Benno Kusche

Benno Kusche, a German bass-baritone born in Freiburg im Breisgau on 30 January 1916, is remembered above all for his work in the character repertoire. He trained in Karlsruhe and made his debut in Koblenz in 1938 as Melitone in La forza del destino. The following year he was engaged by Augsburg.

In 1946 he joined the Munich Staatsoper, with which he remained associated for more than thirty years. In Salzburg in 1949 he took part in the premiere of Orff's Antigonae. He made his Covent Garden debut in 1951 as Beckmesser, and in 1953 returned there with the Munich company to sing La Roche in the British premiere of Capriccio. At Glyndebourne he sang Leporello, Don Fernando in Fidelio and La Roche. In 1971 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Beckmesser.

Kusche's repertoire included Papageno, which he sang in Felsenstein's production of The Magic Flute at the Komische Oper in Berlin, as well as Alberich, Faninal, Figaro, Don Alfonso and Gianni Schicchi. His legacy rests on his character roles: Beckmesser and Alberich, recorded under Kempe, and Faninal, preserved on the 1979 video recording of Otto Schenk's Munich production.