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An ebullient, sometimes hyperkinetic interpreter of Mozart's Figaro, lyric baritone Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender enjoyed an important career in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. Trim and handsome, he matched the requirements of Mozart's baritone roles with surpassing ease and was celebrated for his dramatic aptitude as well as his suave singing. While he primarily made his career on the Continent, his name achieved international luster from his appearances at the Glyndebourne Festival during that enterprise's infancy. In England, several of his Mozart creations were recorded in editions that have remained in the catalog ever since. Domgraf-Fassbaender began his studies by attending Cathedral School in Aachen with the intent of becoming a church musician. Later, he took voice lessons from Paul Bruns and Jacques Stückgold in Berlin, and later still, traveled to Milan to continue his studies with Giuseppe Borgatti. Mozart served for his debut in Aachen in 1922, although the role there was Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. Recognition of an exceptional voice and presence was not long in coming as he was subsequently engaged by Berlin's Deutsches Opernhaus, Stuttgart, and Düsseldorf before returning to Berlin in 1928 as the Staatsoper's principal lyric baritone. He remained with the company until 1948. The Glyndebourne Festival was born with a performance on May 28, 1934, of Mozart's Figaro and Domgraf-Fassbaender sang the title role. The other opera that first year was Così fan tutte, and in that production, Domgraf-Fassbaender was Guglielmo. Under the conducting of Fritz Busch and the stage direction of Carl Ebert, the baritone's performances took on a new degree of polish. Domgraf-Fassbaender remained with the fledgling company until 1937, missing only 1936 after having added Papageno to his gallery of portraits in 1935. In 1937, he sang Papageno at Salzburg with a stellar roster of colleagues under Toscanini's direction. Aside from the standard lyric repertory, Domgraf-Fassbaender achieved success in the title role of Werner Egk's Peer Gynt at the Berlin Staatsoper in 1937. In the post-WWII era, he sang at many of central Europe's major houses, later moving into stage production as his performing career drew to a close. His daughter, mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender, was also noted as a leading singer/actor.

The Staatskapelle Berlin, or Berlin State Orchestra, has an extraordinarily long history the reflects much of the central European history of music in its relationship to the state. Since the ascension of international superstar conductor Daniel Barenboim to the podium in 1992, the group has emerged as a major force on the international concert and recording scene. Several dates may be given for the founding of what became the Staatskapelle Berlin, but it took shape in the middle and late 16th century as the court of the Elector of Brandenburg developed new musical ensembles and began to forge close ties with the Prussian monarchy. In 1701 it became the Royal Prussian Court Orchestra, and as such attracted top musicians including Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Johann Joachim Quantz. In 1783 the orchestra gave one of the first modern symphonic concerts, independently of the court, at the Hotel Paris, and through the 19th century it was a giant of European musical life, with conductors including Spontini, Meyerbeer, and, from 1899 to 1913, Richard Strauss. For all of this period, and down to the present day, the orchestra also served as the house orchestra of the Royal Court Opera, established in 1742 by Frederick the Great and in modern times renamed the Berlin State Opera. The same conductor serves as Staatskapellmeister or state music director of both ensembles. During World War II, Herbert von Karajan served as music director. After the war, due to its location in East Berlin, the orchestra came under the control of what would become East Germany. It maintained some connections with the non-Communist West; its conductor from 1964 to 1990 was the Austrian Otmar Suitner, who was able to travel fairly freely between East and West. After German reunification, Daniel Barenboim became the orchestra's first non-German conductor in modern times and has been successful in bringing the orchestra's international profile to a new level. The orchestra made its first appearance at the BBC Proms in 2013 (in a cycle of Wagner's Ring operas), and in 2017 performed a complete cycle of Bruckner's symphonies at Carnegie Hall in New York (the first-ever such cycle mounted in the U.S.). The orchestra has recorded prolifically for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Teldec, Denon, Berlin Classics, and Warner Classics, among other labels, releasing a set of Brahms' four symphonies with Barenboim conducting in 2018. ~ James Manheim