Alan Jefferson

Alan Rigby Jefferson (born March 20, 1921 in Ashtead , Surrey , † April 9, 2010 ) was a British writer and biographer .

biography

Officer in World War II

Jefferson, whose mother died in 1933, was inspired for classical music by his father, a stockbroker and baritone with the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company in Surrey . After education at Rydal School in Wales , he entered the military service of the British Army and took place during the Second World War used as captain of the 9 Parachute Squadron RE. At the same time he took ballet lessons and was nicknamed "Twinkletoe" (light foot). During the landing in Normandy on D-Day he was one of the few officers who the artillery battery at Merville reached. Due to his wounds in his arms and legs, however, he was evacuated to England and, after crossing the Rhine in Operation Plunder in 1945, served as an officer in an educational unit in Palestine .

His autobiography about the landing in Normandy, published by John Murray in 1987 under the title "Assault on the Guns of Merville", looked at the events of the war, to the amazement of many of his comrades in the British Army, from the point of view of the enemy. In 1994, this point of view also led to a meeting with Professor Raimund Steiner , who as an officer in the Wehrmacht was in command of the German garrison of the Merville battery during Operation Tonga on June 5, 1944. In addition, he also led regular tours to the locations of the combat operations of D-Day and was knighted (Chevalier) of the Legion of Honor (Légion d'honneur) in 2005 .

Theater and music manager and author

After demobilization , he trained as a theater director at the Old Vic Theater School and, as such, ran a charity event for Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon . He then moved to the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford-upon-Avon , where he worked with John Gielgud and Michael Hordern . He was also the producer of several performances as part of the Festival of Britain in Canterbury Cathedral . After some commercial success, he became administrative director of the London Symphony Orchestra in the mid- 1960s and finally manager of the BBC Concert Orchestra in 1968 .

During this time he became acquainted with the music producer Walter Legge and his wife, the opera singer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf , as well as with numerous other important personalities in the London music world.

Jefferson has written more than a dozen biographies of musicians such as Richard Strauss (1973), Sir Thomas Beecham (1986) and Lotte Lehmann (1988) since 1964 . However, none of these extensive works received as much attention as his book on Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

Controversy over Elisabeth Schwarzkopf

In 1996 he caused controversy by claiming that the opera singer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was an active member of the NSDAP with membership number 7,548,960. This representation was made in the unauthorized biography “Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. The biography ”about the famous soprano and was based on parts of his conversations with Walter Legge , the singer's husband. According to Jefferson, the singer, who died in 2006, was not just a passive member of the NSDAP, as was expected by almost everyone during the 1930s who built on a successful professional career. Rather, she would have signed her letters with " Heil Hitler " and sang in a choir that refused to sing Jewish music . In addition, she was the chairman of a student organization that worked to ensure that her fellow students did not make disparaging remarks about the Führer . The at Victor Gollancz Ltd. published book, the first profound account of the singer's life, also revealed that Schwarzkopf starred in five propaganda films for Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and appeared in a list of artists under the heading "blessed by God". Headlines such as "Nazi in a nightdress" and "Even her salary was arranged by Goebbels" did not affect sales of the book, but angered supporters of the singer, especially in north London , where the singer lived for many years.

Jefferson himself claimed to be dismayed by the controversy. After a review by Bernard Levin in The Times under the title “Who he?” Jefferson replied that this part of the book had been taken out of context and did not want to attack or criticize Schwarzkopf's work, but “a heartfelt appreciation of the enjoyment they enjoyed gave us “was. Others saw the book as "meticulously accurate" and another review concluded that he was "too much of a fan to be an adequate biographer."

His other musicological works include "The Glory Of Opera" (1976) and "The Complete Gilbert & Sullivan" (1984).

Most recently he worked on an unpublished book about music in the Third Reich .

He also worked as a freelance record critic.

Publications

• "A Centenary Tribute - Sir Thomas Beecham", MacDonald & Jane's, London 1979. ISBN 0-354-04205-X
• “Lotte Lehmann. A Biography ”, Swiss publishing house, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7263-6632-6
• “Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Die Biographie “, Langen / Müller, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7844-2586-0

Web links

• "International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004", p. 273
• THE TELEGRAPH: "Alan Jefferson" (April 20, 2010)