Market Rasen Rotary started last week’s meeting with a minute’s silence to remember those afflicted by the attack on Ukraine and the meeting ended with the usual toast to Rotary and peace the World over - especially peace in Ukraine.
“Few singers would disagree with me, when I say that the greatest tragedy to strike the operatic profession since the end of the Second World War, was the early death of Fritz Wunderlich. Both vocally and musically his was the most blazing talent of my generation, and just as that talent was reaching maturity it was suddenly extinguished.” Nigel Douglas,
Legendary Voices.
This year the German lyric tenor Fritz Wunderlich, widely regarded as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century, would have been 90. Born on September 26, 1930, fate stepped in and he died in a tragic accident nine days short of his 36th birthday. With his Metropolitan Opera debut just weeks away, he sought time out in nature. A passionate hunter (Wunderlich had a huge gun collection), he took a break on one of his regular hunts with friends, but tripped and fell down a stairway in the country house he was staying in. He suffered a fractured skull, went into a coma and died a day later.