Adolf Harbich

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Adolf Harbich (born April 15, 1887 in Laibach , Austria-Hungary ; died May 8, 1970 in Wiesbaden ) was a German opera singer ( baritone ).

Life

Adolf Harbich received his musical training in Vienna and made his debut in 1920 at the Stadttheater Graz , of which he was a member until 1923. From 1923 to 1937 he sang at the Wiesbaden State Theater . He took an active stand against the Jewish artistic director in Wiesbaden Paul Bekker and already on April 15, 1932 he became a member of the NSDAP (number 1,121,761). After the handover of power to the National Socialists in 1933, he denounced Jewish ensemble members.

Harbich married the singer Olly Heidenreich (1899-1945) in 1929 , who had been engaged in Wiesbaden since 1927. Heidenreich and her three brothers were suspected by the National Socialists of being of Jewish origin. In contrast to her brothers, who lost their jobs, Olly Heidenreich was under the protection of her friend Emmy Sonnemann , partner and from 1935 wife of the Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring , who was also responsible for the Wiesbaden Opera. But when the Wiesbaden theater came under the jurisdiction of the Reich Propaganda Ministry as the “Reichsbühne” in 1936 , Heidenreich was dismissed and banned from working . Harbich, who was now “Jewish-versed”, had to move to the Kassel State Theater in 1937 , where his fee was paid from the Prussian Prime Minister's box. Harbich's problems ended when the Reich Office for Family Research in 1939 certified that Olga Helene Heidenreich-Harbich had an illegitimate and Aryan father, but she no longer took up her career, in 1945 she was a victim of the aerial warfare . Harbich was engaged as a guest at the Theater von Aussig in the Sudetenland in 1941 and 1942 . Since 1940 he has been teaching at the Prague Music Academy in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , and in 1943 he was appointed professor there.

During the denazification process in Wiesbaden, Harbich was classified as a fellow traveler and sentenced to an atonement of one thousand RM .

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Harbich sang the role of Cecil in Kassel in 1939 in the world premiere of the opera Elisabeth von England by Paul von Klenau ; in 1931 he had already taken the title role in the German premiere of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa in Wiesbaden .

He has been invited to guest performances at the Berlin State Opera and the Teatro Liceo Barcelona . In 1936 he sang Wanderer and Gunther im Ring des Nibelungen at the Monte Carlo Opera, and in 1939 at La Scala in Milan . Harbich was primarily a Wagner singer: he sang Hans Sachs in the Meistersinger over 350 times, as well as the Wotan in the Ring of the Nibelung, the title role in Holländer , Telramund in Lohengrin and Kurwenal in Tristan . He also sang in Strauss operas, major roles in Verdi operas and also Scarpia in Tosca and Escamillo in Carmen .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hannes Heer u. a .: Silent voices , p. 288, fn. 137
  2. ↑ Hannes Heer u. a .: Silent voices , p. 289
personal data
SURNAME Harbich, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Laibach , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH May 8, 1970
Place of death Wiesbaden