Astrid Varnay

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Ibolyka Astrid Maria Varnay (born April 25, 1918 in Stockholm , † September 4, 2006 in Munich ) was an American opera singer of Hungarian descent. She became known for her long-standing performances of female characters in Richard Wagner's musical dramas as a highly dramatic soprano , in 1972 her vocal subject switched to mezzo-soprano .

Life

Astrid was born on April 25, 1918 in Stockholm. Her parents named her Ibolyka (Hungarian: violet ) because of her violet-blue eyes. Astrid Varnay's Hungarian father Alexander Varnay (1889-1924) was a tenor who worked as a director and producer at the Stockholm Royal Opera until the family moved to the USA in 1920 . Her mother Mária Jávor (Junghans) was a recognized coloratura soprano . Astrid Varnay initially studied with her mother, then in New York , from 1939 with Hermann Weigert (1890–1955), with whom she studied almost the entire Wagner repertoire in eighteen months and whom she married in 1945. At the age of 22 the young singer had already mastered the following roles: Senta , Elsa , Elisabeth , Eva , Sieglinde , all three Brünnhilden , Isolde , third Norn , Gutrune , Aida , Desdemona , Santuzza and Leonora.

In 1941 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera by - December 6, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor - for Lotte Lehmann as Sieglinde (next Lauritz Melchior as Siegmund) in Wagner's opera Die Walküre stepped in. On December 12th, she stood in for Helen Traubel as Brünnhilde . In the years that followed, she sang almost all of the major Wagner roles at the Met, including Salome for the first time in 1948 and Elektra in Richard Strauss' operas of the same name in 1949 .

After the war she gave her European debut as Isolde at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London in 1948 and sang Elektra in the Richard Strauss Opera of the same name in 1949. In May 1951 she made her debut in Florence as Lady Macbeth in Giuseppe Verdi's opera, where she met Martha Mödl and Gustaf Gründgens , who directed. A little later she was the first American woman - she had taken US citizenship in 1943 - on the recommendation of Kirsten Flagstad and at the invitation of Wieland Wagner in 1951 at the Bayreuth Festival . Until 1968 she performed every year in Bayreuth. She is considered a co-designer of Neu-Bayreuth and, along with Martha Mödl and Birgit Nilsson, is one of the "three great Wagnerian post-war primadonnas".

Astrid Varnay sang in Berlin for the first time in the fall of 1951, and a year later in Munich (where she sang eight performances in a row in the Prinzregententheater ). From 1955 she sang regularly at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf-Duisburg, where she got her first annual European contract with 36 performances per year and also worked as a singing teacher for several years. From 1970 she was director of a master class for singing at the Robert Schumann Conservatory and from 1975 to 1979 professor at the Robert Schumann University . After the death of her husband in 1955, she settled in Munich in 1959, where she lived until her death. In 1972 she switched to the mezzo-soprano voice.

The artist then sang all the leading roles in her field until 1991 and worked at all the great houses in Europe and with all the great conductors and directors of her time. In total she appeared on stage more than 100 times as Ortrud in Lohengrin or Isolde in Tristan und Isolde . She sang Die Walküren-Brünnhilde almost 140 times. Her roles in Elektra , in which she sang Elektra 79 times and Clytemnestra 121 times, were outstanding successes . One of her late successful roles was Herodias in Salome , which she sang a total of 213 times. After a knee operation that became necessary in 1990, she was forced to severely limit her stage appearances.

Grave site in Munich

In 1987 Astrid Varnay became a member of the teaching staff at the Munich Opera Studio. Her last role was the role of wet nurse in Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunow at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1995. In 1996 she wrote her autobiography, which was published under the title "Hab's mir praised". On September 4th, 2006 she died in a Munich hospital after a fulfilling life as an artist. Her urn was buried in the Perlacher Forst cemetery in Munich (54-UM-5 inside, grave no. 170).

Appreciation

Astrid Varnay had a similarly powerful voice as Birgit Nilsson , who arrived in Bayreuth after her and with whom she shared many roles, as well as Martha Mödl . Her dark timbre was warmer, the singing more expressive, but her diction not as clear. Nilsson sounds comparatively steely, but Varnay sounds more human. The fact that the singer was relatively forgotten was due to her smaller repertoire and her fewer guest appearances. The main reason, however, seems to be that there are often mediocre live recordings of her, e.g. E.g. the 1964 Elektra directed by Herbert von Karajan .

Unlike some opera singers, Astrid Varnay was a very talented character actress. She acted impressively as Elektra or in the 1st act of Tristan and Isolde , in the 2nd act of Götterdämmerung and above all in Siegfried , 3rd act, there the moments of awakening before she started on "Heil Dir Sonne" . The body language and what happened in the unspeakably expressive face, once straightened, will be remembered as a theater-opera experience by those who were allowed to experience it. She fascinated her audience during her last active years on the stage, especially as Klytämnestra and Herodias, as Kabanicha in Janáček's Katja Kabanova and as sexton in Jenůfa , as well as in cameo performances - such as Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana .

According to a much-cited anecdote, Wieland Wagner was critically approached about his meager stage design at a Bayreuth performance, to which he is said to have replied: “What do I need a tree on the stage when I have Astrid Varnay?” Gustaf Gründgens was also a great admirer known for their art. When he staged the opera Macbeth by Verdi with her in the lead role in Florence in 1951 , he deeply regretted not being a singer, as he would like to stand on stage with her and sing.

In 1967 she was appointed Bavarian Chamber Singer in recognition of her achievements.

Quote

“ Astrid was unique. She was a great, singing actress who could act, using her face, her body and her voice. She gave everything on stage. "

- Martin Bernheimer, music critic for the Los Angeles Times

(German: "Astrid was unique. She was a great singing actress who could use her face, her body and her voice to play. She gave everything on stage." )

Choice discography

Awards

Movie

literature

  • Astrid Varnay: I praised it. 55 years in five acts and a prologue. Memoirs of an Opera Career. With the assistance of Donald Arthur. German translation by Maurus Pacher. Henschel, Berlin 1997, 495 S., Ill., ( Table of contents , review )
  • KJ Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Unchanged edition. KG Saur, Bern, 1993, second volume M – Z, Sp. 3065 f., ISBN 3-907820-70-3 .
  • DDScholz, Astrid Varnay is dead - obituary for one of the greatest Wagner and Strauss singer actresses in: www.DieterDavidScholz.de/Nachruf-auf-Astrid-Varney.html

Web links

Obituaries

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hildburg Heider: Astrid Varnay on her 100th birthday. In: SWR2 About the person , April 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ cf. Singer roles with the main roles of Astrid Varnay. ( Memento from May 14, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ). In: homepages.ihug.com.au/~kimkemmis and Varnay portal by Kim Kemmis: Vale Astrid. ( Memento of April 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  3. ^ Walter Herrmann and Adrian Hollaender : Legends and Stars of the Opera. Leykam, Graz 2007, ISBN 978-3-7011-7571-0 , p. 42.
  4. ^ Bayreuth Festival : Astrid Varnay. In: Performance Database , accessed April 15, 2018.
  5. ^ Clemens von Looz-Corswarem , Benedikt Mauer (ed.), Das große Düsseldorf Lexikon , Greven Verlag, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-7743-0485-7 , p. 716.
  6. ↑ and Macbeth (Giuseppe Verdi)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / homepages.ihug.com.au
  7. ^ Mary Rourke: Astrid Varnay, 88; Soprano Sang With Intensity, Passion. In: Los Angeles Times , September 6, 2006.
  8. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. (PDF) In: State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia . Retrieved March 11, 2017 (PDF).
  9. ↑ Kim Kemmis: Astrid Varnay • Biography • Honors and Awards. ( Memento from January 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Varnay, Astrid
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Varnay, Ibolyka Astrid Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American opera singer of Hungarian descent
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH September 4, 2006
Place of death Munich