Bernhard Pollini

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Bernhard Pollini, copperplate engraving by August Weger

Bernhard Pollini , actually Baruch Pohl , (born December 16, 1838 in Cologne , † November 26, 1897 in Hamburg ) was a German opera singer (tenor), artistic director and opera principal .

Life

Bernhard Pollini comes from a strictly Jewish family living in very modest circumstances and was actually called Baruch Pohl. He attended high school and then worked for a merchant, before he in 1857 in his native city as Lord Arturo Talbo in the opera I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini debuted . He switched to the baritone field and in the autumn of 1865 joined an Italian opera company, whose impresario he was. This began his career as one of the most important opera directors of his era.

He sang at the court theater in Dessau and in 1860 and 1861 at the Riga Opera House . In 1864 he became director of the Lviv Opera and then went to Saint Petersburg and Moscow for a few years , where he was the chief impresario of the Italian Opera. In 1874 he became director of the Hamburg Opera and from 1876 also directed the Stadttheater Altona and from 1894 also the Thalia Theater . He presented four times a week opera, twice drama, once operetta or ballet and was so successful with it that he achieved full houses and considerable surpluses. He staged 175 premieres, including 51 world premieres, and continued his work as opera director until his death.

He engaged important singers and conductors, to whom he paid high fees, to the Hamburg Opera, thus bringing them to a high artistic level. Well-known composers such as Puccini and Tschaikowsky were hired to conduct their own works and in 1891 Pollini appointed Gustav Mahler to succeed Hans von Bülow as first conductor at his house. Together with him, he organized a guest performance of his ensemble to the Covent Garden Opera of London , in which, under the baton of Mahler Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner were listed and other operas.

In 1888 he became a citizen of Hamburg and received the right to use the stage name Pollini from the Senate. In 1894 Pollini married the soprano Bianca Bianchi , who sang as prima donna in Hamburg from that point on . Other important singers that Pollini brought to Hamburg included Albert Niemann , Katharina Klafsky and Anna von Mildenburg .

Immediately after a " Meistersinger " performance, Pollini died of cardiac paralysis.

Trivia

Pollini did not make any compromises in pursuing his goals as opera director and challenged Gustav Mahler to the limits of his capabilities. In the 1894/95 season, Mahler conducted 126 evenings in the Stadt-Theater and another 23 in Altona, and took on the direction of subscription concerts for the late Hans von Bülow. An ongoing war between Mahler and Pollini ensued, until they separated a few months before Pollini's death in 1897.

The enterprising Pollini negotiated with Richard Wagner in 1877 regarding the performance rights for Die Walküre , which was considered the most popular opera from the Ring cycle , but Wagner did not allow this. The impresario then negotiated with Wagner about the entire cycle, but insisted on starting with the “Walküre”. Wagner resigned and twice advised Pollini to perform the cycle in the intended order for better understanding. Pollini ignored this advice and so the cycle began on March 30, 1878 with the premiere of "Walküre".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bernhard Pollini on Wikisource
  2. ↑ Gustav Mahler lived at Bundesstrasse 10 , article in Die Welt of October 13, 2011, accessed on August 17, 2014
  3. ^ "Gustav Mahler" by Constantin Floros, p. 29 on GoogleBooks, accessed on August 16, 2014
  4. ↑ Bernhard Pollini on Das Jüdische Hamburg, accessed on August 16, 2014
  5. ^ Letter from Richard Wagner to Bernhard Pollini on the website of the Gewandhaus-Orchester Leipzig ( memento from June 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on August 16, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Pollini, Bernhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pohl, Baruch (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (tenor), artistic director and opera principal
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1897
Place of death Hamburg