Erich Syri (8 December 1937 – 8 September, 2022)
Life
Syri was born in
Andernach. After initial singing lessons with Elly Lauer in
Neuwied, he studied singing with Professor Clemens Glettenberg at the State University of Music in Cologne. He debuted as Sarastro in Mozart's
The Magic Flute in 1962 in Passau at the Landestheater Niederbayern, a theatre in Lower Bavaria. He had his first engagement as a seriöser Bass at the Linz State Theatre from 1963 to 1966. From 1966 to 1968 he was engaged in the same position at the Theater Saarbrücken with the artistic director
Hermann Wedekind and conductor Siegfried Köhler. A season followed at the
Theater Freiburg in
Breisgau with Hans-Reinhard Müller and Austrian conductor
Leopold Hager.
In 1969 he was engaged by German conductor Horst Stein at the Mannheim National Theatre, where he worked until 1999.
Syri starred in the world premiers of Helmut Eder's s Der Kardinal in the title role, and in Giselher Klebe's s Der Jüngste Tag as Orest. He co-wrote and starred in the monodrama Die Sternstunde des Josef Bieder by .[ Opera. United Kingdom: Rolls House Publishing Company, 1998.]
Syri died in Lampertheim.
Roles (selection)
Honors
-
1989: Appointment as Baden-Württemberg Kammersänger by Premier Lothar Späth.
