Wolfgang Schöne Interview with Bruce Duffie . . . . . . . . .

Baritone Wolfgang Schöne

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie

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The German bass-baritone* Wolfgang Schöne studied at the conservatories of Hannover and Hamburg (diploma in 1969). His principal teacher was Naan Pöld. After winning international competitions in Rio de Janeiro, Bordeaux, Berlin, Hertogenbosch and Stuttgart his career began.

Soon Wolfgang Schöne's fame spread beyond Germany and he often appeared throughout Europe, the USA, Mexico, South America and Japan. Since 1973 he has been a member of the Stuttgart Opera and regular guest at the Vienna State Opera and the Hamburg Opera. He also sang at the Salzburg Festival. In 1978 he was awarded the honorary title of Kammersänger. Schöne's first appearance with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was in 1979 in a concert of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor (BWV 232) conducted by Helmuth Rilling.

Wolfgang Schöne's extremely wide repertoire includes over 40 operatic roles and concert works from Monteverdi to Henze and Penderecki. He has played a decisive part in the recording of all J.S. Bach’s sacred cantatas under Helmuth Rilling [CD set is shown below], and for many years has been one of the team of lecturers at the Bach Academy in Stuttgart. He also sings the title role in Rilling’s recording of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah [shown at right. Vis-à-vis that recording, see my interview with Michael Schade.].

*Note that the Bach Cantatas website, from which the brief biography above is taken, uses the designation bass-baritone, but, as he says in the interview, he is a baritone! He also speaks about being listed as a bass on some recordings.

A more detailed biography from another source follows in this box.

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Wolfgang Schöne (born February 9, 1940 in Bad Gandersheim, Lower Saxony) is a German baritone who made an international career in opera and concert, based at the Staatsoper Stuttgart from 1973 to 2005. He created roles in world premiered of operas, in Josef Tal's Die Versuchung at the Bavarian State Opera in 1976, in Hermann Reutter's Hamlet in Stuttgart in 1980, in Henze's Die englische Katze at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1983 and K. in Aribert Reimann's Das Schloß at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 1992.

Schöne first worked as a primary school teacher, and then began his studies of voice at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover with Naan Põld in 1964. He moved with him to the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in 1986, achieving his diplomas as a concert singer and music teacher in 1969. He first performed recitals and concerts, touring internationally.

Schöne made his debut as an opera singer in 1970 the role of Ottokar in Weber's Der Freischütz at the Eutin Festival. He was engaged at the Stadttheater Lübeck and at the Wuppertal Opera. After performing the role of Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte as a guest, he was engaged at the Staatstheater Stuttgart in 1973, remaining a member until 2005. He was awarded the title Kammersänger in 1978 and became an honorary member of the Staatsoper Stuttgart in 2007.

Schöne appeared regularly at the Vienna State Opera from 1974 to 1993. In 1976, he performed the role of Chorèbe in Les Troyens by Berlioz, conducted by Gerd Albrecht. Schöne appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival where his roles included Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro (1985–1987, 1990) and Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola (1988–1989). He sang there in a 1988 concert performance of Gottfried von Einem's Der Prozeß and in 2002 the role of Gyges in Zemlinsky's Der König Kandaules, conducted by Kent Nagano. In 2005 he appeared as Ludovico Nardi in Schreker's Die Gezeichneten, conducted by Nagano, in a production that was recorded as DVD, and in 2010 a production by the LA Opera, led by James Conlon, and released on CD. [Both are shown below]

Schöne was a guest at the Semperoper in Dresden in 1999 as Barak in Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss and in 2000 in the title role of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer. In 2002 he performed for the first time the role of Hans Sachs in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, at the Hamburg State Opera. In 2003 he portrayed Moses in Schoenberg's Moses und Aron in Stuttgart. In 2008, he first performed as Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca in Stuttgart. In 2009, he appeared at the Semperoper as Der alte Mann (The old man) in Henze's L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe.

Schöne took part in world premieres of Josef Tal's Die Versuchung in 1976 at the Bavarian State Opera, and Hermann Reutter's Hamlet in 1980 in Stuttgart. He also created the role of Tom, Minette's lover in Henze's Die englische Katze, with Inga Nielsen as Minette, at the Schwetzingen Festival in 1983, and the leading role of K. in Aribert Reimann's Das Schloß in 1992 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Schöne performed at international opera houses as Dr. Schön in Berg's Lulu in 1996 at the Glyndebourne Festival and in 1998 at the Opéra Bastille, as well as Chicago Lyric Opera in 2008. He sang Barak in Die Frau ohne Schatten in 2000 at the Liceu in Barcelona, and Amfortas in Wagner's Parsifal in 2003 and 2004 at La Fenice in Venice. He also sang this role in Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's film, although he did not appear on screen.

== Names which are links in this box and below refer to my interviews elsewhere on my website. BD

There are not a lot of people in the Classical Music world with the name Duffie. There is a violinist named Robert McDuffie, and a composer named John Duffy, and a Ms. Adelson who ran the Merit Music Program in Chicago for many years who had the given name of Duffie. Also, when I was an undergraduate, the moment our class studied the 15th-Century Franco-Flemish composer Guillaume Dufay [rhymes with defy], my nickname was permanently applied!

I mention all this because my guest on this webpage is named Wolfgang Schöne.

In November of 2008, the baritone was in Chicago to sing the role of Dr. Schön in the opera Lulu by Alban Berg. Though nearly identical, the first thing to notice is that the singer’s last name is two syllables, and is pronounced Sher-neh. The character’s name has just one syllable, and is pronounced Shern. I asked him about that coincidence at the end of our conversation, and he made an interesting comment about it. Also, note that on this webpage the character is Lulu, and the opera is Lulu.

Schöne was most gracious to meet with me between performances of Lulu, and he responded to my questions with depth and understanding as befitted a singer with many years of experience.

Consciously leaving his last name aside for late in our chat, I began by asking about his first name . . . . .

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Bruce Duffie:   Your name is Wolfgang. Does that put any pressure on you to be a good Mozart singer?

Wolfgang Schöne:   [Chuckles] Yes, it does. I started my opera career, in all honesty, not generally with Mozart, but my first big role was the Count in The Marriage of Figaro, and the second Mozart opera I sang was Guglielmo in Così Fan Tutte. Now that I’m the older singer I’m doing Alfonso, but it was really something with Mozart in my life in the beginning.

BD:   Is there a secret to singing Mozart? [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left, see my interviews with Judith Blegen, Thomas Moser, and Leopold Hager.]

Schöne:   There is not a secret, but to sing Mozart, technically a singer really needs to be able to realize that it is the most difficult kind of singing. In each national or international singing competition, the singers are always asked to sing at least one Mozart aria. Especially for tenors, it’s always very difficult. In these Mozart arias, you cannot fake something. You have to show your real ability and your real art of singing, and this is very difficult.

BD:   I would think for a good singer, this would be a good thing to show his artistry to advantage.

Schöne:   Yes, and I really always realize if even famous singers, especially Italian singers who are not used to singing Mozart because Mozart in Italy is really almost non-existent. Of course, they’re having some productions of Mozart operas at La Scala, but in general, even though the audience and the people in Italy know that most of those operas are in the Italian language, they are not interested in Mozart at all. I had an experience when I was a member of the ensemble in Stuttgart, and we had guest performances in Rome. It was a production of Così Fan Tutte, and we were so surprised that the people didn’t laugh at certain moments where we always expect they should. The opera is comic in places, and because when we do it in Germany, the people don’t laugh because they don’t understand the Italian language. But when we were in Italy, we expected finally they will laugh at certain moments, and they didn’t. They didn’t see the comic side of it. They are not interested in such fine ironic humor in opera. They are more interested in standing and singing an aria, and shouting bravo afterwards. This is my experience with Mozart in Italy.

BD:   Do you sing many times where you have the supertitles?

Schöne:   Yes, but this is just in the last ten or fifteen years.

BD:   Do you find they’re laughing now?

Schöne:   Yes, they are laughing at the right moments because of the surtitles, and they help a lot. In the very beginning, I was very skeptical about it, but I really think it’s a wonderful invention for our profession.

BD:   The Rossini singers tell me they get two laughs. One when they read it, and the second when they see the action on the stage

Schöne:   [Laughs] Yes, sometimes! Unfortunately, sometimes when the people laugh I don’t expect it, because at that very moment there is nothing to laugh at. Then I think the translation is different, so they are laughing because in the translation there is something to laugh at. But honestly, on the stage what we’re singing at the time is not funny. In this Lulu production, that happens sometimes. The people are laughing very loud, and we wonder what is there here to laugh at so loudly? As Germans singing German text, sometimes we are surprised.

BD:   Occasionally there’s a line in the surtitles that it makes an impact on American audiences that was not intended by Berg.

Schöne:   Right, especially one sentence that the Banker says. Because some things went down — like in reality right now — the banker says very convincingly, “You can trust me.” The audience is laughing loudly, and it’s because of the situation right now [2008] (the World Banking Crisis).

BD:   Should you perhaps have told the writer of the supertitles to change the line a little bit, or leave that line out?

Schöne:   Oh, no!!! I like it when they laugh! In Lulu there is a lot to laugh at, and sometimes I wish that they would laugh even louder and longer at certain moments, because this opera is really very funny.

BD:   So, you’re aware of the public that comes each night?

Schöne:   Yes, of course! We don’t see them because of the lights. We just see the conductor, and then behind the conductor it is dark. You don’t see the audience. This is the difference when you have, for instance, a Lieder recital. Then you see the audience from standing on the stage, because the audience has lighting to read the text in the program. I love to see the people with their faces, with their eyes, with their smiles, with their interest in what I am doing in singing Lieder. In opera, you don’t see. You only hear them, but you really feel them. You can feel if there is positive interest in what we are doing or not. You feel that.

BD:   You get an energy?

Schöne:   Yes, and it helps a lot. We need it when we are there on the stage.
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BD:   Are there any nights when the audience is perhaps tired and you have to do more?

Schöne:   You cannot do more. You cannot force the audience to become more interested when they are tired, or when they are just silent. In Germany, we have a system where some performances are bought by subscription. These are people who go to the opera regularly, and they can buy ten performances. We are used to saying that on Mondays there is a certain group of subscribers coming from the unions, and they are normally simple people who use this opportunity to go to opera for less money. When we know that it’s the union subscribers there, and we can do whatever we want and there is almost no reaction. [Laughs] You can really measure the difference of applause or reactions in comparison to other performances.

BD:   Are they waiting for a television-like show?

Schöne:   No, I don’t think so. They are tired because they had worked the whole day, and maybe they didn’t have the interest to prepare for this visit to the opera, or to read something about the opera, or inform themselves about the problem of music, or the difficulties of the production and all these details. If you really want to enjoy an opera visit, you have to prepare yourself. At least read something about what’s happening in this opera, particularly if it’s another language. If you don’t prepare yourself, you cannot really enjoy it as much as you could.

BD:   [With mock horror] You mean, we shouldn’t go to the opera just for the pretty music???

Schöne:   No! [Laughs] You cannot go to Lulu just to sit there, close your eyes, enjoy the music, and then go home and be happy! This is not Lulu, and there are many other operas where you have the same situation. There are some operas where you don’t really need to look at the stage because you know what happens. You know what is going on, what the words are, and what the people are singing about.

BD:   There will be a difference between Lulu and, say, La Traviata?

Schöne:   Yes, although Traviata is one of those Italian operas with a very high-quality story, and a really special problem which is not just to sit there and enjoy the music, and feeling comfortable with that. You have to participate in the drama, in comparison maybe to Madam Butterfly. That is another case where the music is great, but it is a very simple story in which I am not really interested. But the dramaturgy, the story of Traviata is something which really interests me, and should interest the audience as well.

BD:   Then let me ask the ‘Capriccio’ question. Which is more important, the music or the drama?

Schöne:   I have done Capriccio often, and we had discussed this matter.

BD:   Were you Olivier or La Roche?

Schöne:   No, I have sung the Count. There are three baritone parts, Olivier, the Count, and La Roche, and I was the Count in the Salzburg production some years ago. [Vis-à-vis the recording of that production shown at right, see my interview with Anna Tomowa-Sintow.] My answer is that the words and the music should be equally balanced, and if not, then something is really missing. With Lulu the music and the words are absolutely on the same level. It’s one of the most perfect opera librettos I ever had in my life. It is a drama from Frank Wedekind, and the words are absolutely his original. Berg didn’t change anything. Maybe he cut one or two little scenes, but what he used in the opera is the original Wedekind. It’s fantastic really.

BD:   Do you think that Wedekind would be pleased that his drama has been set, particularly with this kind of music?

Schöne:   He would be if he were alive, I am sure. I have seen in the theater the original Wedekind play without the music of Berg, and my feeling is with the music piece grew. For me, it is even better than the original play.

BD:   I wonder about that, because a play should be complete, and yet then the play is set with the music added on.

Schöne:   Yes, the music helps because the technique that Alban Berg used is of leitmotifs like Wagner started, and if you really listen to the music, Alban Berg helps with understanding the relationship between each character. For instance, when he is using one motif from my role, the tiger, Dr. Schön says, “I am the tiger”. So, Berg uses that phrase, and when this motif comes, even when I’m not on the stage, when people speak about me or think about me, you can hear it in the orchestra. This really helps a lot of people to see the relationship and the story much clearer than seeing the play in the theater. It’s a miracle really, and he always does it. He always brings into the orchestra, one of those leitmotifs when somebody is mentioned or even just being thought about. This piece is incredible.

BD:   It’s part of the power of music, that it works on so many levels.

Schöne:   Yes, and as a consequence I have now done Lulu very often. For me, Lulu is the opera of operas. People will maybe think I’m crazy, but the more I sing this opera, the more I admire, and the more I discover. It is incredible quality.

BD:   It’s the genius of Berg?

Schöne:   Yes, yes. There is not even one little detail which is wrong. When he is writing some accents somewhere in the orchestra, and he is using the main motif and the side motif, this is all written in the score, and everybody knows it. Then, when you listen to it when you are on the stage, you have to know that what you are singing at that moment is important because it’s the main motif. So the dynamics are very important because the main motif always has to be heard. It’s very difficult for the conductor to make that clear with the orchestra. This music is a miracle.

BD:   The conductor has to keep the orchestra down?

Schöne:   Yes, and bring up the main instrument or the side motif instrument. He really has to check the dynamic details very, very clearly.

BD:   Without mentioning names, are there some conductors who understand all this, and other conductors who don’t?

Schöne:   Of course! [Laughs] You are in a happy situation here in Chicago that Sir Andrew Davis is a specialist on this opera, because he loves it. He has said that. He loves this opera like I do. We had a conversation at the beginning of the rehearsal period, and he said that Lulu was his favorite opera. [Vis-à-vis the video shown at left (which is also conducted by Davis!), see my interviews with Kathryn Harries, and Norman Bailey.] The Marriage of Figaro can be at the same kind of level in his opinion, and I had exactly the same opinion. Up to the smallest detail, those two operas are perfect. There’s not one bar which can be missed. I hate to make cuts in operas like The Marriage of Figaro or Lulu. Sometimes they do, and there are many possibilities for cuts to be made, but I am not a person who likes them. Nobody has the right to cut this masterpiece.

BD:   It’s easy for the audience to understand and enjoy Figaro, but it’s not so easy for them to just come and understand and enjoy Lulu. How can we get more people to enjoy the Berg work?

Schöne:   Fortunately here they do a pre-opera talk, which I really appreciate, because it helps to explain certain techniques of the music and of singing, and half-singing, and speaking. This is necessary to really see the quality, and to have fun with this opera. Yesterday after the performance, by coincidence, some people crossed my way. They recognized me as one of the singers, and they said it was fantastic. They said, “Of course, it is very difficult, but we enjoyed it very much.” Then I said, “Yes, and you will have more fun with this opera when you see it twice or three times.” Later, with Marlis Petersen (who was singing Lulu) and William Burden (who was singing Alwa), we were in a small restaurant, and there were other people who had been at the performance. There was one lady in that group who said it was her third time at Lulu! Of course, you cannot expect people to go three times to Lulu, but this is really the only way to find your way to totally enjoy this opera. I myself have had this experience.

BD:   Are you finding that as we go along year after year that people are getting more involved in it and more into this work?

Schöne:   I think so, yes, but there is still a problem with this opera. I have done it in Europe very often. In my home town of Stuttgart in Germany, we had a production eight years or ten years ago, and it was not very full because it’s modern music, so they don’t go that easily to performances like that.

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BD:   You sing quite a bit of modern music — new works, and even world premieres — and you also sing Mozart and Bach. How is that on the voice?

Schöne:   With Lulu there is no danger at all for the voice. You really can sing. I have sung other operas which are more dangerous for normal educated professional singers.

BD:   Let’s come to that in a moment. In Lulu you sing and you speak. Is this not difficult to go from singing to speaking and Sprechstimme [speech-singing]?

Schöne:   No, it isn’t because with Berg, as I mentioned, he has different steps of singing, half-singing, half-speaking and really speaking, and he describes it exactly how it is. You can read it, and you can see with a certain technique of writing how to do it, and this makes it much easier than if you sing and suddenly then just speak, and then sing again. Speaking is really very dangerous for a singer if you have to sing afterwards immediately, or even again and again change from one to the other. But with Berg, it’s not that dangerous and difficult because he has all these between ways of singing.

BD:   So rather than be more difficult, it’s more helpful?

Schöne:   Yes, but in some contemporary operas, you are really screaming, or not even speaking. You have to use your voice like an instrument, which is just making sound without text, and for me this really is very dangerous. Fortunately when I started, I did many world premieres of Hans Werner Henze and Aribert Reimann in Germany, as well as some others, and fortunately they are not that extreme or difficult for the voice. But at a certain point, composers thought of me as a specialist for modern opera repertoire, so they wanted to write an opera thinking of me. They asked if I could do certain vocalisms. It happened more and more, so I started to become a specialist for modern music. Then, at a certain time, I refused because I didn’t want to be a specialist in that. I want to sing as long as possible roles like Don Giovanni, or father Germont, or Rigoletto, or Wagner. From then on, I was somehow out of this scene. I had done my part for them, and I have no other operas like Lulu.

BD:   Will there come a time when you will retire that role?

Schöne:   Yes, I have to because I should not be that old doing Dr. Schön. He is an elderly man, so I’m just right now. But when I’m over seventy, it’s really not good any more to sing this role, even though I would be able to sing it. But there’s another role in this opera, which is Schigolch, which can be sung by people who are even eighty years old.

BD:   Didn’t Hans Hotter do that late in his career?

Schöne:   I did it with Hotter! [Hotter is Schigolch in the CD recording shown below.] He was eighty-two at that time, and all the other Schigolchs in my other productions were over seventy and seventy-five. This is a role which can be my next role in Lulu, and because I love this opera, I will be a Schigolch somewhere.

BD:   You want to stay with Lulu, but in a little reduced way?

Schöne:   Right!

BD:   Is it terribly difficult to sing two different roles in an opera, like Figaro and the Count?

Schöne:   I only sang the Count. I never did Figaro, and I never sang Leporello. I always sang Don Giovanni, so I never had this experience of doing two roles in one opera. But I don’t think so, because with Schigolch, I have heard it so often that I’ve almost studied this role. Plus, Schigolch never has a scene together with Dr. Schön. He’s always in another scene so we don’t mix in certain situations vocally.

BD:   I would think a musical cue might throw you in an ensemble.

Schöne:   Yes, in an ensemble, but there is no ensemble with Dr Schön and Schigolch. So this is not a problem.

BD:   Have they met? Do they know each other?

Schöne:   We really never meet in this opera. He just disappears as I’m coming. I’ve met him outside. I’m asking Lulu what he is doing there, and I call him her father, but he’s not her father, of course. I’m asking Lulu why is he there. He has nothing to do with being there. It’s not his place to be, but he’s always there. But I never meet him on the stage.

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BD:   You mentioned that you have stopped doing newer roles. When you’re asked to do a standard role, how do you decide yes or no?

Schöne:   [Laughs] When it’s a new role for me, I have to see the music, the score, and I have to work on it and find out if it’s vocally for my voice. My voice has changed through the years.

BD:   Are you a baritone, or a bass-baritone?

Schöne:   I am a baritone. I started as a lyric baritone, like Guglielmo, and the Count in The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni. Don Giovanni is already a bit more dramatic, but I started as a lyric baritone, and through the years my voice became louder, bigger, and deeper. I didn’t lose the height, so I’ve started to sing more dramatic roles. This is the natural way of each baritone through forty years of professional singing. So now I’m singing all the Wagnerian roles, including Sachs and Amfortas in Parsifal.

BD:   Amfortas not Gurnemanz?

Schöne:   Not Gurnemanz. Gurnemanz is a bass role, and Amfortas is a real baritone role which I’m doing sometimes. Sachs is kind of a bass-baritone role, but I enjoy singing Sachs very much.

BD:   Sachs is a long role...

Schöne:   This is the longest role ever written for any singer, male or female. There is no operatic role in history that is longer than Sachs.

BD:   [Surprised] Not even Siegfried???

Schöne:   No, no!

BD:   Siegfried is just loud?

Schöne:   Yes, it is loud. Everybody who can sing Siegfried in Siegfried has my great admiration. I have done the Wanderer very often, and I admire the Siegfried singers all the time. But if you put the role of Sachs one piece after the other, he sings for two hours and fifteen minutes. This is more than some operas from start to finish!

BD:   It’s even more than a Lieder recital.

Schöne:   Yes. It is really the longest opera.

BD:   You’re okay with that?

Schöne:   Yes, but you can only do it when you are absolutely 100% okay vocally. I had two experiences when I really had problems in the end, and I was forced to go down an octave because I was absolutely at the end of my vocal power. But when you are really fine with your health and vocal situation, to sing Sachs is a dream because he has everything. All the colors! The smallest piano pieces, lyric lines, dramatic ideas, explosions, sarcasm, love, everything. It’s fantastic.

BD:   Would Sachs have been happy with Eva if Walther had not wandered into town?

Schöne:   Yes, I think so.

BD:   Would Eva have been happy with Sachs?

Schöne:   I think so, at least in the very beginning. I don’t know about the big difference between them in age, but Sachs is really in love with Eva. That is what I really always want to have in all the scenes between Eva and Sachs. They should be really very erotic, not like an old papa to a young girl. It is a piece of pure erotica for him, and Eva as well. This is my opinion, and fortunately all the directors I have worked with accepted it.

BD:   Does Eva have a dalliance with Sachs?

Schöne:   I don’t know... maybe. I don’t care, but Eva feels it, and she loves Sachs. There are many moments where you really can see it. She actually says it at a certain point.

BD:   But then is Sachs happy that Walther takes her and goes away?

Schöne:   Yes... Well, I don’t know if he’s really happy. He is jealous, but he’s a wise man, so he has to accept it.

BD:   The real Sachs finds someone else the next year. There’s only one Midsummer Day when he is not married.

Schöne:   It’s true, yes for the real one. But to do Sachs is every baritone’s dream.

BD:   Is it also every bass’s dream?

Schöne:   No, because for many basses it’s a nightmare to sing the third act. For a real bass it’s too high, and there are many basses who never try to sing Sachs. Some of them tried it, and after some performances decided not to do it anymore. I don’t want to mention names but it is really very difficult sometimes for a bass.

BD:   You’ve done Sachs and Amfortas. Have you done all three Wotans?

Schöne:   No. I have studied all three, but I have only done the Wanderer in Siegfried, because in Stuttgart we had this experience that the Ring was done by four different directors, and all the singers were different. This was the first time it was done like that. I have just read that in Essen, Germany, they are doing the same, and I don’t know if it’s okay.

BD:   Was there just one designer?

Schöne:   No, four designers and four directors. There was just one conductor and one orchestra, of course, but all the Brünnhildes and the Wotans, and the Siegfrieds were different. So I had only the Wanderer to do in this production. I wished to have done the other Wotans, especially the Walküre Wotan which is an interesting role. I had studied it just in case I would be asked, but I never got to do it unfortunately.

BD:   Will you get the chance, perhaps?

Schöne:   Maybe. I hope so, but it is quite late, because I’m now sixty-eight, and to make a debut in the Walküre Wotan at seventy, or something like that, would be kind of a joke.

BD:   Isn’t the Rheingold Wotan very high?

Schöne:   Yes, but the highest is the Wanderer. That is the real baritone role. The Walküre Wotan is almost a bass role. The end is very high, but the Monologue (in Act 2) is very low. It’s very long and very low, like for a bass, but at the very end the Abschied [Farewell] is something really more for a baritone than for a bass. The Rheingold Wotan is not that interesting from the singing point of view. Alberich is much more interesting in Das Rheingold.

* * * * *

BD:   Are you ever going to do any bass parts?

Schöne:   Only in concerts. When you’re in concerts, you only have four kinds of voices — soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. So, this voice is always called ‘Bass’ in Bach, and in all the oratorio singing. I have done all this, so in this case, I am a bass. But I’m a baritone, and I never sang a really bass role in opera, only baritone roles.

BD:   Might you sing a bass aria or two in a recital or concert?

Schöne:   Yes, at certain concerts I’d sing Sarastro or something like that.

BD:   [With a gentle nudge] But not Osmin with his low D?

Schöne:   No, Osmin I don’t sing. [Both laugh] I have done some Bach Cantatas on recordings with Helmuth Rilling, and there is just one which has a one-page recitative, and the last note at the end is a low C! That appears in no other Bach Cantata, just in that one, and Rilling asked me do it. This was years ago, when I was still almost a lyric baritone.

BD:   Were you able to sing it?

Schöne:   I tried, and I thought it was okay. We could make this recording at 10 o’clock in the morning, and start with the end. So we did it. We made the whole recitative in one piece, and I could sing the low C. It’s on the record, and it’s not faked. It’s real, and I was always happy to have a possibility to sing the low range, like a bass, in oratorio. This was never a problem.

See my interviews with Arleen Augér, Helen Donath, and Peter Schreier.
Also note the appearance of Marlis Petersen, who was singing Lulu in Chicago with Schöne!

BD: How do you balance your career with concerts, oratorios, staged opera, and solo recitals?

Schöne: I started as a concert singer first, and opera came rather late. I was more than thirty years old when I sang opera for the first time. Then it was half concert and half opera, and it turned more and more into opera. So now 90% is opera. I’m still looking for some possibilities to sing oratorios, like Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, or Haydn’s Creation, or Handel’s Messiah, or Mendelssohn’s Elijah, or St. Paul. I also still like very much to do Lieder as well, but now the opportunities are very rare where I can really still sing oratorio. For me, to sing oratorio is a kind of vocal control for myself. I’m still able to sing coloratura, for instance, which is needed in many of those oratorios, especially in Bach arias. I’m always trying to polish my voice by doing things like that, and to sing Lieder as well. When I need to prepare a Lieder recital, I need at least one week away from opera to bring my voice back to this kind of singing. I have to stop singing opera and prepare my voice so as to be able to sing Lieder. But it is very important that you always to try to do both opera and concerts.
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BD:   That makes a complete singer?

Schöne:   Yes.

BD:   This is for the health of the voice?

Schöne:   Yes. When I’ve done some concerts or some Lieder recitals, and then come back to the opera again, I realize that it’s a real help vocally for the opera.

BD:   You should tell your agent to get you one recital every two months.

Schöne:   [Laughs] Yes, but I cannot. I have no influence in that, but it would be the right way.

BD:   Have you made sure that you don’t sing too many opera performances throughout your career? [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at left, see my interviews with Ileana Cotrubas, and Adam Fischer.]

Schöne:   I had certain periods when I was in danger of doing too much, and I was tired. My wife has sometimes told me that tonight my voice sounded really tired. I did the performance, but I could have done it better if I would not be that often on the stage. But now, at my age of sixty-eight, I have not so many opportunities to sing opera as I did twenty years ago, so I’m really relaxed and I have time enough to recover from singing right now. Between performances, there are always two, three, or four days without singing.

BD:   When I saw the schedule of Lulu, with the large breaks between performances, I assumed it was Marlis Petersen (who was singing the title role) who asked for the days off.

Schöne:   You are right, because the part of Lulu is a killer. Singing Lulu is absolutely one of the most difficult female opera roles. Marlis needs some rest between the performances.

BD:   But you were happy about that scheduling?

Schöne:   Yes, of course.

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BD:   What advice do you have for younger singers?

Schöne:   The main advice is that they should not do too much too quickly! If there is a young voice, and it’s an overwhelming success, then all the agents and opera houses want to have this young singer. This happens very often, and after two years he’s kaput! He’s burned out. The most dangerous side of the opera profession is to sing too much, too early. Suddenly there is so much money, and the temptation to use these opportunities is very high. I understand the temptation, but for a voice, it’s death.

BD:   When you started out, did you try to pace your career to last for many years?

Schöne:   No. I honestly didn’t think about that. Fortunately, I started singing professionally very late, so my physique was already developed, and was absolutely able to withstand this hard profession. But when you start very early, and especially with female singers who often start quite young, this is very dangerous, because the physique is not yet fully developed. I was old enough to survive, and I’m very happy that I’m still able to sing and make this profession as I do. I’m really very thankful that I’m still able to sing.

BD:   Do you sing differently in the theater as opposed to recordings?

Schöne:   No, no. When I’m doing recordings, I’m singing like being on the stage, and I’m engaged as if I were on the stage. I cannot imagine singing an opera just for the microphones and for the CD production which I had never done on the stage. For me, this is impossible. You have to have done it on the stage because you will bring this experience, and when someone listens to what you are singing, they can realize whether or not this singer has done it on stage. They can hear that.

BD:   Do you sing differently from a small house to a large house?

Schöne:   No, I don’t think so. I cannot imagine doing that. This is a big house, the biggest house I have ever sung in. I have never sung in a opera house like the Chicago Lyric which holds 3,600 people. In Europe you don’t get them that big.

BD:   No. In Europe the big houses are about 2,400 or 2,600. [Vienna is 1, 710 + 500 standing; Covent Garden is 2,250; English National Opera is 2,350; Glyndebourne is 1,200; Scottish Opera is 1,550; Munich is 2,100; Riga is 950.]

Schöne:   I really don’t care if it’s a small house because I don’t sing in real small houses. I have sung Lulu at Glyndebourne, and it’s wonderful acoustically. It’s fantastic. [The Glyndebourne production is on video, and is shown above. Vis-à-vis the CD recording shown at right, see my interviews with Brigitte Fassbaender, Graham Clark, and Jeffrey Tate.]

BD:   I want to ask you about advice for young or established singers who want to be in brand new operas, world premieres.

Schöne:   First of all, this is much more dangerous. John Adams or Philip Glass are very simple to sing and to learn, but to sing very difficult modern operas is very dangerous because you don’t really know what it does to the voice. On the other hand, for young singers or new singers, a possibility just to come on the market can be helpful, because the established singers are usually not that much interested in doing very modern operas. So they are having problems finding singers for that. You have to have the time to learn it, because it takes much more time to learn a modern piece like that, unlike La Traviata or Madam Butterfly. Those you can learn in a week if it’s necessary. But it is a possibility to show what you are able to do, if you’re intelligent enough, and musical enough, and prepared to learn a thing like that. Those new works need much more intelligence applied, and vocally and technically they need special things. So I think it is a good possibility for young singers to come onto the market and to find a place in the opera scene.

BD:   Should singers think of themselves as commodities, as products for the operatic market?

Schöne:   [Thinks a moment] They should not, but this very often is the way the market reacts right now, and there are very bad examples right now.

BD:   Do you have any advice for composers?

Schöne:   Yes! [Laughs] They have to learn about what a voice is capable of doing, and not ruin the voice.

BD:   [With a gentle nudge] You don’t want to be a clarinet?

Schöne:   No! [Much laughter] From the modern composers for the last forty years, I have met them and I know them. Hans Werner Henze is the composer who writes for singers the most, and he is a man who knows what is good for a voice and what helps to learn a role. He’s always helping us with the orchestra. With some composers, sometimes you are absolutely lost, and if you don’t have perfect pitch, you are lost because you don’t know where to find the right tone. What Henze does is that he always helps singers somehow in the orchestra to find their notes. He’s not that modern anymore, but he is a modern composer where other young composers should learn what to do with voices and singing in modern music.

BD:   Should they study with him, or study his scores?

Schöne:   Both! He has had many, many students, and many young composers have learned from him. We were very good friends for a long period when he was in Stuttgart, and we performed a lot of his operas at that time, including Der Junge Lord, Boulevard Solitude, and The English Cat, which I did and was a world premiere. That is a wonderful sarcastic opera about English society, and I love it. We also did We Come to the River, a big difficult opera of his. He even did some directing of opera in Stuttgart, including The Magic Flute.

BD:   Did he alter the score at all, or just direct?

Schöne:   He wrote some stage music heard from behind the stage. When the storm comes and Papageno is afraid because something happens from the Queen of the Night, there’s some noise backstage, and he wrote some special music for that.

* * * * *

BD:   Will you come back to Chicago?

Schöne:   I hope so! We have no plans yet because this was my first time, and they have to find out about me. I have a very good feeling that Bill Mason, [the General Director of Lyric Opera] and the whole team here in Chicago is very happy about what I did, so maybe they’ll find some idea to get me back.

BD:   Good. I hope so.

Schöne:   I hope so, too because I’m very happy in Chicago here, honestly.

BD:   Do you like being a wandering minstrel?

Schöne:   A wandering minstrel?

BD:   A traveling singer.

Schöne:   This is the side of my life that I really don’t like that much! It is less now, but there was a time when I was only at home for two or three months a year. The rest was on the road. This is the side of the opera profession which I especially don’t like that much. I must sit in an apartment which is not my own. But when I’m home, I really enjoy being home again.

See my interviews with Robert Lloyd, Yvonne Minton, and Armin Jordan

BD:   Weren’t you a Fest [resident] singer in Stuttgart?

Schöne:   Yes, I was in Stuttgart for thirty-five seasons, non-stop as a Fest member of the ensemble, and now I am retired. At sixty-five you have to retire, therefore, I am now a guest in the company. I am not a member of the ensemble anymore.

BD:   But even when you were there, didn’t you travel around?

Schöne:   Yes. I had a contract which allowed me to travel as much as I needed. I did my evenings in Stuttgart, and in the last years there were about twenty or twenty-five performances a year. So that was not too much.

BD:   Are you pleased with how your career has progressed thus far?

Schöne:   Yes, absolutely. I’m very happy about what I made in my life with being a singer. Earlier I was a primary-school teacher, therefore I started quite late with singing. At the time I decided to leave the teaching profession and become a singer, it was a very hard decision to make, but I have never regretted this step, and I’m very happy about what has happened.

BD:   Good. Thank you for coming to Chicago, and thank you for Dr. Schön... and Dr. Schöne!

Schöne:   [Laughs] It’s a miracle, this coincidence with my name. I used to say that when people are thinking about doing Lulu in an opera house somewhere, they must think about me because when they are looking for a Dr. Schön, which name do they think of first? Wolfgang Schöne! [Much laughter] It’s not true, but I have done this role very often.

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See my interviews with Nancy Maultsby, Nancy Gustafson, and Lorin Maazel

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This conversation was recorded in Chicago on November 20, 2008. This transcription was made in 2025, and posted on this website at that time. My thanks to British soprano Una Barry for her help in preparing this website presentation.

To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been transcribed and posted on this website, click here. To read my thoughts on editing these interviews for print, as well as a few other interesting observations, click here.

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Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001. His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.

You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests. He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago. You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.