Obituary: Remembering Wagner Expert Manfred Jung

By David Salazar

German tenor Manfred Jung has passed away at age 76.

The tenor is perhaps best known for taking on the role of Siegfried in “Götterdämmerung” for Bayreuth’s centennial Ring cycle and also appeared at the 1975 Salzburg Easter Festival under the direction of Herbert Von Karajan. He was lauded for his work and even obtained a prize from Orpheus magazine.

He actually didn’t start off his career as a singer, but instead as an electrician in Essen. Eventually, he studied voice and would go on to perform first in Köln and then Dortmund.

He also appeared at Carnegie Hall, Vienna and the Metropolitan Opera in the 1980s. He appeared 18 times at the Met, debuting with a Wagner concert in 1981 before singing six performances of “Siegfried” in September 1981. He also sang four performances of “Die Walküre” and two of “Parsifal.” He concluded his Met career in 1984 with a five-performance run of “Tristan und Isolde.”

He also garnered fame for being one of the few tenors to sing every single tenor role in Wagner’s Ring.

He won a Grammy Award for his work in a recording of “Der Ring des Nibelungen.”

He also ran the Junge Musiker Stiftung, an organization in Bayreuth dedicated to promoting young singers.

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