Elisabeth Röckel

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Elisabeth Röckel, oil painting, probably by Willibrord Joseph Mähler , around 1814 - Düsseldorf, Goethe Museum
Registration of "Maria Eva Elise [!], Born Röckl" at the baptism of her son Eduard Hummel , 1814 - Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral
Anna Milder, letter to her friend “Elise Hummel”, 1830 (excerpt) - Düsseldorf, Goethe Museum
Obituary in the Weimarische Zeitung of March 6, 1883 with the comment: "Beethoven was one of her admirers."
Elisabeth Hummel b. Röckel, pencil drawing by Friedrich Pecht , 1845 - Düsseldorf, Goethe Museum
The grave of Elisabeth Hummels geb. Röckel at the historical cemetery in Weimar

Elisabeth Röckel (baptized as Maria Eva ; born March 15, 1793 in Neunburg vorm Wald , † March 3, 1883 in Weimar ) was a German opera singer ( soprano ). From 1808 to 1810 she belonged to Beethoven's closest circle of friends , who probably dedicated his piano piece Für Elise to her, and in 1813 she married the composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel .

Adolescence and marriage to Johann Nepomuk Hummel

Elisabeth Röckel was originally baptized with the name "Maria Eva", probably after her godmother, a Maria Eva Grueber. Her parents were the stocking weaver Joseph Röckel (around 1758–1827) and his wife Elisabeth Röckel née. Diemand (1756-1840). Her brother was the tenor Joseph August Röckel , who appeared on March 29 and April 10, 1806 in Vienna under Beethoven's own direction as Florestan in Fidelio (second version) and then became one of Beethoven's closest friends.

At about the same time she also moved to Vienna and first moved in with her brother in his official apartment in the Theater an der Wien . In the conscription sheet of the theater she is as “Elis. [!] Rökel ”, so she had already adopted the maternal first name“ Elisabeth ”, by which she became known. At that time, Beethoven's Fidelio actress Anna Milder , who became one of Elisabeth's best friends, also had an official apartment in this theater . In 1830 the famous singer wrote a letter to "Frau Kapellmeisterin Elise [!] Hummel" after she had stayed with Elisabeth during a guest performance in Weimar and signed it with: "Your old friend Anna Milder".

Such name changes were not uncommon in artistic circles: The Vienna theater director and Mozart friend Emanuel Schikaneder was originally christened "Johann Joseph" and the composer Leopold Koželuch was named "Johann Anton". In the parish church registers of Vienna and Weimar as well as in Hummel's testament she is referred to as "Maria Eva Elisabeth", after his death she signed her pension application as "Maria Eva", and as an artist she is named "Elisabeth" in all sources.

Like her brother and her friend Anna Milder-Hauptmann, Elisabeth Röckel soon became one of Beethoven's closest friends. In addition, she took singing and acting lessons in Vienna and soon began a very successful theater career. She received her first engagement in Bamberg at what is now the ETA-Hoffmann-Theater through the temporary Viennese court theater director Franz Ignaz von Holbein , who took over the management of the Bamberg theater in April 1810, which reopened on September 30th after a long break. On October 15, Elisabeth Röckel gave her debut in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni there - at the side of her brother . The Bamberg production inspired ETA Hoffmann to write his novella Don Juan . Holbein writes about them:

“Demoiselle Röckel, a beginner who was distinguished by her youth, beauty, voice and musical education, was soon able to assert herself as the first singer and would soon have become one of the most famous of her time if her artistic career did not (who should believe! ) - would have been prevented by one of the most famous band masters of the time. - This conductor was Hummel. He married her, and she preferred the quiet life of the housewife to the splendid circumstances of a celebrated artist. "

In May 1811 she made guest appearances with her brother in Prague and finally made her debut on July 8, 1811 with great success at the Vienna Kärntnertor Theater as Emmeline in Joseph Weigl's opera Die Schweizerfamilie . The role was originally created for Anna Milder-Hauptmann. Ignaz Franz Castelli , the opera's librettist, devoted an extremely positive review to it in his Thalia magazine . Count Johann Nepomuk von Chotek, who was also among the spectators, noted in his diary: “Today I saw H. u Mlle Röckel appear as guests in the Schweitzer family, the first to be engaged in the Theater an der Wien a few years ago has one pleasant but not strong tenor and played very painfully, but his sister is really just as good an actress as a singer, she was also called out on merit, she has a very good, if not as melodious and strong voice as Milder, and a right one nice figure. ”In a meeting of the collector it says:“ Mlle. Röckel is a very pretty girl of about sixteen [!] Years. ”One of her admirers was the poet Franz Grillparzer .

During this time she lived with her brother in the suburb of Windmühle , Rosengasse No. 56. According to Castelli, she took lessons from Adolph Duprée (1766–1833), from 1804 to 1814 a member of the Burgtheater .

On April 6, 1813 she appeared as Servilia in Mozart's opera Titus for the last time in Vienna. On May 16, 1813, she married the composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel in the parish church of St. Joseph ob der Laimgrube , and one of the best man was the composer Antonio Salieri . The celebration was apparently a social event in Vienna. Among the guests was the young doctor Johann Nepomuk von Ringseis , who like Elisabeth came from the Upper Palatinate and was one of Clemens Brentano's closest friends . He writes in his memoirs:

“At the wedding party of the famous musician Hummel, later Kapellmeister in Weimar, we were killed by Röckel, the brother of his bride, our compatriot from Neunburg vor'm Wald, who was brought to Vienna as a little girl because of sad financial circumstances by that brother develop their musical talent and voice; so she became a popular stage singer, first in provincial towns, then in the residence, who made a name for herself in the Swiss family especially as Emmeline, but with her marriage, she left the stage with her marriage, brilliantly presented by the emperor . "

Then she moved in with her husband in his apartment at Brandstatt No. 671, on the third floor, in the immediate vicinity of St. Stephen's Cathedral . In 1816 she moved with him to Stuttgart , where she last appeared in 1817. From 1819 she lived with her family in Weimar.

From her marriage to Hummel she had two sons, the musician Eduard Hummel (1814-1893) and the painter Carl Hummel (1821-1907). August Röckel (1814–1876), Richard Wagner's friend , was her nephew.

Her husband's concert tours, on which she regularly accompanied him, to Paris (1830) and London (1830, 1831 and 1833) were among the highlights of their years of marriage .

Next life

After the death of her husband, Elisabeth Hummel inherited the Weimar house at Marienstraße 8 and a considerable fortune, and she also received a lifelong widow's pension. Much of the money was used to benefit her family, including her parents and some needy siblings.

When her son Eduard Hummel, born after the early death of his wife Auguste, Coudray (1816–1844) left Weimar and later emigrated to the USA, she also took his daughters Johanna (1842–1927) and Auguste (1844–1918) in and raised them. A further expansion of their family resulted from the long imprisonment of their nephew August Röckel, who - after he had participated in the Dresden May Uprising alongside Richard Wagner in 1849 - was imprisoned for thirteen years until he was the last "May prisoner" on January 10, 1862 was released. During these years, his wife Caroline Röckel, nee. Lortzing (1809–1871) at Marienstraße 8, as well as her three children.

Franz Liszt , who was court conductor in Weimar from 1843 to 1861, already organized a benefit concert for the August Röckels family on May 31, 1849. Although Liszt was also often committed to the works of his predecessor Hummel, Elisabeth Hummel was very critical of his work and believed that he was "destroying" the true art of piano playing.

Friendship with Beethoven

Elisabeth Röckel later told us about her close friendship with Beethoven several times. She told Otto Jahn that "Beethoven honored her more than she could claim as a young girl, that he was always warm and friendly to her". Ludwig Nohl confided in her that she had been with Beethoven at an evening party of the guitarist Mauro Giuliani , where “Beethoven had not let up in the exuberance of his Rhenish temperament to tease and tease her, so that in the end she could not save herself from him have known; he always pinched her arm out of sheer affection. ”The composer supposedly even wanted to marry Elisabeth.

In April 1810, when she accepted the engagement in Bamberg, the relationship was presumably temporarily clouded, especially since this decision should have ended Beethoven's hopes for an even closer relationship. In a necrology about the singer it is said that “Beethoven found his rejection by Elisabeth Röckel difficult”.

When she visited him again shortly before his death - together with her husband and his pupil Ferdinand Hiller - his secretary Anton Schindler found out from her, “what deep roots her former love for Beeth had. beaten u still live in her. ”At first only the two men visited the composer, who finally asked to see Elisabeth again. She fulfilled the dying man's wish on March 20, 1827, whereby Beethoven still hoped for a speedy recovery on that day and announced that "then he would also visit Ms. Hummel". When she visited him again on March 23, he could no longer speak. As Hiller reports,

“Hummel's wife took her fine batiste cloth and dried his face several times with it. I will never forget the grateful look with which his broken eye looked up at her. "

On the same day she received a lock of his hair and his last quill as parting. The Irish pianist Bettina Walker , who came to Weimar shortly after Elisabeth's death to study with Franz Liszt , saw the relics in a frame on the wall in Hummel's house at Marienstraße 8:

“There was a lock of Beethoven's hair, cut from his head by the wife of Hummel, who, with her husband, visited him three or four days before his death. There was also a lock of Goethe ’s hair; and both of these were enclosed in glass frames, and hung on the wall like pictures. Another of these frames contained the last pen Beethoven's fingers had ever grasped; for on the same occasion when Hummel's wife had asked him for a lock of his hair, she had also begged leave to carry away a pen which was lying on the bed, and Beethoven, who knew he was dying, put it himself into her hand ; and, as long as she lived, it was one of her most precious and valued relics. (There was a lock of Beethoven's hair that Hummel's wife, who had visited him with her husband three or four days before his death, had cut from his head. There was also a lock of Goethe's hair, both of which were in glass frames and hung on the wall like pictures. Another frame held the last quill that Beethoven's finger ever took hold of. On the same occasion that Hummel's wife had asked him about the lock of hair, she had asked him to give her a quill that was on the Beethoven, who knew he was dying, put it in her hand himself, and as long as she lived it was one of her most precious and most cherished relics. "

The glass frame with Beethoven's lock and his last pen was still in 1934 in Florence with Wilhelm Hummel , a grandson of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. After the death of his daughter Maria Hummel (1905–1975) it came into the possession of Mike Hummel (1940–2012) in Los Angeles , whose wife Yvonne bequeathed it in 2012 to the Beethoven Center of the San José State University . Another lock of Beethoven's hair from Elisabeth Hummel's estate, the provenance of which is unclear, is now in the Beethoven House in Bonn .

Beethoven had asked Hummel to appear in a benefit concert on April 7, 1827 in favor of his secretary Anton Schindler , in which he originally wanted to participate. Schindler later told Gerhard von Breuning that Hummel initially refused and only accepted at Elisabeth's urgent request:

“Yes, it is true that Hummel, although he had promised Beethoven on his deathbed in the middle of March, instead of playing in my concert on April 7th, 1827 in the Josefstadt Theater , after his death wanted to withdraw his word. But Hummel's wife, b. Röckel, who still lives as a widow in Weimar, was once loved by Beethoven - he wanted to marry her; but Hummel had fished them away from him. When she heard from me that her husband had changed his mind, she replied: “From now on I have so much affection for Beethoven's memory that I will not allow it. Don't take a step with my husband; I promise you that he will play for you. "- And Hummel really played, and indeed he fantasized about a theme of Beethoven in an incomparably beautiful way."

What is meant is the Allegretto from Beethoven's 7th Symphony .

Album sheet "For Elise"

The Beethoven researcher Klaus Martin Kopitz suspects that Elisabeth Röckel was the recipient of the album sheet “ Für Elise ”. The autograph of the piece, written in 1810, was dedicated “For Elise on April 27 in memory of L. v. Bthvn ". Kopitz cites the following evidence:

  • Elisabeth Röckel was close friends with Beethoven at the time in question.
  • Elisabeth Röckel was actually called "Elise" in Beethoven's circle of friends, for example by Anna Milder-Hauptmann. In 1814, when her son Eduard was baptized, she was even registered as "Maria Eva Elise".
  • Elisabeth Röckel's first engagement in Bamberg was apparently the reason for the creation of the piece, because this was decided when the Viennese actor and court theater poet Franz Ignaz von Holbein made a guest appearance in Bamberg from April 1 to 24, 1810. On the day of his arrival, he agreed to take over the management of the theater and put together his ensemble, including Elisabeth Röckel and her brother.

Following an essay by Max Unger , research had previously claimed that there was no woman named “Elise” in Beethoven's life at the time in question, and assumed that “Elise” was Therese Malfatti . The Viennese musicologist Michael Lorenz doubts Kopitz's thesis because he has so far not been able to provide a sound explanation of how the autograph on the album sheet by Elisabeth Hummel came to Therese Malfatti or Babette Bredl in Munich.

literature

  • Karl Benyovszky , JN Hummel. Man and Artist , Bratislava: Eos 1934
  • Fritz Felzmann , the singer Elisabeth Röckel. “Donna Anna” in Hoffmann's “Don Juan”. Personality and Family , in: Mitteilungen der E. T. A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft , Issue 21 (1975), pp. 27–37
  • Inge Kähmer and Jörn Göres, Goethe Museum Düsseldorf Anton and Katharina Kippenberg Foundation . Catalog of music , Bonn: Bouvier 1987, p. 466, 488, 572 and 606f.
  • Mark Kroll, Johann Nepomuk Hummel: A Musician's Life and World , Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press 2007, ISBN 978-0-8108-5920-3
  • Michael Jahn , The Wiener Hofoper from 1810 to 1836. The Kärnthnerthortheater as a court opera , Vienna: Verlag “Der Apfel” 2007, ISBN 978-3-85450-286-9
  • Klaus Martin Kopitz , Beethoven, Elisabeth Röckel and the album sheet “ Für Elise ” , Cologne: Dohr 2010, ISBN 978-3-936655-87-2
  • Michael Lorenz , The "Unmasked Elise". Elisabeth Röckel's short career as Beethoven's "Elise" , in: Bonner Beethoven Studies , Volume 9 (2011), pp. 169–190 ( online )
  • William Meredith, New Acquisitions (Summer 2012): The Yvonne Hummel Collection , in: The Beethoven Journal , Vol. 27, No. 2 (Winter 2012), pp. 74–80
  • Michael Lorenz , "Maria Eva Hummel. A Postscript" Vienna, 2013
  • Klaus Martin Kopitz, Beethoven's "Elise" Elisabeth Röckel. New aspects of the creation and transmission of the piano piece WoO 59. In: Die Tonkunst , vol. 9, no. 1 from January 2015, pp. 48–57 ( PDF)
  • Christine Herzog, "Frau Capellmeisterin Hummel ... A female very lovable to look at" , in: Manuscripts 9 , ed. by the Freundesgesellschaft des Goethe and Schiller Archives, Weimar 2019, pp. 58–74 ( PDF )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The date of birth was previously incorrectly given as June 19, 1793, cf. Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . 4th ed., Munich 2003, Volume 6, p. 3971 as well as The music in past and present , 2nd ed., Ed. by Ludwig Finscher , Person Teil , Volume 14, Kassel 2005, Sp. 239.
  2. ^ Regensburg, Bischöfliches Zentralarchiv, baptismal registers Neunburg vorm Wald, Volume 5, p. 207
  3. ^ Vienna, city and state archives , conscription form of the house Laimgrube No. 26 (Theater an der Wien), created in 1805; see. Michael Lorenz: Maria Eva Hummel. A Postscript. In: michaelorenz.blogspot.com. July 8, 2013, accessed November 16, 2019 .
  4. ↑ See Kopitz (2015), p. 52f.
  5. ^ Düsseldorf, Goethe Museum, Anton and Katharina Kippenberg Foundation, 2218
  6. ^ Vienna, City and State Archives , Haydn Association, A 3/2
  7. ↑ The Weimar actor Max Johann Seidel in his Hummel biography from 1837/38, which he wrote in collaboration with his widow: Weimar, Duchess Anna Amalia Library , Q 619, p. 51.
    The musicologist Otto Jahn , who wrote her in Weimar in 1855 met, in his essay with her memories of Beethoven: A letter from Beethoven. In: Die Grenzboten , Vol. 26, I. Semester, Volume II (1867), pp. 100–105, here pp. 101f.
    The Beethoven biographer Alexander Wheelock Thayer , who was also known to her brother, in: Ludwig van Beethoven's Leben , edited from the original manuscript in German by Hermann Deiters , Volume 3, Berlin 1879, p. 74.
    Obituary, in: Germany. General political newspaper with daily and community newspaper , March 4, 1883: “With deeply bent hearts we inform all dear friends and acquaintances that our dearly beloved mother, in-law and grandmother, Ms. Hofkapellmeister Elisabeth Hummel, fell asleep at noon today at noon. The deeply grieving bereaved. Weimar, March 3, 1883. “
    Nekrolog, in: Weimarian Zeitung , vol. 52, no. 54 of March 6, 1883
    On her gravestone in the historical cemetery in Weimar.
    In a standard work on Viennese theater history based on extensive archive studies: Catalog of the portrait collection of the kuk General-Intendanz of the kk Hoftheater. At the same time a biographical guide in the field of theater and music. Second division. Group IV. Wiener Hoftheater , Vienna 1892, p. 353: “ Roeckel , Betty (Elisabeth), geb. March 15, 1793, d. Weimar March 3, 1883, member July 8, 1811 to 1814; May 15 [sic] 1813 wife of JN Hummel (p. 176). - Br. 4 °. Photogr. Reproduction after an oil painting. Whole figure, in old age. Vis.-Phot. von Frisch in Weimar. "
  8. ^ Franz von Holbein, Deutsches Bühnenwesen , Volume 1, Vienna 1853, p. 39 (digitized version)
  9. ↑ Thalia , ed. by Ignaz Franz Castelli, Vol. 2, No. 49 of June 19, 1811, p. 194
  10. ↑ Complete in Kopitz (2010), pp. 22–26
  11. ↑ Beethoven in the Diaries of Johann Nepomuk Chotek , ed. by Rita Steblin , Bonn: Beethoven-Haus 2013, p. 157 (entry from July 8, 1811)
  12. ^ "M.", Notes , in: The collector. An entertainment gazette , vol. 3, no.84 of July 13, 1811, p. 334 ( digitized version )
  13. ↑ See Kopitz (2010), p. 37f.
  14. ↑ Kopitz (2010), pp. 28f.
  15. ↑ Johann Nepomuk von Ringseis , Jugenderinnerungen (VII) , in: Historical-political sheets for Catholic Germany , ed. by Edmund Jörg and Franz Binder, Volume 76 (1875), pp. 157-180, here pp. 166f. ( Digitized version )
  16. ↑ Kopitz (2010), pp. 29 and 32; Wiener Zeitung , No. 67 of June 5, 1813, General Intelligence Gazette , p. 984 ( digitized version )
  17. ↑ Cf. August Röckel's comment in his autobiographical sketch: "Linchen [Caroline] lives with my aunt"; Original in Dresden, Sächsisches Staatsarchiv, A. Röckel estate, No. 4
  18. ↑ Cf. Franz Liszt in his letters , ed. by Hans Rudolf Jung, Berlin 1987, p. 135
  19. ↑ Kroll (2007), pp. 302f.
  20. ↑ Otto Jahn , A Letter from Beethoven. In: Die Grenzboten , Vol. 26, I. Semester, Volume II (1867), pp. 100–105, here pp. 101f. (Digitized version)
  21. ↑ Ludwig Nohl , Beethoven's New Letters , Stuttgart 1867, pp. 73f.
  22. ↑ Kopitz (2015), p. 51
  23. ↑ Kopitz (2015), p. 55
  24. ↑ Ferdinand Hiller, From the last days of L. van Beethoven. In: ders., From the clay life of our time. Gelegentliches , Cologne 1871, pp. 169–179, here p. 177 ( digitized version ) - Hiller gave a copy of the book with an autograph dedication to Elisabeth Hummel on July 10, 1871. It is now in the Goethe Museum Düsseldorf, 2683a.
  25. ↑ Bettina Walker, My Musical Experiences , New Edition, London and New York 1892, p. 93 ( digitized version )
  26. ↑ Benyovszky (1934), pp. 154f.
  27. ↑ Meredith (2012)
  28. ↑ Beethoven-Locke from the estate of Elisabeth Röckel (illustration)
  29. ^ Gerhard von Breuning, From the Black Spaniard House. Memories of L. van Beethoven from my youth , Vienna 1872, p. 49f.
  30. ^ Vienna, archive of the cathedral parish of St. Stephan, Tom's baptismal register. 106, fol. 139
  31. ↑ Bamberg State Library, Theater Journal 1802–1814, fol. 14r – 14v (digitized version )
  32. ↑ Details in Kopitz (2015), p. 53f.
  33. ↑ Cf. Max Unger, Beethoven's piano piece “Für Elise”. In: Die Musik , vol. 15.1 (February 1923), pp. 334–340
  34. ↑ Michael Lorenz: "Maria Eva Hummel. A Postscript" Vienna, 2013

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Röckel, Elisabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roeckl, Betty; Röckel, Maria Eva (maiden name); Hummel, Elisabeth (later name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Neunburg vorm Wald
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1883
Place of death Weimar