Caroline Unger

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Caroline Unger, after a lithograph by Joseph Kriehuber , 1839 (detail)
Signature Caroline Unger.PNG
The grave of Caroline Unger and François Sabatier in Florence, cemetery of the Church of San Miniato al Monte

Caroline Maria Unger , in Italy Caroline Ungher-Sabatier (born October 28, 1803 in Vienna , † March 23, 1877 in Florence ) was an Austrian opera singer ( soprano or mezzo-soprano ). She had a great career in Italy and was a favorite singer of Gaetano Donizetti , who wrote several leading roles for her.

Life

Caroline Unger was the only child from the marriage of the literary man Johann Karl Unger to a Baroness Anna von Karwinska, who presumably came from Poland . The family lived at 36 Herrengasse in Vienna at the time . They were baptized Carolina Maria in the parish Alservorstadt . The writer Caroline Pichler is noted as godmother, who lived on the Alsergrund and writes in her memoirs: “A Mr. Unger, a graceful poet and well-educated man who lived in our neighborhood, also joined our group. His wife, a born Baroness Karvinsky, was about to give birth - they asked me to have their child baptized, I was happy to do so; it was a girl, she got my name, and became the famous singer Carolina Ungher. "

She was educated in the kk girls' boarding school and studied in Vienna with the pedagogues Joseph Mozzati as well as with Mozart's sister-in-law Aloisia Lange , with Johann Michael Vogl and with Domenico Ronconi . One of her piano teachers was Mozart's son Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart .

Vienna beginnings, Beethoven

In February 1821 she made her debut at the Kärntnertor Theater as Dorabella in Mozart's opera Così fan tutte . She also appeared as a concert singer and sang the alto part at the premiere of Beethoven's 9th Symphony on May 7, 1824 in the Theater am Kärntnertor . According to Sigismund Thalberg , who was among the audience, she turned the completely deafened Beethoven to the cheering audience after the end of the Scherzo, as well as after the end of the choir finale.

Great success in Italy

In March 1825 she went to Italy with the impresario Domenico Barbaja , where she performed predominantly in the following years and was celebrated in an unprecedented manner. On February 14, 1829 she sang the role of Isoletta in the world premiere of Bellini's La straniera at La Scala in Milan , and on March 17, 1833, for the first time, the title role in Donizetti's Parisina at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence. Unger had great success in the 1833/1834 season at the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris.

Two other roles that were created for her were that of Antonina in Donizetti's Belisario , premiered on February 4, 1836 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and the title role in Donizetti's Maria de Rudenz , which was first performed on January 30, 1838 in the same theater Performance came. The latter opera, however, was probably a failure because of the bizarre, gloomy libretto, and the Unger also suspected Donizetti (wrongly) of defamation and ended their long friendship.

Alexandre Dumas and Nikolaus Lenau, Florence

In 1835 she began a secret affair with Alexandre Dumas when he was touring Italy with his future wife, the actress Ida Ferrier (1811-1859). Afterwards she hoped Dumas would come to Italy with her. But the last love letter that she wrote to him from Venice on February 4, 1836 - immediately after the premiere of Donizetti's Belisario - apparently remained unanswered. There was no reunion.

In the autumn of 1837 she settled in Florence and there acquired the so-called “Haus Bonaparte” - also called “Casa Cambiagi” after a later owner. The building still preserved today is located at Via dei Renai 23-25.

When she made a guest appearance in Vienna in the spring of 1839, she met the poet Nikolaus Lenau there on June 24, 1839 . This relationship, too, was short-lived and soon failed due to irreconcilable differences. Lenau, who had little income, refused to be endured by Caroline Unger. Nor did he want to accept her offer to end her stage career for his sake.

Marriage to François Sabatier

Caroline Unger and François Sabatier, detail from the painting The Artist's Studio by Gustave Courbet (1855)

In 1840 she met the French scholar, art critic and patron François Sabatier (1818–1891), who was 15 years her junior and who was also known as the translator of Goethe's Faust , in Rome . She married him on March 18, 1841 in Florence. After that she accepted an engagement at the Dresden Opera for the last time. On September 5, 1841, she took leave of the theater in the role of Antonina in Donizetti's Belisario . In the audience sat the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer , who noted in his diary that Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient and Karoline Bauer each gave a speech in her honor and that there were “wreaths” and “all sorts of other triumphs”.

The Sabatier-Unger couple then took up residence in Florence, where both lived in a Renaissance palace from the 14th century that soon became an intellectual center of the city. The historian Otto Hartwig and the writer Fanny Lewald were among the most famous guests . She enthused: “The beautiful house with its wide, cool rooms, shaded by curtains, from which one stepped out onto the wide terraces of the garden, which is full of flowers and floating in fragrance; the view one enjoyed from this mild height of the beautiful valley, the content-rich conversations that Sabatier was constantly able to stimulate, because the minds of both husbands were always on the great and serious, had something enchanting and at the same time something uplifting. There was always an elected company in the house; and it was one of the nicest things the guests were offered when Caroline allowed herself to sing one or the other of the songs she had composed and occasionally also composed on the piano ”.

Her pupils included the pianist Wilhelmine Clauss-Szarvady around 1845 , and the singer Anna Schimon-Regan until 1864 .

Caroline Unger died on March 23, 1877 in Florence and was buried on the Cimitero delle Porte Sante of the Church of San Miniato al Monte , where her husband later also found his final resting place.

literature

Web links

Commons : Caroline Unger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vienna, parish Alservorstadt, baptismal register 1800–1803, fol. 262 ( digitized version )
  2. ↑ Caroline Pichler: Memories from my life. Munich 1914, Volume 1, p. 249.
  3. ↑ Allgemeine Musikische Zeitung , Vol. 23, No. 13 of March 28, 1821, Col. 201.
  4. ↑ Klaus Martin Kopitz , Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.) U. a .: Beethoven from the point of view of his contemporaries in diaries, letters, poems and memories. Volume 2: Lachner - Zmeskall. Edited by the Beethoven Research Center at the Berlin University of the Arts. Henle, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87328-120-2 , p. 983.
  5. ^ Anton Schindler : Biography of Ludwig van Beethoven. 3. Edition. Münster 1860, Volume 2, p. 71.
  6. ↑ P. 41 in the CD booklet for the complete recording with Nelly Miricioiu , Bruce Ford and others. a., Philharmonia Orchestra , David Parry , Opera rara: ORC 16
  7. ^ N Friedrich Faber, Lorenz Clasen (Hrsg.): Conversations-Lexikon für Bildende Kunst . Volume 7. Leipzig 1857, p. 61  - Internet Archive
  8. ^ Repertorio delle architetture zivile di Firenze
  9. ^ Nikolaus Lenau: Works and Letters. Volume 6.1, ed. by Norbert Oellers and Hartmut Steinecke. Vienna 1990, p. 70.
  10. ↑ To celebrate the farewell of the k. k. Chamber singer Mme. Unger. In: evening newspaper. Dresden, September 21, 1841.
  11. ^ Giacomo Meyerbeer: Correspondence and Diaries. Edited by Heinz and Gudrun Becker, Volume 3. Berlin 1975, p. 362.
  12. ^ Fanny Lewald: Roman Diary 1845/46. Edited by Heinrich Spiero. Leipzig 1927, p. 27.
  13. ↑ Hartwig (1897), p. 237
  14. ^ Lewald (1888), p. 90
  15. ↑ Hartwig (1897), p. 234
  16. ↑ The grave of Caroline Unger. In: knerger.de. Klaus Nerger, accessed October 30, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Unger, Caroline
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Unger, Caroline Maria (full name); Sabatier-Unger, Karoline
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1877
Place of death Florence