Max Lorenz
(born Max Sülzenfuß May 10, 1901 – January 11, 1975)
In his hometown of Düsseldorf, Lorenz initially worked for an industrial company. Following study with Max Pauli in Cologne, Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin and Karl Kittel in Bayreuth, he sought to be hired by the Berlin State Opera but was not taken.
After he won a prize in a newspaper-sponsored singing competition, he was engaged by Fritz Busch to join the Dresden State Opera, where he made his debut in 1927 as Walther von der Vogelweide / Tannhäuser. Lorenz remained with the Dresden company until 1931, also singing between 1929 and 1933 with the Vienna State Opera, where he was on the company roster from 1936 to 1944. He appeared at the Zoppot festival in 1930 and in 1931 made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York singing Walther / Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Erik / Der fliegende Holländer, Siegmund / Die Walküre, the title role in Siegfried and Babinsky / Schwanda the Bagpiper. Having returned for the 1933–1934 season, Lorenz extended his New York repertoire with the title role in Tannhäuser and Herod / Salome.
His performance as Menelaus in Richard Strauss’s Die aegyptische Helena, first performed in Dresden in 1928, prompted the composer to recommend him to the Berlin State Opera; Berlin was looking for a tenor for the same role. Following guest appearances there from 1931, Lorenz joined the Berlin company permanently in 1933. With his handsome figure and vigorous singing he quickly established himself as a Wagnerian singer of note. In addition he took leading parts in important premieres given in Berlin.
Lorenz first appeared in 1933 in the Bayreuth Festival, initially as Walther, Siegfried / Der Ring des Nibelungen, and in the title role of Parsifal, before moving on to the title roles in Lohengrin (1936) and Tristan und Isolde (1938). He sang at Bayreuth annually up to and including 1944.
His debut at the Royal Opera House, London came in 1934 as Walther. Lorenz was invited back to sing Siegfried and Erik in 1937, when he was described as an ‘eminently cultivated and musicianly singer’.
However, things were not rosy for Lorenz. Lorenz was both gay and married to a Jewish woman. Fortunately, he had one thing going for him — he was the greatest German-born tenor of his day.
After the bitter defeat of World War I, Germany — and the Nazi party — were looking for heroes. Lorenz’s heroic singing (and size; he was more than six feet tall) made him a national symbol. Remaining in Germany during World War II, he not only survived the war unscathed, but he gained the power to help those close to him.
Lorenz was the major German tenor at the world-renowned Bayreuth Festival. During the war, the festival’s CEO was Winifred Wagner, who was born in England, educated in Germany; and she married Wagner’s gay son Siegfried. She wasn’t officially a Nazi, but she seemed to have adored Hitler, who spent a good deal of time at Bayreuth. In an interview, she talks about Lorenz being arrested after being caught in flagrante with one of the Bayreuth vocal coaches. She says she threatened to shut down the theater if Lorenz were found guilty and forbidden to sing. But Hitler loved Bayreuth, and Lorenz’s trial ended without a guilty verdict. Once, the SS came to Lorenz’s house to remove his Jewish wife and her mother. But she had Goering’s sister’s private phone number, and 10 minutes later the SS men left the two women unharmed. The following night, the outraged Lorenz canceled a performance in Vienna where Hitler was the guest of honor.