Carl Demmer (singer, 1766)

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Carl Ignaz Anton Demmer , also Karl Demmer , (baptized February 11, 1766 in Cologne ; † after 1824) was an Austrian opera singer ( tenor ) and possibly the first Florestan in Beethoven's opera Fidelio .

Life

Carl Demmer was baptized on February 11, 1766 in the St. Lupus parish in Cologne under the name Carl Ignaz Anton. He began his artistic career as a choir singer at various Cologne churches. Around 1786 he went to the theater and can be traced back to the company of Gustav Friedrich Großmann and his co-director Christian Wilhelm Klos playing in Cologne . The music director of this troupe was August Burgmüller . Together with Burgmüller, Demmer then went to the Bonn National Theater , which opened on January 3, 1789. Presumably he already belonged to the circle of acquaintances of the young Beethoven, who was a violist in the opera orchestra .

At Pentecost 1790 he moved to the JA Dietrich troupe, which played mainly in Holland , where he met Karl Friedrich Krüger and his sister Caroline , whom he married soon afterwards. The troupe also played at the recently opened Deutsches Theater in Amsterdam , about which Franz Carl Weidmann writes:

“The tenorist Carl Demmer was hired at the German theater. This artist, equally attractive because of his captivating figure, because of his extremely beautiful voice and also because of his spiritual gifts, quickly drew the attention of Kruger’s sister. The covenant was soon made, she shook hands with him, and from then on the family lived in the utmost harmony and sociability. "

On February 4, 1791 Demmer and his wife came to the court theater in Weimar , where both were sponsored by Goethe . At Pentecost 1794 the couple went to Frankfurt am Main . On May 5th, Goethe's mother wrote to her son in Weimar:

"Mr. Demmer! this is a wonderful man - he played Tamino excellently - and our operas have won a lot through him - his wife only appeared as Claudia once - man can't say much about that yet. Last week the magic flute was given twice with the house so full that all doors had to remain open otherwise one would have suffocated from the heat! "

On December 20, 1799, "Carl Demmer, singer and actor at the local theater" gave a big concert to which he invited all his patrons. At the beginning of 1804 he signed a contract with the Vienna Court Theater, which was very regretted in Frankfurt:

“So far, Mr. Demmer has been our only good tenor, but we'll soon lose this one too; he goes to Vienna to the national theater there, under very favorable conditions, as an actor. It is very popular here, and the local public will long to envy the Viennese for its possessions. If he had been secured by a pension for his old age, he would certainly like to have stayed with us, and the public would have thanked the management. "

On February 27, 1804 Demmer gave his farewell performance in Frankfurt in the title role of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito . A few days later he traveled to Vienna via Regensburg - where he and his family arrived on March 7th . Carl Demmer made his debut there on June 20, 1804 in the Theater am Kärntnertor as Edwinsky in the Viennese premiere of François-Adrien Boieldieu's opera Die Verieben auf Kamchatka . The notice contains the note: "Mr. Demmer, a newly engaged member will have the honor of appearing in the role shown above for the first time." The Viennese correspondent for the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung assessed Demmer's performance as essentially positive:

“A new tenor, Mr. Demmer, who appeared for the first time in the role of the Count, pleased. He really has a strong and very pure voice, quite a range and plays quite well. Even if his method is not the most excellent, he tries to make up for this deficiency with a comprehensible presentation - a quality that is not often found in our singers in general, and especially in the tenorists. "

The Viennese correspondent for the Berlin musical newspaper edited by Johann Friedrich Reichardt expressed himself somewhat more skeptically :

“He is no longer young enough for a first lover, and his voice is too lacking in sound and flexibility. Yet it is understandable, has a fair height, and usually sings with correctness and expression. "

The notice on the world premiere of Beethoven's Fidelio , which took place on November 20, 1805 in the Theater an der Wien , then mentions “Hr. Demmer ”in the role of Florestan. His partner was Anna Milder as Leonore or Fidelio. The performance was a great failure for Beethoven, and the protagonists were not given a good report either:

"The. Milder, in spite of her beautiful voice, has far too little affect and life for the role of Fidelio, and Demmer almost always intoned too deeply. All of this taken together, also partly the current circumstances, meant that the opera could only be given three times. "

Beethoven himself was also dissatisfied with Demmer's design and replaced him with Joseph August Röckel when the second version was first performed on March 26, 1806 .

One of Carl Demmer's great successes was the role of senior seneschal in the singspiel Johann von Paris by François-Adrien Boieldieu , which was first performed on August 29, 1812 in the Theater an der Wien. The Princess of Navarre sang the popular Cathinka Buchwieser , Demmer's daughter Josefine embodied Lorezza. Curiously, his brother Christian Demmer played the same role - at the same time - in a production by the Kärntnertor Theater . Ignaz Franz Castelli writes in his memoir:

“Two Demmer brothers were employed as singers, one in the court opera theater, the other in the Theater an der Wien; they all played chevaliers, they looked so alike in face and had such alike manners and language that one could hardly tell them apart. They played and sang at the same time, each in his theater the Seneschal in 'John of Paris.' "

On April 14th, 1813 - the family lived at this time "on the Laimgrube No. 26" - died "to Mr. Carl Demmer, kk court actor, s. Mrs. Caroline ”. In his second marriage, he married the 24-year-old maid Franziska Hofmann on April 12, 1815 in Vienna-Margareten , who died on March 19, 1856 at the age of 65 in Vienna-Altlerchenfeld No. 237. The Wiener Zeitung describes her as the "kk court actors widow".

In 1817 "Mr. Carl Demmer" was explicitly named as a member of the Hofschauspiel-Gesellschaft (not the Hofoper-Gesellschaft), so apparently he seldom appeared as a singer. In the Vienna artist directory of Franz Heinrich Böckh in 1821 he is listed as follows: “Demmer Carl, k. k. Court opera singer, at the same time k. k. Court actor. On Wieden No. 180. “On July 1, 1822, he was finally retired.

Around 1824 his track is lost.

family

The marriage of Carl and Caroline Demmer resulted from several important Viennese actresses and actors, including

  • Friedrich Demmer (* 1785 in Berlin; † April 15, 1838 in Vienna), worked as a singer from September 1829 to 1834, then as chief director of the kk Hofoperntheater until his death,
  • Jeannette (Johanna) Schmidt b. Demmer (born April 5, 1794 in Weimar; † March 14, 1862 in Vienna),
  • Josefine Scutta , b. Demmer (born September 19, 1795 in Frankfurt am Main, † December 22, 1863 in Vienna), wife of Andreas Scutta ,
  • Thekla Demmer , married Kneisel (* 1802 in Frankfurt am Main; † 23 August 1832 in Vienna).

He was also the brother of the singers and actors Joseph Demmer and Christian Demmer . His nephew was the opera singer Friedrich Demmer .

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Friedrich Demmer (singer lexicon) or Joseph Demmer (Grove) are also mentioned in this role .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cologne, St. Lupus, baptisms 1732–1775 and marriages 1733–1782, p. 219
  2. ↑ Niemöller (1960), p. 227 f.
  3. ↑ Kopitz (1998), pp. 23-28
  4. ↑ Satori-Neumann (1922), pp. 29–31
  5. ^ Franz Carl Weidmann: Carl Krüger . In: Archive for History, Statistics, Literature and Art , No. 14/15 from 2./4. February 1824, pp. 65–68, here p. 67
  6. ↑ Christian August Vulpius: A correspondence on the cultural history of the Goethe era , ed. by Andreas Meier. Berlin 2003, Volume 2, p. 79
  7. ↑ Katharina Elisabeth Goethe: Letters , Volume 1, p. 467
  8. ^ Maria Belli-Gontard: Life in Frankfurt am Main. Excerpts from the question and display messages (the intelligence sheet) . Frankfurt 1830, p. 111
  9. ↑ On the state of music in Frankfurt am Mayn . In: Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung , Vol. 5, No. 24 of March 14, 1804, Col. 398–403, here Col. 402
  10. ↑ Dieter Haberl: The Regensburgische Diarium (intelligence sheet) as a music-historical source . Regensburg 2012, p. 391
  11. ↑ Vienna, Theater Museum, list collection; see. also Voll (1807), pp. 42 and 163
  12. ↑ Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung , Vol. 6, No. 45 of August 8, 1804, Col. 760
  13. ↑ Berlinische Musical Zeitung , Volume 1 (1805), p. 246
  14. ↑ Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung , Vol. 8, No. 15 of January 8, 1806, Col. 238
  15. ↑ Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung , Vol. 14, No. 39 of September 23, 1812, Col. 644
  16. ↑ Ignaz Franz Castelli: Memoirs of my life. Found and felt, experienced and strived for . Vienna 1861, Volume 1, p. 243 f.
  17. ^ Wiener Zeitung , No. 51 of April 29, 1813, Official Gazette , p. 158
  18. ^ Vienna, parish St. Josef zu Margareten
  19. ^ Vienna, Altlerchenfeld parish, death record 1856/14
  20. ^ Wiener Zeitung , No. 71 of March 27, 1856, p. 883
  21. ↑ Court and State Schematism of the Austrian Empire . Vienna 1817, p. 129
  22. ^ Franz Heinrich Böckh: Vienna's living writers, artists and amateurs in the arts . Vienna 1821, p. 365
  23. ^ Catalog of the portrait collection of the kuk General-Intendanz of the kk Hoftheater. At the same time a biographical auxiliary book in the field of theater and music, 2nd section, group IV . Vienna 1892, p. 348
  24. ↑ Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 . Volume 10 (Lfg. 48, 1992), p. 275
personal data
SURNAME Demmer, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Demmer, Carl Ignaz Anton (full name); Demmer, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH baptized February 11, 1766
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH after 1824