Lajos Kozma is an Hungarian operatic tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

, particularly associated with lyric Italian roles, baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 operas and oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

s.

Born on September 2, 1938, in Lepsény

Lepsény

Lepsény is a village in Fejér county, Hungary.- External links :*...

, Hungary, he studied at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, and made his debut at the Budapest Opera in 1962, where he won considerable acclaim as Pelléas in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande

Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)

Pelléas et Mélisande is an opera in five acts with music by Claude Debussy. The French libretto was adapted from Maurice Maeterlinck's Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande...

. In 1963, he went to Italy to further his studies at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, with Giorgio Favaretto and Franco Capuana

Franco Capuana

Franco Capuana was an Italian conductor.Born in Fano in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino, he was the younger brother of mezzo-soprano Maria Capuana. He became associated with the Teatro di San Carlo in 1930 and La Scala in 1937. In 1940 he conducted the premiere of Ghedini's opera La pulce d'oro...

. Beginning in 1964, he sang widely in Italy, appearing in Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

, Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

, Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

, at the Rome Opera, at La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

 in Milan, and the San Carlo

San Carlo

San Carlo is the Italian for Saint Charles, and may refer to:* Charles Borromeo, also known as San Carlo Borromeo* San Carlo all'Arena, a neighbourhood in Naples where the Bourbon Hospice for the Poor is located...

 in Naples.

His career quickly became international with guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera

Vienna State Opera

The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...

, the Royal Opera House

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...

 in London, La Monnaie

La Monnaie

Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....

 in Brussels, Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, Philadelphia, and the New York City Opera

New York City Opera

The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

.

He also appeared at the Salzburg Festival

Salzburg Festival

The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...

 and Aix-en-Provence Festival

Aix-en-Provence Festival

The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...

, notably as Ferrando in Così fan tutte

Così fan tutte

Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....

. Other notable roles included Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, Vivaldi's Orlando furioso

Orlando furioso (Vivaldi)

Orlando furioso is an opera in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Grazio Braccioli, based on the poem of the same name by Ariosto. The first performance of the opera was at Teatro San Angelo, Venice, in 1727....

, Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex

Oedipus rex (opera)

Oedipus rex is an "Opera-oratorio after Sophocles" by Igor Stravinsky, scored for orchestra, speaker, soloists, and male chorus. The libretto, based on Sophocles's tragedy, was written by Jean Cocteau in French and then translated by Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin...

, he created Renzo Rossellini's La Reine morte, at the Monte Carlo Opera in 1973.

In 1971, he appeared in a film version of Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....

, opposite Anna Moffo

Anna Moffo

Anna Moffo was an Italian-American opera singer and one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation...

, which has been released on DVD.

He died on December 30, 2007, in Pierantonio (Umbertide

Umbertide

Umbertide is a town and comune of Italy, in the province of Perugia in northwestern Umbria, at the confluence of the Reggia river and the Tiber. It is 30 km North of Perugia and 20 km South of Città di Castello...

), Italy.

Sources

• Operissimo.com