Anny Helm

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Anny Helm , later also Anny Helm-Sbisà ( July 20, 1903 in Vienna - August 21, 1993 in Bibione ), was an Austrian opera singer with a soprano voice . She was a member of the ensemble at the Stadttheater Magdeburg and the Städtische Oper Berlin and made guest appearances at numerous German theaters and at the Bayreuth Festival , in Vienna, Paris, London, Brussels and Buenos Aires as well as at all the major opera houses in Italy. She was one of the most sought-after, highly dramatic sopranos of her time.

She was married to Giuseppe Sbisà , the director of the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste .

life and work

The singer grew up in her parents' villa in Rodaun and attended high school in Vienna. Her singing teachers were the sopranos Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Gertrud Förstel in Vienna and the singing teacher Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin. She made her debut at the Stadttheater Magdeburg in 1924 and remained a member of the ensemble until 1926. This was followed by an engagement at the Städtische Oper Berlin , of which she was a member until 1933. At the invitation of Siegfried Wagner, she took part in the Bayreuth Festival every year from 1927 to 1931 . There she made her debut in Siegfried Wagner's new production of Tristan und Isolde in the role of Brangäne, alongside Gunnar Graarud and Emmy Krüger , who embodied the title roles. In Bayreuth she also took over Kundry, Senta and finally Venus im Tannhäuser . She sang at the Green Hill under de, conducted by Arturo Toscanini , who would later cast her in the title role of La Gioconda in Italy , and by Wilhelm Furtwängler .

In parallel to her obligations in Berlin and Bayreuth, the singer had a two-year guest contract at the Deutsches Theater in Prague from 1931 . In 1931 she made her debut as Venus at the Grand Operá in Paris, in 1932 as Valkyrie-Brünnhilde at the Teatro Comunale in Florence and as Siegfried-Brünnhilde in a single performance at the Vienna State Opera . Anny Helm also made guest appearances at the State Operas in Munich, Hamburg and Dresden, and in 1933 at the Grand Théâtre in Geneva and at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, where she appeared in Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen .

In 1933 the singer moved the center of her life to Italy. She had married Giuseppe Sbisà , the director of the Trieste Opera. The couple had at least one daughter: Maria Sbisà Morsanutto. The artist was able to successfully continue her career at the first houses in Italy. Under the musical direction of Arturo Toscanini, she took on the demanding title role in La Gioconda in the Verona Arena in 1934 . With this part - but also as Santuzza, also in the arena - she proved that it could not be limited to the German subject, but was also predestined for dramatic games in the Italian subject. Debuts at La Scala in Milan and at the Roman Opera followed in 1934, and in Bologna in 1935 . Mostly she appeared as Brünnhilde in the various parts of the Ring, at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples she sang all Brünnhilden in the Ring of the Nibelung . In Rome she could also be heard in three demanding title roles, as Isolde, Turandot and Elektra. She made her first guest appearance at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1936 and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London in 1939. In both cases she performed Venus im Tannhäuser . In 1944 she returned to the Vienna State Opera, once as Senta and twice as Turandot. In 1949 she appeared again at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels.

Then she retired from the stage and lived as a singing teacher in Vienna.

repertoire

Beethoven :

Luck :

Janáček :

Mascagni :

Mozart :

Ponchielli :

 

Puccini :

Richard Strauss :

  • Title role and Chrysothemis in Elektra

Wagner :

Wolf-Ferrari :

Audio documents

The Bayreuth Tristan and Isolde line-up of 1928 ( Gunnar Graarud and Nanny Larsén-Todsen in the title roles, Anny Helm as Brangäne, Karl Elmendorff on the podium) was largely recorded by Columbia. She also took part in the recording of the Bayreuth Parsifal from 1927/28, conducted by Karl Muck .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Isolde's Liebestod: Anny Helm , accessed June 30, 2019

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Helm, Anny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Helm-Sbisà, Anny (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1993
Place of death Bibione