Anton Seidl

Anton Seidl

Anton Seidl (born May 7, 1850 in Pest , Austrian Empire , † March 28, 1898 in New York ) was a Hungarian - American conductor and orchestra leader .

Live and act

After finishing school, Seidl studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1870 to 1872 . He then returned to his hometown and was trained as a conductor by Hans Richter . He then joined the so-called “Nibelungen Chancellery” in Bayreuth , a group around Felix Mottl , Hans Richter, Hermann Zumpe , Adolf Wallnöfer and others who dealt with the interpretation and above all with the marketing of the various Wagner operas and were allowed to be present at the rehearsals for this purpose. Through these contacts, Seidl came to the Leipzig Opera House on the recommendation of Richard Wagnerappointed as theater conductor under the opera director Angelo Neumann , who had gained a nationally recognized reputation there, in particular through his Wagner productions. In 1882 and 1883 Seidl also belonged to the ensemble of the so-called "Wandering Wagner Theater" founded by Neumann. With this traveling Wagner ensemble, which included a full orchestra, an opera choir as well as stage equipment and stage technicians, he performed in several European cities over the next few years and played a key role in the performance of a total of 135 Ring performances and over 50 other Wagner concerts involved.

After this touring phase and various interim engagements, including in Bremen (1883–85) and in August 1885 at the Deutsches Landes-Theater in Prague , always with Angelo Neumann, he left for his first tour to New York in the same year (October 1885) . On November 23, 1885, he celebrated a sensational success with Wagner's opera Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera and a year later with Tristan and Isolde with Lilli Lehmann and Albert Niemann in the leading roles. In the years that followed, Seidl relocated his work to New York, where he worked as co-conductor with Leopold Damrosch and, after his death, with Walter Damrosch at the New York Symphony Society . Until 1891 he performed other Wagner operas there, some of which were still unknown in America, and which thus achieved an unforeseeable triumph. In 1891 he finally switched to the New York Philharmonic , but was repeatedly invited to guest appearances at the "Met" in New York and other cities, such as in 1891 at the request of Benjamin Johnson Lang for the premiere of Parsifal in Boston. In total, Seidl was overall director 471 times, of which 291 conductors dealt with Wagner's works in a total of more than 35 operas. Until his death, Seidl remained loyal to the Philharmonic, but was also committed to promoting so-called “American music” by European composers and, for example, directed the celebrated world premiere of Antonín Dvořák's 9th symphony “ From the New World ” on September 16, 1893 at Carnegie Hall .

In addition, in 1889 women with a passion for culture founded the " Seidl Society ", a group of musicians composed of the orchestras of the "Met" and the Philharmonic, which as the " Seidl Orchestra " on Brighton Beach performed numerous summer concerts as " Wagner's Nights " gave for the best. Seidl's relationship to the Wagner family, especially to Cosima Wagner , and less to Siegfried , whom he practically brought up with, has become more and more distant since his time in New York, as he interpreted the Wagner opera in a tighter and more modern way and thus more understandable for Americans. That is why Seidl only appeared again in Bayreuth when he directed Parsifal at the Bayreuth Festival in 1897 . In the same year he made another guest appearance in London before he died a year later on March 28, 1898 at the age of only 48 of a spoiled fish.

Anton Seidl, who had American citizenship since 1891, was married to the Austrian singer Auguste Kraus (1853-1939). In his memory, the “ Anton Seidl Prize ” ( Anton Seidl Award ) of the “ Wagner Society of New York ” was created for excellent Wagner interpretations at the “Met”. So far, this prize has been awarded to James Levine , Otto Schenk , Günther Schneider-Siemssen , Birgit Nilsson and Jon Vickers , among others .

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• Anton Seidl (Ed.): The Music of the Modern World . 2nd vol., Appleton & Company, New York 1895.

Literature and Sources

• H. Reitterer:  Seidl Anton. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 12, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2001-2005, ISBN 3-7001-3580-7 , p. 119 f. (Direct links on p. 119 , p. 120 ).
• Volker Mertens: Without advice in a foreign country - Tristan and Isolde in America: Seidl, Mahler, Toscanini and Vaget with a focus on Tristan and Isolde. In: Wagner Spectrum. Issue 1/2005, Königshausen & Neumann, ISBN 978-3-8260-2786-4 , p. 164ff. ( Google books )
• Henry Theophilus Finck, Henry Edward Krehbiel: Anton Seidl, a memorial by his friends . New York, Scribner, 1899. Reprint New York, Da Capo Press, 1983. ISBN 0-306-76144-0 .

Web links

• Anton Seidl on zeno.org
• Anton Seidl on the Columbia University website