Heinz Kruse

Heinz Kruse (29 August 1940 – 29 July 2008) was a German opera singer (tenor).

Born in Schleswig, Kruse first sang in a children's choir and completed an apprenticeship with a health insurance company. His only singing lesson was with Traute Albers-Gisevius in Schleswig. He began his singing career as a choirist at the theater in Hof, then at Stadttheater Bern and from 1966 to 1968 at Staatstheater Stuttgart. In 1968 he was engaged as tenorbuffo  at the Theater Basel. His next station was the Staatsoper Hannover in 1970, where he celebrated his first great successes in buffo and character roles. He sang Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Wenzel in Die verkaufte Braut, Die Hexe in Hänsel und Gretel, David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and numerous other roles. Guest appearances led him to the Paris Opera as Pedrillo in 1978, to the opera of Toulouse as David in 1979 and to the Bayreuth Festival in 1977, where he played small roles in Tristan and Parsifal. In 1986 he took part in the premiere of Hans-Jürgen von Bose's Die Leiden des jungen Werthers at the Schwetzinger Festspiele.

Since 1987 active as heldentenor, he dedicated himself to roles like Florestan in Fidelio (Staatstheater Mainz 1988), Erik in The Flying Dutchman (Staatsoper Berlin 1991), Parsifal (Staatstheater Braunschweig 1988/89), the box in Das Rheingold (Staatsoper Hannover 1991, Hamburg 1992), Siegmund in Die Walküre (Hanover 1991), Tristan (Theater Kiel 1991, Hamburgische Staatsoper 1996, Deutsche Oper Berlin 1996) and the Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten (Braunschweig 1992, Semperoper Dresden 1996) as well as Walther von Stolzing in the Meistersingern. (Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe 1992/93).