Sándor Kónya 1923–2002

Sung with ‘precisely-placed tone and good musical sense’ (John Steane), Sándor Kónya’s Lohengrin was one of the highpoints of post-war Wagner interpretation. It was certainly the role for which his robust yet lyrical tenor was ideally suited and for which he will be best remembered: he made many of his major theatre debuts — Bayreuth (1958), Paris (1959), Metropolitan (1961) and Covent Garden (1963) — as the eponymous swan-knight, and recorded, under Leinsdorf, the full, unexpurgated version of the famous Act 3 Narration.

But his carefully chosen repertoire also included Parsifal, Erik and Walther, and Max in Der Freischütz, as well as such heavier Italian roles as Verdi’s Don Alvaro, Don Carlos, Riccardo and Radames, Puccini’s Cavaradossi, Pinkerton, Dick Johnson and Calaf, and Mascagni’s Turiddu. In 1956 he created the part of Leandro in Henze’s König Hirsch.

Sándor Kónya: born Sarkad, 23 September 1923; died Ibiza, 20 May 2002.