Ernst Haefliger

Ernst Haefliger (6 July 1919 – 17 March 2007) was a Swiss tenor.

Haefliger was born in Davos, Switzerland, on 6 July 1919 and studied at the Wettinger Seminary and the Zürich Conservatory. Later, he became a pupil of Fernando Carpi in Geneva and the noted tenor Julius Patzak in Vienna. He devoted himself to lieder and choral works, and soon established a reputation for impeccable style and musicianship.

Haefliger sang the Evangelist in Bach's St John Passion for the first time in Zürich, in 1943. After this debut he was engaged for several concerts in Switzerland and – after World War II – abroad. He soon won the attention of Ferenc Fricsay, who engaged him for the Salzburg Festival, where Haefliger's world career started in 1949 with the role of Tiresias in Carl Orff's opera Antigonae. He also sang the role of First Armed Man in Die Zauberflöte conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler the same year at the Salzburg Festival.

In 1952, he responded to the call of Ferenc Fricsay and joined him at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he sang the tenor parts in all Mozart operas, in Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Le comte Ory, in Pfitzner's Palestrina, and the role of Hans in Smetana's The Bartered Bride, among others.

Haefliger had a lengthy and extensive international career. He made his Boston debut in 1965 for the Peabody Mason Concert series. Furthermore, he recorded many lieder, oratorios and operas for Angel, Columbia, Vanguard and Philips Records. Deutsche Grammophon issued a boxed set of 12 CDs titled The Art of Ernst Haefliger, with repertoire ranging from J.S. Bach to Janácek and including the three great Schubert lieder cycles.

From 1971 to 1988, he taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, Germany.

Haefliger also gave master classes in Zürich, Japan, and the United States and wrote "Die Singstimme" (Bern 1983).

Haefliger died from acute decompensated heart failure on 17 March 2007, in Davos, aged 88. The pianist Andreas Haefliger is his son.

• Berliner Kammersänger