Willi Brokmeier was a German operatic lyric tenor, based at the Bavarian State Opera.
20 Facts About Willi Brokmeier
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Willi Brokmeier focused on operetta roles, with an expressive voice and great acting talent, appearing in several operetta films.
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Willi Brokmeier participated in world premieres such as Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten in 1965, Haydn's Le pescatrici and Jan Cikker's Das Spiel von Liebe und Tod, and performed at major European opera houses.
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Willi Brokmeier took up his first engagement in 1953 at the Staatstheater Mainz.
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Willi Brokmeier performed as David in Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg there.
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Willi Brokmeier made guest appearances at renowned opera houses in Germany and Europe, such as with the company to the Netherlands in 1958, as Don Curzio in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss.
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Willi Brokmeier performed at the Vienna State Opera in 1958 as Scaramuccio, repeating the role the following year at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
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Willi Brokmeier appeared as Jacquino in Beethoven's Fidelio in 1960 on a tour to Japan, repeating it at the Teatro Regio Turin and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
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From 1961 Willi Brokmeier was a member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater am Gartnerplatz in Munich, when Arno Assmann was artistic director.
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Willi Brokmeier appeared there in the world premiere of Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten in 1965, as the Young Count.
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In 1967 Willi Brokmeier returned to Munich and became a member of the Bavarian State Opera.
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Willi Brokmeier appeared in the German premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett's The Mines of Sulphur in 1967.
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Willi Brokmeier worked with conductors such as Carlos Kleiber and Karl Bohm.
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Willi Brokmeier appeared in television film adaptations of operettas, as Prinz Sternschnuppe in Paul Lincke's Frau Luna, as Richard in Leon Jessel's Schwarzwaldmadel, and as Ottokar in Der Zigeunerbaron.
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Willi Brokmeier appeared as Monostatos in a recording of Mozart's Die Zauberflote conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch in the early 1970s, alongside Kurt Moll as Sarastro, Edda Moser as the Queen of the Night and Peter Schreier as Tamino; a reviewer from Gramophone described him as "an excellent Monostatos, sharply characterized and neatly sung".
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Willi Brokmeier performed the role of the Song Seller in a 1973 video of Puccini's Il tabarro from the Bavarian State Opera conducted by Sawallisch.
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Willi Brokmeier participated in a rare recording of Schubert's Der vierjahrige Posten, in 1998, conducted by Heinz Wallberg.
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Willi Brokmeier recorded several complete operettas and excerpt from them, including Emmerich Kalman's Grafin Mariza and Die Csardasfurstin, and Lehar's Die lustige Witwe and Das Land des Lachelns.
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Willi Brokmeier recorded opera roles in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Otto Klemperer, Orff's Die Kluge, Korngold's Die tote Stadt, Acanta in Feuersnot, and Matteo in Arabella by Richard Strauss from La Fenice in Venice.
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Willi Brokmeier played in a number of filmed operas and operettas:.