Albert Niemann (singer)

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Albert Niemann
Birthplace in Erxleben
Sign on the birthplace in Erxleben

Albert Wilhelm Carl Niemann (born January 15, 1831 in Erxleben , Neuhaldensleben district , † January 13, 1917 in Berlin ) was a German opera singer ( tenor ) and Wagner interpreter.

Life

Born the son of an innkeeper, Albert Niemann became an actor and singer after an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. First engagements and training with Albert Nusch as a soloist was followed by a steep career as first tenor in Halle from 1853 and guest performances in Stuttgart, Königsberg and Stettin. Richard Wagner became aware of Niemann and engaged him in 1861 for the first performance of the Paris version of Tannhauser . Wagner and Niemann remained closely connected to one another, a detailed exchange of letters and Niemann's role as the leading Wagner interpreter of his time bear witness to this. In 1876 Wagner brought him to Bayreuth for the role of Siegmund .

In the meantime, in 1861, Niemann was accepted into the Freemason Lodge Friedrich zum white Pferde in Hanover .

In 1864 he was awarded the title of chamber singer . In 1866 he was engaged at the Royal Court Opera in Berlin. From November 1886 to February 1888 he sang a total of 59 performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in addition to Wagner roles also in Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven and Le prophète by Giacomo Meyerbeer . In 1888, the year he returned from New York, he retired from the stage. He had one last appearance in 1892 in the Berlin Philharmonic. Despite Niemann's generally recognized rank as a Wagner singer and his quality as a tenor, his voice was also viewed critically, for example by Hans von Bülow , who devalued him as a "soundless, raised baritone".

Albert Niemann died in Berlin in 1917, two days before his 86th birthday, and, like his wife Hedwig twelve years earlier, was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Schöneberg . In the course of the leveling of the cemetery carried out by the National Socialists in 1938/1939, the remains of both were reburied in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf near Berlin.

family

Niemann married the actress Marie Seebach on May 31, 1859 in the castle church in Hanover . The marriage was unhappy and was later divorced. His son Oscar from this marriage was a singer and painter; he died in 1893 at the age of 32.

In his second marriage he was married to the actress Hedwig Raabe from 1871 . Their son Albert Niemann became an important pediatrician and was the first to describe Niemann-Pick disease . The second son from this marriage was the painter and art historian Gottfried Niemann .

Honors

literature

  • Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century. Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 725 f., ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Adolph Kohut : From Josef Tichatschek's estate. Letters from Richard Wagner, Heinrich Marschner, Albert Niemann, Hans von Bülow, Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, Johanna Jachmann-Wagner and Marie Seebach. In: Bühne und Welt , Verlag von Bühne u. Welt, Hamburg 1907 9 (1906/07) II, pp. 418-423.
  • Marion Brück:  Niemann, Albert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 230 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Richard Sternfeld: Albert Niemann. In: Das Theater, Vol. IV. Berlin 1904.
  • Wilhelm Altmann : Richard Wagner and Albert Niemann - A memorial book with previously unpublished letters. Berlin 1924.
  • K. Wagner: Albert Niemann as a Wagner actor. Dissertation. Munich 1954.
  • Jens Malte Fischer: Big voices. Stuttgart 1993, p. 283 (on Bülow's criticism).

Web links

Commons : Albert Wilhelm Karl Niemann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Schildmacher, Winfried Brinkmann, Edzard Bakker, Peter Rosenstein (ed.): Albert Wilhelm Carl Niemann. In Siegfried Schildmacher (Ed.): In the footsteps of the Freemasons - a walk through the streets of Hanover. Self-published, Hannover 2015, p. 103.
  2. ^ Archives of the Metropolitan Opera
  3. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin tombs . Haude & Spener, Berlin 2006. pp. 307, 475.
  4. ↑ Landeskirchliches Archiv Hannover, church books Hannover-Schloss, weddings 1853-1859, p. 25, no. 8 ( digitized version (subject to a charge))
  5. ^ Franz Rudolf Zankl : Medal of Honor for Art and Science . In: Hanover Archive , sheet K 34.
  6. ↑ Niemannstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Niemann, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Niemann, Albert Wilhelm Carl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (tenor) and Wagner interpreter
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1831
PLACE OF BIRTH Erxleben , district of Neuhaldensleben
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1917
Place of death Berlin