Richard Bruno Heydrich

Richard Bruno Heydrich (23 February 1865 – 24 August 1938) was a German opera singer (tenor), and composer. He was the father of SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, an architect of the Final Solution, and Heinz and Maria Heydrich.

Heydrich was born in Leuben, the son of Karl Julius Reinhold Heydrich, a piano builder. He was a contrabassist in the Meiningen Court Orchestra and Dresden. In Weimar, he began his career as a singer. He was also a member of the Men's Association Schlaraffia. In 1895, he sang the title role in the premiere of Hans Pfitzner's first opera Der Arme Heinrich. The young Pfitzner could find no one for the role. Heydrich made the offer to perform free of charge once a stage had been found.

Heydrich composed choral works, songs, orchestral works and operas in the style of Richard Wagner, which were performed in Cologne and Leipzig. These works never entered the standard repertoire. Heydrich left behind about 83 compositions. In 1899, he founded a music conservatory in Halle an der Saale which bore his name.

Heydrich's wife Elisabeth, née Krantz, came from a wealthy family and was the daughter of Eugen Krantz, the head of the Royal Conservatory of Dresden. She met Richard Bruno Heydrich when he was a student at the conservatory. In Halle an der Saale, Richard Bruno Heydrich, Elisabeth, and their children lived in a second floor apartment, Gütchenstraße 20. Richard Bruno Heydrich’s eldest son, SS General Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942), was named after the hero of his first opera, Amen. Heinz Heydrich, Reinhard's younger brother, committed suicide in 1944.

Richard Bruno Heydrich died at a spa near Dresden, where his death certificate was issued. His crypt is in the Stadtgottesacker, Halle an der Saale.