Heinrich Bensing
German singer and opera singer (1911-1955)

Heinrich Bensing (26 July 1911 – 30 December 1955) was a German opera singer.
Life
Bensing was born in Metz. After the Second World War, he had guest contracts with the Hamburg State Opera (1947-1955), with the Vienna State Opera (1949-1954) and with the Cologne Opera House. After 1945 he sang Don José in Carmen, the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, Radames in Aida, the title role in Don Carlos and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.
Bensing died in Frankfurt at age 44.
Repertoire
Bensing was especially considered a valued singer in the Italian repertoire. He belonged to the "small circle of German tenors who possessed vocal brilliance and power for the great parts of Italian opera."
Recordings
On the occasion of the re-release of this radio production of Die Frau ohne Schatten from the year 1950 (Symphonie-Orchester des Hessischen Rundfunks, conductor: Winfried Zillig) on CD, Bensing's "experience in the Italian sector", his "largely effortless mastery of the unpleasant tessitura" and his " easily understandable youthful heroic tenor" were particularly praised.
Sources
Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Großes Sängerlexikon. Third, extended edition. Munich 1999.
The public source identifies “Heinrich Bensing” as german singer and opera singer (1911-1955). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Heinrich, Bensing and German.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1596710. VIAF identifies the subject as 56239636. The Library of Congress control number is no98133819. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1911, 1955, 1947 and 1949.
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This entry incorporates text from “Heinrich Bensing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.