Famed Austrian tenor Waldemar Kmentt has died at age 85, the Vienna State Opera has announced.
A statement said Kmentt died in Vienna, where he began and ended an opera career that took him across the globe.
Kmentt sang 1,480 performances at the Vienna State Opera alone. Among his most popular roles were Tamino in The Magic Flute, Jenik in The Bartered Bride, and the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann. He also performed at Vienna’s Volksoper.
Foreign venues included La Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and opera houses in Rome, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.
State Opera director Dominique Meyer praised Kmentt’s “unforgettable voice and great personality” and said his death deprived his opera company of a “member of the family”.