Hanne-Lore Kuhse

Plaque at the house in Schwerin, where the singer lived.

Born in Schwaan, Kuhse first studied singing with a private teacher in Rostock. Later she continued her education at the Rostock Conservatory and at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin.[2]

In 1951 she made her debut at the Theater Gera as Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio. From 1952 to 1959 she was a member of the Mecklenburg State Theatre. In 1959 she changed to the Leipzig Opera, and in 1963 she was engaged by the Berlin State Opera.

In 1973 she received a visiting professorship at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar. In 1974 she was appointed professor at the Musikhochschule Berlin. Her students included mezzo-soprano Annette Markert and baritone Erwin Noack.

Kuhse died in Berlin at age 74.

She sang almost all parts in dramatic soprano: Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Leonore in Fidelio, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and Lady Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi, Tosca by Puccini, Senta in The Flying Dutchman, Venus in Tannhäuser and Brünnhilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen. The highlight of her artistic activity as a singer was her embodiment of Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. In the field of modernity she took over Marie in A. Berg's Wozzeck.[3][4]

• 1964: Verdi's Macbeth (Lady Macbeth) – director: Erich-Alexander Winds (Staatsoper Unter den Linden)

Kuhse was honorary citizen in Schwaan, where she is buried.[5]

• Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Großes Sängerlexikon. Third extended edition. K. G. Saur, Munich 1999. Volume 3: Hirata-Möwes, p. 1941.

• Werke von und über Hanne-Lore Kuhse in the German National Library catalogue
• Literature about Hanne-Lore Kuhse in the State Bibliography (Landesbibliographie) of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

• Hanne-Lore Kuhse discography at Discogs