Bernd Aldenhoff

Bernd Aldenhoff (14 June 1908 in Duisburg – 8 October 1959 in München) was a German Heldentenor.

He was born in 1908 in Duisburg, and raised in an orphanage in the Rhineland. Despite his humble beginnings, he managed to secure an engagement in the Cologne Opera chorus. While in Cologne he continued his vocal studies with a Professor Lenz, and was eventually promoted to soloist in the Cologne theater.

After engagements in Darmstadt and Erfurt, he first came to national prominence at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf, where he sang from 1938 to 1944. During this period he made several guest appearances at the Oper Frankfurt, where he made a strong impression in the Verdi spinto roles of Manrico and Riccardo.

During the war he sang in a number of German provincial houses, and from 1944 to 1952 he was a member of the Dresden Semperoper, where he developed into a Heldentenor. He first appeared at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus in 1951 as Siegfried in "Der Ring des Nibelungen" under both Knappertsbusch and Karajan, and returned there to repeat the role several times until 1957.

He appeared in Bavarian State Opera Munich between 1950 and 1958 in operas by Weber and Verdi, and in Richard Strauss's Die ägyptische Helena, and sang Siegfried in Götterdämmerung at Covent Garden in 1957. He made his Met debut as Tannhäuser, and also appeared at La Scala, the Paris Opéra and the Opernhaus Zürich.