Konrad Dryden
| Konrad Dryden | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Konrad Claude Dryden September 13, 1963 Pasadena, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Musicologist, biographer |
| Period | 1990–present |
| Genre | Verismo |
| Spouse | Countess Florence de Peyronnet (1991–2007) |
Konrad Claude Dryden (born September 13, 1963) is an American author who has written extensively on Italian opera, particularly about the movement known as Verismo.
Dryden is the son of a British father, Kenneth Dryden (an RAF pilot and descendant of poet laureate John Dryden), and a German mother, Ingeborg Rudhart, a descendant of Ignaz von Rudhart, Prime Minister of Greece under the reign of King Otto of Greece. His cousin, Karin Seehofer, is married to Bavaria's current president, Horst Seehofer.
Born in Pasadena, California, Dryden moved to Northern California at an early age. Attending performances at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco sparked an innate love for the lyric theatre, leading him to train as an operatic baritone at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1980 with the French-Canadian tenor Léopold Simoneau.
A European resident since 1981, Dryden continued his operatic tuition with the baritone Karl Schmitt-Walter in Munich, Germany. Schmitt-Walter was noted for his numerous recordings as well as his involvement with the reopening of the Bayreuth Festival after World War II. Following Schmitt-Walter's death, Dryden, from 1982 to 1983, continued his studies with the American tenor James King, both in Munich and Salzburg. Thereupon followed a move to Feldafing on Lake Starnberg, where Dryden spent the better part of two years working with the German baritone Josef Metternich. In Italy, mezzo-soprano Gianna Pederzini helped Dryden to complete his studies with the baritone Gino Bechi in Florence. Bechi, one of Italy's most noted baritones, had sung Alfio in the HMV recording of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana under the composer's direction in 1940.
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