Fritz Wunderlich (September 26,1930 - September 17,1966) was a German tenor, born in Kusel, Lower Palatinate. His mother was a violinist and his father, who died when Fritz was only five years old, had been a choir-master. The family lived with difficulties, and the story goes that as a young man Fritz Wunderlich worked in a bakery, starting his singing studies at the insistence of neighbours and passers-by who witnessed his natural musical gifts and beautiful voice. In any case he managed to obtain a scholarship in order to pursue his studies at the Freiburg College of Music.
As he started his career, Fritz Wunderlich became noted as a brilliant young tenor, making an early mark in Mozartian roles, but soon expanding his reach to the full range of the lyric tenor repertoire. His crystal-clear voice and intelligent, restrained interpretation also led him to impressive renditions of the Lieder cycles of Schubert and Schumann.
Wunderlich's promising career was tragically cut short by an accident: he fell from a stairway in a friend's country house near Heidelberg and died in a hospital in that city just a few days before his 36th birthday.
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