warwickshire, England, he performed notably in the premiere of Benjamin Britten’s A War Requiem, and in 1965 he introduced at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, Britten’s Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, which had been composed for him. Unexcelled as a lieder singer, he had a vast repertory. For his overall contribution to music, Fischer-Dieskau was awarded the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale in 2002.