Lyric tenor from Gran Canaria, one of the most important opera singers of the 20th century. He triumphed in the most prestigious theatres in the world.
Alfredo Kraus Trujillo was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1927, the son of an Austro-Hungarian businessman and a Canarian mother. He studied singing in Valencia and Barcelona, and then in Milan with the legendary teacher Francesco Marzollo. His operatic debut took place in Cairo in 1956, and the following year he triumphed at the Teatro Real in Madrid. From then on his international career rose without interruption: he debuted at Covent Garden in London, the Vienna Opera and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he was for decades a defining artist.
Kraus specialised in the lyrical bel canto repertoire: Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi and especially the great lyric grace tenor roles — Werther, Elvino, the Duca di Mantova — which he sang with an elegance, phrasing and musicality his contemporaries recognised as unique. His silver-timbred voice and technical perfection allowed him to sing almost to the age of seventy without loss of quality. He always refused to take on roles that might force his instrument.
Offstage, Kraus was an exceptional pedagogue. He gave masterclasses throughout the world and left a singing school that influenced generations of young tenors. He died in Madrid in 1999, still in full professional activity. The Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, inaugurated in the year of his death and designed by architect Oscar Tusquets, bears his name and is today one of the most beautiful concert venues in Spain.