Alois Pernerstorfer was an Austrian bass-baritone

Bass-baritone

A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...

He began his training in 1933 at the Wiener Musikhochschule with Theo Lierhammer and Josef Krips

Josef Krips

Josef Alois Krips was an Austrian conductor and violinist.-Biography:Krips was born in Vienna and went on to become a pupil of Eusebius Mandyczewski and Felix Weingartner. From 1921 to 1924, he served as Weingartner's assistant at the Vienna Volksoper and as répétiteur and chorus master...

 and made his opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 debut in 1936 in Graz

Graz

The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

 singing the role of Biterolf in Tannhäuser

Tannhäuser (opera)

Tannhäuser is an opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner, based on the two German legends of Tannhäuser and the song contest at Wartburg...

. He sang for many years 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...

 and the Vienna Volksoper

Vienna Volksoper

The Vienna Volksoper is a major opera house in Vienna, Austria. It gives about three hundred performances of twenty-five productions during an annual season running from September through June....

, and was a regular performer 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...

, where he sang in the European premiere of Samuel Barber

Samuel Barber

Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...

's Vanessa

Vanessa (opera)

Vanessa is an opera in three acts by Samuel Barber with an original English libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti. It was composed in 1956–1957 and was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 15, 1958 under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos in a production designed by...

. He also sang at the New York Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

 (1951-1952), the Glyndebourne Festival

Glyndebourne Festival Opera

Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...

, 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...

, and other major European opera houses.

Pernerstorfer's first wife was the soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 Henriette Herze, prominent in operetta at the Vienna Volksoper, as was his second wife, the soprano Emmy Funk. In 1963, Alois Pernerstorfer was made a Kammersänger

Kammersänger

Kammersänger , abbreviation: "Ks.", literally means "Chamber singer." It is a German honorific title for distinguished singers...

 of Austria, and in 1977 he was awarded the Großes Ehrenzeichen (Grand Order of Merit) by the Austrian government.

Recordings

• Wagner: Rienzi (Set Svanholm (Tenor), Christa Ludwig (Mezzo Soprano), Walter Berry (Bass Baritone), Teresa Stich-Randall (Soprano), Heinz Holecek (Tenor), Karl Terkal (Baritone), Anne Christiansen (Soprano), Alois Pernerstorfer (Bass Baritone), Paul Schöffler (Bass)). Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Chorus; Conductor: Josef Krips. Melodram MEL 10039.
• Wagner: Götterdämmerung (Kirsten Flagstad (Soprano), Max Lorenz (Tenor), Josef Hermann (Baritone), Alois Pernerstorfer (Bass Baritone), Hilde Konetzni (Soprano), Elisabeth Höngen (Mezzo Soprano) ) Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and Chorus; Conductor: Wilhelm Furtwängler
  Wilhelm Furtwängler
  Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
  
  . Urania URA 154.
• Samuel Barber: Vanessa (Norman Foster, Eleanor Steber, Nicolai Gedda, Alois Pernerstorfer, Rosalind Elias, Ira Malaniuk, Giorgio Tozzi) Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; Conductor: Dimitri Mitropoulos. Orfeo ORF 653062.