A fact from Heinz Hoppe appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 16 April 2019 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that Heinz Hoppe performed as a lyric tenor at the Hamburg State Opera, including world premieres, but became popular for operetta recordings and television shows?
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Latest comment: 5 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion
@Corlissaar and Gerda Arendt: In this edit, Corlissaar writes "I found that Heinz Hoppe never sang a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. I have checked their archives, so although it is possible he sang in New York, he never sang at the Met."; and deletes article text accordingly. However, according to my best reading of this article "Saerbecker Junge an der Met", in Aktuelle Nachrichten - Westfälische Nachrichten he did.
During his successful career, Heinz Hoppe undertook numerous guest tours to all European music centers. In 1964, a unique event was announced: The Hamburg State Opera received an official invitation to the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the 1967 Summer Festival, known worldwide as the "Met". It was the Met's first invitation to a German opera house. In addition to New York, the World Fair in Montreal was included in the 1967 tour.
Never before had there been a foreign guest performance in this dimension. After all, 350 people had to travel for seven performances in two North American cities. After three years of intensive preparation, five conductors, 48 soloists, 180 chorus and orchestra members, technicians, stagehands and two physicians boarded the second Boeing 707 in May 1967. Instruments, props, costumes and lighting were pre-loaded in containers on three ships transported to the big pond. After the premieres in Montreal the press overturned in enthusiastic comments. Heinz Hoppe described his impressions of the trip to North America: "Singing once at the Met is an absolute dream for every singer. I was very happy to perform here. "
Of course that best reading is completely leaning on Google Translate, as my German is non-existent, so I just might be missing something, and I'm not going to immediately revert it, and will leave that to someone who does read German. Gerda, wärst du so nett? --GRuban (talk) 00:58, 18 April 2019 (UTC)Reply
What this suggests to me is that he performed in the building during the off-season of the Metropolitan Opera. Lots of performance arts organizations rent the space to perform while the Met is between seasons, either in the late spring or during the summer. But the fact is he never performed with the Metropolitan Opera. This is a huge distinction and needs the qualifier "performed at the Met with the Hamburg State Opera." The only person who performed with the Met with this surname was a tenor in the nineteenth century who performed in the first Met performances of Die Meistersinger. --Corlissaar — Preceding unsigned comment added by Corlissaar (talk • contribs) 01:53, 18 April 2019 (UTC)Reply
Thank you for investigating. The translation is fine, but the fact is not worth mentioning in his article. I agree with Corlissaar. We don't even know which opera, so no role. Local pride is one thing, and not bad, but the memery of him doesn't rest on Met or not Met. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:18, 18 April 2019 (UTC)Reply
