Engelbert Czubok

Engelbert Czubok (born July 28, 1902 in Witkowitz ; † October 22, 1969 in Stuttgart ) was a German opera singer (lyrical baritone) and chamber singer . He was an honorary member of the Stuttgart State Opera.

Life

“The man who once sang to his heart's content and hunger” was the headline in the Stuttgarter Nachrichten in April 1941 above the article describing Engelbert Czubok's path to becoming a valued member of the Stuttgart State Opera. There you can read that he originally wanted to become an engineer in the Witkowitz ironworks. But one day when he went on a trip through Marienbad with a colleague at lunchtime, with a growling stomach, they beat out songs. They met the Viennese chamber singer Alfred Piccaver and the bank director Möller. Impressed by Czubok's singing talent, these two persuaded him to swap his engineering studies for vocal training at the Music Academy in Prague. Later, with a smile, he described his apprenticeship as a lyric baritone and in particular his excursions into acting as a “terribly beautiful time”. After his successful vocal training, he started his stage career at the Deutsches Theater in 1924, also in Prague .

His next engagement took him to Breslau from 1927 to 1930 . There he sang the title role in the German premiere of the opera " Schwanda, the Bagpiper " by Jaromír Weinberger in 1928 . As early as 1929, he was drawn to Stuttgart as a guest , where he made an impression as Wolfram von Eschenbach in Wagner's " Tannhäuser ". So it was not surprising that in 1930 he preferred the appointment at the Stuttgart State Opera to the engagement in Berlin.

In Stuttgart, where he felt at home from then on, he soon became a lyrical “play baritone” in many performances (including “ Don Giovanni ”, “ Magic Flute ”, “ Masked Ball ”, “ Rigoletto ”, “ Tobias Wunderlich ”, “ La traviata ”) “And finally appointed chamber singer in 1935. His ties to Stuttgart were further strengthened when he married in Stuttgart in 1936 and had a daughter in 1937. From the years up to 1950 the German premieres of L'Arlesiana by Cilea (1940, as Baldassare) and 1946 " Mathis the painter " by Paul Hindemith , in which he sang the title role of Mathis, as well as the 1950 world premiere of the opera " Don Juan and Faust ”by Hermann Reutter .

He also achieved significant successes in other guest performances and as a concert soloist, for example in 1950 and 1951 at the Opera of Rome , a. a. in his prime role of "Mathis the painter". Of the many stage roles that he has mastered (all Verdi and Puccini roles), only Guglielmo in “ Così fan tutte ”, “ Don Giovanni ”, Don Carlos in “ La forza del destino ” by Verdi, the Count Luna in “ Troubadour ”, the Kothner in “ Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg ”, the Mandryka in “ Arabella ” by Richard Strauss , the Malatesta in “ Don Pasquale ”, the count in “ Wildschütz ” by Albert Lortzing , the Sharpless in Puccini's “ Madame Butterfly ”and Marcello in“ La Bohème ”.

As an honorary member of the Stuttgart State Opera, he finally ended his career in 1965 when he was retired. Only four years later he died of a heart attack and was buried in the Steinhaldenfriedhof in Stuttgart Bad Cannstatt.

literature

• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . KG-Saur Bern and Munich 1997
• Stuttgarter Nachrichten April 19, 1941 (Mariluise Ritzen: The man who once sang to the heart's content and hunger)

Discography

• Eugène D'Albert: Die Toten Augen, SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alfons Rischner
• Lortzing: The Wildschütz, choir and orchestra of the Württemberg State Theater Stuttgart under the direction of Ferdinand Leitner 1950
• Georg Hahn: His last recordings, Munich Philharmonic under the direction of Dr. Edmund Nick