Hugely popular wherever German is spoken and sung, Hofmann crossed all lines from opera to rock and enjoyed a stardom of almost Pavarotti-like dimensions.

Curly-blond and bubbly, he sang at Bayreuth in the Boulez-Chéreau centenary Ring in 1976 and appeared there also in Lohengrin, Tristan and Parsifal. His opera career took him to Chicago, London and Vienna. But he also starred in the Hamburg production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera and kept up regular sessions with a rock band he founded while serving in the army. They scored a platinum album, Rock Classics. 
Married first to the American singer Deborah Sasson, he was diagnosed a decade ago with Parkinson’s. Two years ago dementia set in. Hofmann was 66 when he died, yesterday.

Hugely popular wherever German is spoken and sung, Hofmann crossed all lines from opera to rock and enjoyed a stardom of almost Pavarotti-like dimensions.

Curly-blond and bubbly, he sang at Bayreuth in the Boulez-Chéreau centenary Ring in 1976 and appeared there also in Lohengrin, Tristan and Parsifal. His opera career took him to Chicago, London and Vienna. But he also starred in the Hamburg production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera and kept up regular sessions with a rock band he founded while serving in the army. They scored a platinum album, Rock Classics. 
Married first to the American singer Deborah Sasson, he was diagnosed a decade ago with Parkinson’s. Two years ago dementia set in. Hofmann was 66 when he died, yesterday.