Heppner, Ben (1956-…), is an outstanding Canadian opera singer. Heppner has won international praise for his musicality and dramatic intensity, as well as for the gleaming sound of his voice, especially in the upper register (range). With his large-scale tenor voice, Heppner has been successful in a wide repertoire (prepared program), notably in the operas of German composer Richard Wagner.
Heppner specializes in many of the most difficult roles in opera. He has won particular praise for his performances in Wagner’s Lohengrin, Parsifal, The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, and Tristan and Isolde. He has also starred in such operas as German composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fidelio, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello, French composer Hector Berlioz’s Les Troyens(The Trojans), and two English operas—Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes and William Balcon’s McTeague. In addition to his stage work, Heppner has made numerous acclaimed recordings of operas and appeared in concerts with major orchestras internationally.
Thomas Bernard Heppner was born on Jan. 14, 1956, in Murrayville, British Columbia, and grew up in Dawson Creek. He earned a bachelor of music degree from the University of British Columbia in 1979 and began performing professionally about this time. He first gained recognition by winning a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Talent Festival in 1979. He made his American debut in a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1988. That same year, Heppner won the prestigious Birgit Nilsson Prize and made his American stage debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago in a small role in Wagner’s Tannhäuser. He made his European debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm in 1989 in the title role in Lohengrin. In 2014, Heppner announced he was retiring from opera and concert singing.
