Adele Kern

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Adele Kern actually Adele Kern-Klein (born on November 25, 1901 in Munich ; died on May 6, 1980 there ) was a German opera and operetta singer who specializes in coloratura soprano . She was known for her technical perfection and enthusiasm for playing, and from 1927 to 1935 she sang at the Salzburg Festival and at the State Operas of Vienna, Berlin and Munich.

She was one of the impressive ranks of Austrian and German soprani leggeri who made international careers in the 1920s and 1930s, including Irma Beilke , Erna Berger , Irene Eisinger , Ria Ginster , Maria Ivogün , Fritzi Jokl and Lotte Schöne .

life and work

Adele Kern studied with the famous coloratura soprano Hermine Bosetti (1875–1936). The student followed the path and roles of her teacher - both at the opera houses in Munich and Vienna and as Ännchen and Zerbinetta.

She made her debut in 1924 at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich as Olympia in Hoffmann's stories . There is different information about the duration of her engagement in Munich. She was the first female coloratura soprano to move to the Städtisches Opernhaus in Frankfurt am Main , where she had a contract until 1928. There the ambitious conductor Clemens Krauss was artistic director from 1924 to 1929, Lothar Wallerstein was senior director . The two created a new, staging-oriented music theater in Frankfurt and took care of the young singer's musical and acting development. Kern was to be considered a Clemens Krauss singer for many years (and she later worked at the State Operas of Vienna, Berlin and Munich during his time as director). In Frankfurt she was able to develop numerous roles in what would later become a very extensive repertoire. In February 1926 she was also involved in the world premiere of an opera by Bernhard Sekles .

In 1927 she went on a major tour of South America.

Vienna State Opera

On March 10, 1927, Adele Kern made a successful debut at the Vienna State Opera and was to remain associated with the house for almost 15 years. Her first role (and her last) was the technically and dramatically extremely demanding Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos by Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss . In total, she sang this part 27 times in Vienna, under the baton of conductors as diverse as Carl Alwin , Robert Heger , Josef Krips , Leopold Ludwig , Wolfgang Martin , Rudolf Moralt , Hugo Reichenberger and Franz Schalk - and three times, in 1930 and 1931, under the direction of the composer personally.

In Vienna, too, where she had to assert herself alongside her famous colleagues Maria Gerhart , Selma Kurz and Elisabeth Schumann , the focus of her repertoire was on Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss and Strauss. She took on Despina 20 times and blondie 6 times and Marzelline in Fidelio in ten performances , embodied Adele in the bat 38 times , sang - next to Zerbinetta - 5 times Fiakermilli, 6 times one of the maids in Elektra and 40 times Sophie in Rosenkavalier .

She had her greatest successes in Vienna from 1928 as housemaid Yvonne in 19 performances of Krenek's so-called jazz opera Jonny plays , which was later banned as Degenerate Music by the Nazi regime , and in 1930 as Angelina in Rossini's Cenerentola with Koloman von Pataky as a partner . She sang this role 25 times in Vienna. However, she also made a name for herself as a Verdi singer - 18 times Gilda, 16 times Oscar - and in the late romantic veristic subject - 17 times Lucieta in Wolf-Ferrari's The Four Ruffians and 19 times Nuri in d'Albert's lowlands . She was seen and heard in the State Opera but also in operettas by Heuberger , Lehár and Millöcker .

Adele Kern sang three world premieres in Vienna: 1930 in Das Veilchen von Montmartre by Emmerich Kálmán at the Johann Strauss Theater , 1931 in Schön ist die Welt by Franz Lehár at the Theater an der Wien and in 1934 Fanny in Bittner's Das Veilchen at the Vienna State Opera . This performance was conducted by Clemens Krauss, who took over the management of the State Opera in 1929, and staged by Lothar Wallerstein , who had accompanied Krauss from Frankfurt to Vienna. Wallerstein had to emigrate in 1938 due to the Nazi race laws and finally continued his career at the New York Metropolitan Opera .

Salzburg Festival

On August 6, 1927 their debut followed at the Salzburg Festival under the baton of Robert Heger , as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro . She also took on the roles of Marzelline and Zerlina in the reprises of Fidelio and Don Juan .

In 1929 she returned to Salzburg as Zerlina and Sophie and was then committed to the festival until 1935. The Don Juan was conducted by the outgoing Vienna State Opera Director Franz Schalk , the Rosenkavalier by his successor and her mentor from Frankfurt, Clemens Krauss. In the following years Adele Kern sang again in Salzburg Zerlina (1930), Susanna and Sophie (both 1930–35), and for the first time Despina in Così fan tutte ( 1931–32 and 1934–35). She also appeared there as a concert singer.

In parallel to her engagements in Vienna and Salzburg, she made a number of guest appearances. In 1929 and 1931 she took part in two exemplary Max Reinhardt productions in Berlin: as Adele in der Fledermaus (at the Deutsches Theater ) and as Olympia in Hoffmann's stories (at the Großes Schauspielhaus ). In 1931 and 1933 she made guest appearances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, where her Sophie in the Rosenkavalier was particularly admired. In 1933 she took on the role of Hannerl Krüger in Spring Voices , a feature film by Pál Fejös . In December of the same year she took part in the world premiere of the Eduard Künneke singing play Die enticing Flamme at the Berlin Theater des Westens . She has made guest appearances at La Scala in Milan and at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, in Paris, Venice and Rio de Janeiro. She also went on a successful tour of Egypt.

Berlin and Munich

Just like Julius Patzak and Viorica Ursuleac , Kern followed the conductor and director Clemens Krauss first to the German State Opera in Berlin in 1935 and then to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1937. There, in her hometown, the artist achieved extraordinary popularity due to her razor-sharp coloratura , the silver-light tone of her voice and the unusual brilliance of the lecture. In Munich, too, Adele Kern sang her star roles in operas by Mozart and Richard Strauss, including Sophie and Zerbinetta.

The singer is not known to be involved in Nazi cultural policy. However, in July 1944 she appeared in a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos in Krakow as Zerbinetta, which was ordered by Governor General Hans Frank .

At the age of 46, she had to retire from the stage because of a heart condition. She died in 1980 and was buried in Munich's Ostfriedhof .

Roles (selection)

World premieres

repertoire

Beethoven :

Roar :

  • Therese in The Golden Cross

d'Albert :

Donizetti :

Heuberger :

Humperdinck :

Krenek :

Lehár :

Lortzing :

Meyerbeer :

Millöcker :

Mozart :

Offenbach :

 

Pergolesi :

Pfitzner :

Puccini

Rimsky-Korsakov :

Rossini :

Johann Strauss :

Richard Strauss :

Thomas :

Verdi :

Wagner :

Weber

Wolf-Ferrari :

Sources for the roles in their repertoire:

Filmography

Sound documents (selection)

Recordings on Parlophone, Polydor and Vox. Numerous recordings of opera scenes from the Vienna State Opera, which were released on Koch Records.

Total recordings

Arias

Songs

  • Aljabev's nightingale - on shellac
  • The bird in the Taubert forest - on shellac

Sampler

  • Living past: Adele Kern , Classica Lirica Recital, Preiser Records (PRE 89586)

Image documents

Cantabile Subito shows scenes as Zerbinetta and Adele, Musetta.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Kesting : The great singers , Volume 2, Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe 2008, p. 698
  2. ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . 4th edition. Volume 7. Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-598-44088-5 , p. 2365f ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  3. ↑ According to Kutsch / Riemens, she went to Frankfurt in the year of her debut, 1924, cf. P. 2365. Kesting, on the other hand, writes that she “moved to the Frankfurt Opera, directed by Clemens Kraus” in 1926 ”.
  4. ↑ Dating this tour is also difficult. Kutsch / Riemens write: “After she undertook a major tour of South America in 1927, she was signed to the Vienna State Opera in 1928, of which she remained a member until 1938; then there was a guest contract with the Vienna Opera from 1938–43. "Kesting writes:" After a tour of South America (1927) she went to the Vienna State Opera, where she sang until 1934. "The archive of the Vienna State Opera, so far complete only from 1955, has so far recorded appearances of the singer from March 10, 1927 to February 10, 1943. In 1927 at least four roles in seven performances at the Vienna State Opera are guaranteed, which took place in March, May and June as well as in October and November. Since Adele Kern made her debut in Salzburg in August 1927 and taking into account the times of the ship passage there and back as well as the necessary rehearsal times, the tour can only have taken place in January / February, if 1927 is correctly stated.
  5. ↑ The performances of the Mozart operas Marriage of Figaro , Don Juan and The Magic Flute before 1945 are not yet recorded in the Vienna State Opera archive (as of November 2016). It can be assumed that Adele Kern also sang Susanna, Zerlina and Papagena in Vienna.
  6. ↑ Ursuleac was married to Clemens Krauss.
  7. ↑ See Fred K. Prieberg: Musik im NS-Staat , S. Fischer 2015, number of pages unknown, since online , accessed on November 21, 2016.
  8. ↑ The Androom website , accessed on November 20, 2016, gives grave number 88-21-20 / 21.
  9. ↑ Jürgen Kesting : The great singers , Volume 2, Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe 2008, p. 699
  10. ^ Archives of the Vienna State Opera : Performances with Adele Kern , accessed on November 20, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Kern, Adele
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kern-Klein, Adele
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German singer (coloratura soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1980
Place of death Munich