Claudius Merten
Claudius Merten (born May 15, 1842 in Roden , Rhine Prussia , † 1912 in Berlin ) was a German theater actor and singer .
Life
Merten, the son of a hospital inspector, showed his talent at an early age, occasionally performing "spiritual games" (a kind of passion play ) during Advent. When he also took part in amateur performances, he was advised to take a stage job.
Without having enjoyed dramatic lessons, he stepped on the boards in Krefeld in 1871. On August 20, 1873 he embarked in Hamburg on the steamship Frisia for America, where he worked in New York until 1876. Then he came to the court theater in Kassel , but returned to New York in 1880 for two years. From 1882 to 1883 he was in St. Petersburg , from 1884 to 1894 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin , from 1894 to 1898 at the Lessing Theater, and in the latter year he joined the Association of the New Theater in Berlin, where he successfully represented the subject of comic character roles .
Merten proved himself as an artist of education and taste full of fine humor, brought the witty punch lines to their best advantage in an impeccably nuanced manner without obtrusiveness, played naturally and true to life and presented uniform character images in make-up, speech and play. To everyone's surprise, this talented actor revealed himself to be a tasteful singer with a sympathetic voice.
From his extensive repertoire are mentioned: "Griesinger" in Doctor Klaus , "Hafermann", "Piepenbrink", "Oberleutnant Schwarze", the old "City Councilor" in Duty , "Major" in Children of Excellence , as well as "Klosterbruder", " Orgone "in Tartuffe ," Vansen "," Valentin "in spendthrift ," Uncle Bräsig "etc.
Merten played in several plays by Henrik Ibsen : in 1895 he played the role of Nils Krogstad in Nora or A Puppet's House at the Carola Theater in Leipzig , in 1907 he played Knut Brovik in master builder Solneß , In New York, at the Free Volksbühne in the Berlin theater he performed at the Deutsches Theater in the play Baccarat by Henri Bernstein as Baron Lebourg.
Claudius Merten had a son named Peter.
literature
- Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 668, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
Web links
- Claudius Merten at The Ibsen Stage Performance Database at the University of Oslo
Remarks
- ^ Year of death according to DNB, secured by an obituary in the newspaper Der Deutsche Correspondent , Baltimore, from September 7, 1912, p. 2.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Date of birth according to the marriage register of the Berlin XI registry office of February 13, 1890, No. 97/1890.
- ↑ On the life data cf. Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch 25, 1914, p. 153
- ^ According to Deutsches Volkstum 14, 1912, p. 515 he had his first appearance in Saarbrücken .
- ↑ Hamburg Passenger Lists 1870–1879, Direct Ship Line, Vol. 029 A
- ↑ Merten in costume, Carte de visite at www.picturehistory.com ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Cast list for A Doll's House on ibsen.nb.no
- ↑ Cast list for master builder Solness on ibsen.nb.no
- ^ New York Times , January 17, 1909
- ^ Joachim Wilcke, The Lessingtheater in Berlin under Oscar Blumenthal (1888–1898) , Ernst Reuter Society 1958, p. 114
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merten, Claudius |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German theater actor and singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 15, 1842 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Roden , Rhine Prussia |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1912 |
| Place of death | Berlin |