Agnes Stavenhagen
Agnes Stavenhagen (born September 3, 1860 in Winsen as Agnes Caroline Elise Franzisca Denninghoff ; † September 30, 1945 in Bautzen ), stage name Agnes Denis, was a German opera singer ( soprano ). Through her work at the Weimar court theater and in concerts across Europe, she was a highly valued chamber singer and gained great popularity during her lifetime .
Life
Childhood and family
Agnes Stavenhagen was born in Winsen (Luhe) as the daughter of the Winsener council cellar tenant Anton Bernhard Denninghoff and Elise Denninghoff, a childhood friend of Johannes Brahms '.
Her grandfather was Adolph Heinrich Giesemann, an early supporter of Johannes Brahms. The famous composer stayed with him in Winsen several times from 1847 onwards. On October 24, 1860, Agnes Denninghoff was baptized in the St. Marien Church in Winsen. When the Denninghoff couple gave up the Ratskeller in Winsen in 1866, Agnes and her family left Winsen and moved to Bremerhaven , only a short time later to Heppens , today's Wilhelmshaven , where her father founded a hotel . Agnes was confirmed there on March 29, 1875 in the Elisabeth Church .
education
In October 1879, at the age of 18, Stavenhagen began training as a concert singer at the Royal Academic University of Music in Berlin . Johannes Brahms paid for her studies, which she was unable to complete because of her parents' bankruptcy in 1882. Back in Wilhelmshaven, she traveled regionally as a “concert singer” and performed with chamber musicians from the Grand Duke of Oldenburg . From 1884 she was able to make up for her lack of stage training with the opera singer and Wagner niece Johanna Jachmann-Wagner in Munich thanks to the financial contribution of a sponsor . There she finished her training in 1886.
Career
Agnes Stavenhagen's path led to Weimar in 1886 , where she sang at the Weimar court theater for 12 years and performed under the stage name Agnes Denis until her marriage . There they were at the opera on 8 September of Faust by Charles Gounod her debut as Marguerite. At the court theater she also worked with Richard Strauss , who became 2nd Kapellmeister in 1889 . In 1890 she married the pianist and composer Bernhard Stavenhagen in Weimar . As a celebrated soprano she traveled through Europe from 1891 , performing in London , Glasgow , Edinburgh , Vienna and in 1898 in St. Petersburg . In 1893, Grand Duke Karl Alexander awarded her the title of “Grand Ducal Saxon Chamber Singer”. In 1894 she received offers from New York , which she rejected in favor of her husband because he was supposed to be court conductor in Weimar. In 1898 the Stavenhagen couple moved to Munich . There she built on her successes as a concert singer and traveled from there to many cities in Germany .
Agnes Stavenhagen also appeared in the memorable Munich premiere of Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony (Mahler) in 1900 . This performance is considered to be Mahler's compositional breakthrough. The press praised Stavenhagen's “extremely beautiful and musically safe soprano” and “her bright, sympathetic soprano literally floated over the harmonies of the choir sung in the utmost calm”.
From 1900 onwards, numerous song lectures by the Stavenhagen couple met with great public feedback . Her song and duet evenings, in which Agnes Stavenhagen performed with concert alto Iduna Walter-Choinanus and with Hermann Zilcher , were popular. The Stavenhagen couple were friends with Heinrich VII. Prince Reuss zu Köstritz and his wife, Princess Marie of Weimar , who generously supported their art.
End of career and later years
On March 1, 1908, Stavenhagen had her last major stage appearance in the Hoftheater Kassel . In the same year the childless marriage with Bernhard Stavenhagen, who had turned to a piano student, was divorced . In 1911 she moved to Berlin-Wilmersdorf and from then on worked as a singing teacher . During this time she cultivated a special friendship with the piano manufacturer couple Edwin and Helene Bechstein and had access to their salon, a meeting place for artists , industrialists and politicians from Berlin society. There she also made closer acquaintance with members of the Wagner family from Bayreuth and ultimately with leading National Socialists .
Last years and death
The last three years of her life were shaped by the war . Because of the ongoing bombing of Berlin, she was forcibly evacuated to Agnetendorf in Silesia in August 1943 . At the beginning of 1944 she found a place to stay in Kirschau in Upper Lusatia thanks to the efforts of her niece Eva Maria Ludwig. In the last days of the war, she had to flee , partly on foot, to Bad Schandau from the approaching front . Back in Kirschau, she suffered a severe stroke in the summer of 1945 and was then placed in a diaconal nursing home in Bautzen - Seidau , where she died on September 30, 1945. She was buried in the home cemetery on Salzenforster Strasse in Bautzen-Seidau .
reception
Agnes Stavenhagen is described as a beautiful woman, about 1.62 m tall and slim. She had an extraordinary, bright soprano voice over several octaves, and her fulminance was high. Her charismatic appearance on stage and her playing were delightful and received with enthusiasm by the audience. There was a lot of feedback after the performances.
“Miss Denis was a lovely Margaret with a lot of grace and confidence in performance and song; her voice - more beautiful and stronger in the high register than in the middle register - is very pleasant to the touch thanks to the good school, safe and pure intonation and warm feeling. "
"... Miss Denis, the lovely, cheerful, virginal daughter of the Emperor, was excellent in terms of singing and acting."
“My last Lohengrin was good beyond my expectations, ie at least approximately correct. Ms. Denis did her job very well, especially musically, she looked very pretty, the game can take even more depth, but was not clumsy. "
"Ms. Stavenhagen (Rosalinde von Eisenstein), who looked delightful, played so quickly and degaged that you would hardly have expected from her ..."
“The excellent, delightfully beautiful-looking artist won the sympathy of the public by storm. Equipped with a slim, bell-clear and stimulating voice of sufficient strength and range of tone, Ms. Stavenhagen combines an exemplary, finely musical and clear text pronunciation based declamation. "
"With the full magic of natural poetry, Mrs. Stavenhagen knew how to equip the role of Sieglinde, and the artist actually sang flawlessly, with a fresh, clear voice ... that one could completely forget the surroundings."
"... I would like to point out that the soprano solo was sung quite well by Ms. Stavenhagen."
literature
- Gerhard Kohlweyer: Agnes Stavenhagen, Weimar prima donna between Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss . Weimarer Taschenbuchverlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-937939-01-8 .
- Lower Saxony Book 2008 Winsen (Luhe), Chapter 15, Gerhard Kohlweyer - The Weimar prima donna from Winsen ad Luhe , Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior and Sport
- District of Harburg: District calendar 2008 - yearbook for the district of Harburg , regional history, Gerhard Kohlweyer - The Weimar prima donna from Winsen ad Luhe .
- Günther Hagen: History of the city of Winsen an der Luhe . ISBN 978-3-00023-537-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ see the correspondence between Giesemann's daughter Elise Denninghoff and Brahms from the 1880s, documented in: Gerhard Kohlweyer: Brahms Studies. Vol. 13, Hans Schneider, Tutzing, ISBN 3-7952-1092-5 . See also Harburg district calendar. Edition 2003, 2004.
- ^ A b Günther Hagen: History of the city of Winsen an der Luhe . 2007, p. 192.
- ^ Gerhard Kohlweyer: Agnes Stavenhagen, Weimar Prima donna between Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss . Weimarer Taschenbuchverlag 2007, p. 29.
- ^ Gerhard Kohlweyer: Agnes Stavenhagen, Weimar Prima donna between Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss . Weimarer Taschenbuchverlag 2007, page 213ff, 280.
- ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung, Munich, on October 22, 1900, source taken from Gerhard Kohlweyer: Agnes Stavenhagen, Weimar Primadonna between Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss . Notes, Weimarer Taschenbuchverlag 2007, p. 217.
- ↑ Munich Latest News on October 23, 1900, source taken from Gerhard Kohlweyer: Agnes Stavenhagen, Weimar Primadonna between Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss . Notes, Weimarer Taschenbuchverlag 2007, p. 218.
- ^ Gerhard Kohlweyer - Agnes Stavenhagen, Weimar Primadonna between Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss , page 249, Weimarer Taschenbuchverlag 2007
- ↑ Selection of resonance examples from Gerhard Kohlweyer - Agnes Stavenhagen, Weimarer Primadonna between Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss , Weimarer Taschenbuchverlag 2007
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stavenhagen, Agnes |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Denninghoff, Agnes Caroline Elise Franzisca |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German opera singer (soprano) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 3, 1860 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wince |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 30, 1945 |
| Place of death | Bautzen |