Ernst Wachter

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Ernst Wachter , actually Wächter (born May 19, 1872 in Mulhouse , † August 1931 in Leipzig ) was a German opera singer (bass) and music teacher .

Live and act

He attended school in Leipzig, where his parents, the engineer Adolph Julius Carl Wächter and his wife Emma Marie Caroline, had moved from Alsace because of their father's job. After attending school, Wachter became a volunteer in a Leipzig shop because he was supposed to take up a commercial profession. After the death of the business owner and the dissolution of the company, the prospective businessman reoriented himself professionally.

Singing training in Leipzig

Following on from his deep voice, with which he had “drawn attention to himself in family and club circles” as a teenager, he now endeavored to give her “an artful education”. He became a student of the chamber singer and chief director of the Leipzig city theater Albert Goldberg (1847-1905), who was also a “teacher of the art of singing”, and trained as a bassist with him. On April 12, 1893, he began his one-year vocal training with Goldberg and on April 12, 1894, he sang a rehearsal at the Court Opera in Dresden.

Opera singer in Dresden

In Dresden, the young singer immediately got a five-year contract at the court theater . On May 10, 1894, he had his first public appearance as captain "Ferrando" in the opera The Troubadour . Then he took over on May 19, 1894 the role of the hermit in Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber and on June 7 of the same year the role of the character "Sarastro" in the opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . Correspondent Paul Lindau (1839–1919), who at that time lived in Strehlen near Dresden (1891–1895), reported about his excellent bass voice in the Neue Freie Presse newspaper in Vienna .

Ferdinand Gleich (1816–1898), as a music critic in the Dresdner Anzeiger, praised the special singing voice of Wachters using the example of the role of "Sarastro" in Die Zauberflöte, which he had taken over . Above all, F. Gleich praised how skilfully the bass performed the arias “O Isis and Osiris, what bliss!” And “In these hallowed halls” at the performance of the opera Die Zauberflöte . The newspaper Das Journal was also pleased that the court theater had "found the long-sought serious deep bass". The "impressive firmness of the tone", its "extremely safe, precise pronunciation" and the "melodious sound" of the bass and also of his voice "in medium and high pitch" were emphasized. The first bass player, Wachter, was highly valued as an "adornment of the Dresden Opera" and beyond the metropolis on the Elbe.

Wachter was accepted into the Tonkünstler-Verein zu Dresden in 1897/98 . The opera singer performed four “songs for a bass voice with pianoforte ” for the first time at the public “Ninth Practice Evening” of this association on March 4, 1898 . Georg Pittrich composed the songs based on texts by four poets, including Emanuel Geibel (1815–1885), “You are so still”. The court opera singer was accompanied musically by the composer on the piano .

Wachter sang Kaspar , the first hunter boy in Freischütz, for the first time on June 7, 1900 in the Dresden Opera . The music critic Edgar Mansfield Pierson (1848–1919) regretted this musical lecture that the “richly talented singer” did not “make serious vocal and declamation studies”. On May 1, 1903, the bassist took part in the performance of Amelia or Ein Maskenball , the opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi in the Royal Opera House . Other main contributors were the opera singers Irene Abendroth (1872–1932), coloratura soprano; Irene von Chavanne (1863–1938), alto and Erika Wedekind (1868–1944), soprano. The male roles played and sang alongside the bassist Ernst Wachter and the opera singer Karl Burrian (1870–1924); Tenor, Karl Scheidemantel (1853–1923) baritone; Franz Nebuschka , (1857–1917) bass baritone and Leon Rains (1870–1954), bass. In the world premiere of the one-act opera Salome (soprano), played by Kammersängerin Marie Wittich (1868–1931), with music by Richard Strauss , Wachter took on the role of "Cappadocian" (bass) under the conductor Ernst von Schuch on December 9, 1905 in the Dresden Court Opera.

Guest performance in Munich

Wachter sang at the Munich Court Opera in the period from “1. November 1900 to November 1, 1901 ”with the status of a guest. His contract was extended for another year to November 1902.

Guest appearances in Bayreuth

Wachter accepted several invitations to take part in the Bayreuth Festival . At the Bayreuth Festival he made his debut on May 24, 1896 with Wagner's character Fasolt in the opera Das Rheingold and in 1897 he sang Hunding in the opera Die Walküre and until 1899 also the knight “Gurnemanz” in Parsifal twice. In these roles, too, the “full euphony and the impeccable purity of his beautiful and powerful bass voice” were emphasized. Ernst Watcher's distinctive bass voice was included in the album “100 Years of Bayreuth on Record” along with other voices from early Festival singers. After appearing at the Bayreuth Festival, Wachter stayed in Dresden for another ten years.

Opera premieres

On March 20, 1901, Wachter worked at the Dresden Court Opera together with the singers Friedrich Plaschke (* 1875), Charlotte Huhn (* 1865), Marie Wittich (* 1868), Rudolf Jäger (* 1875), Karl Scheidemantel (* 1859), Erika Wedekind (* 1868), Irene von Chavanne (* 1863) and Mathilde Fröhlich (* 1867) in the performance of the tragedy Nausicaa by August Bungert (1845–1915) from the Homeric World cycle under the conductor Ernst von Schuch . On December 12, 1896, he had sung along with Karl Scheidemantel in Odysseus Heimkehr , the third part of the operatic tetralogy Homeric World . On November 21, 1901, Wachter appeared in the premiere of Richard Strauss's opera Feuersnot as "Leitgeb Jörg Pöschel".

Award

Wachter was honored with the Mecklenburg Medal for Science and Art .

Engagement in Zurich

From 1910 Ernst Wachter belonged to the city theater in Zurich and he left the opera of this theater again in 1912.

Opera singer and singing teacher in Leipzig

Wachter moved from Dresden to Leipzig again in 1912, where he worked as an opera singer until 1919. He then worked as a singing teacher in Gohlis until his death in August 1931. The concert singer Frieda Wachter lived in the apartment in Leipzig after Ernst Wachter's death Gohlis district continues. The singer Gertrud Wachter also lived temporarily in the 1930s at Möckernschen Strasse 24 in Leipzig-Gohlis and, as a widow, became co-owner of the property at Löhrstrasse 33, which was previously half owned by Ernst Wächter.

Member of the Cooperative of German Stage Members

Ernst Julius Wachter was a member of the German Stage Members' Cooperative in Berlin. In their “German Stage Yearbook 1932”, the cooperative provided information about Wachter's death and named August of the previous year as the month of death. The yearbook paid tribute to the "former Saxon court opera singer" with a description of his professional life and referred to his last activity as "singing master".

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ludwig Eisenberg : Wachter, Ernst . In: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century. Paul List, Leipzig 1903, p. 1076 ( daten.digitale-sammlungen.de ).
  2. ↑ Wachter, Ernst . In: Herrmann AL Degner (Ed.): Who is it? V. edition. Leipzig 1911, p. 1539, column 1
  3. ^ Adolph (Adolf) Julius Carl Wächter, Berliner Strasse 11 in Leipzig; Leipzig address book, Volume 73, 1894, SLUB Dresden
  4. ↑ After returning from Zurich , previously residing in Dresden , mother Marie lived as Privata and son “Wachter, Ernst, Hofopernsänger a. D. “together in Leipzig in their own house, Löhrstrasse 33; Address book Leipzig 1912, Part I p. 934, column 4
  5. ↑ Ernst Wachter . In: Ernst Roeder : The Dresden Court Theater of the Present. Biographical-critical sketches of the members . E. Person's Verlag, Dresden / Leipzig, 1896, pp. 97-100, here p. 98
  6. ↑ Wachter, Ernst . In: Ernst Roeder: The Dresden Court Theater of the Present. Biographical-critical sketches of the members. E. Person's Verlag, Dresden / Leipzig, 1896, pp. (97-100) 99; Reprint 2010: ISBN 978-1-160-35945-0
  7. ↑ Ernst Wachter . In: Ernst Roeder: The Dresden Court Theater of the Present. Biographical-critical sketches of the members . E. Person's Verlag, Dresden / Leipzig, 1896, pp. (97-100) 100
  8. ↑ year of the association “end of May 1897 to end of May 1898”; Report on the Tonkünstler-Verein zu Dresden , volume [44], 1897/98, p. 16
  9. ↑ Program of the ninth exercise evening in 1898 in the report, p. 23; Digitized SLUB Dresden
  10. ^ Edgar Pierson: Dresden Theater Letter . In: Humorist , publisher Vienna, XX. Vintage; No. 18 of June 20, 1900, p. 3.
  11. ↑ Schedule of the Dresden theaters . In: "Dresdner Latest News", May 1, 1903, p. 2; Digitized SLUB Dresden, work view, page 2
  12. ^ Strauss' Salome in Dresden , discussed by music critic Ludwig Hartmann in "Dresdner Latest News", December 12, 1905, p. 1
  13. ^ New Theater-Almanach , 13th year, edited by Genossenschaft Deutscher Bühnen-Anerbeiger , Berlin 1902, p. 459 under "Guests" a. a. "Ernst Wachter"
  14. ^ New Theater-Almanach , 14th year, published by the Cooperative of German Stage Members , Berlin 1903, p. 459
  15. ^ Ludwig Eisenberg : Wachter, Ernst . In: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century. Paul List, Leipzig 1903, p. 1078 ( daten.digitale-sammlungen.de ).
  16. ↑ 100 years of Bayreuth on record . [The early festival singers 1876–1906]; DNB 1002138418
  17. ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Großes Sängerlexikon , Volume 4, keyword: Nausikaa von August Bungert, p. 5282; limited preview in Google Book search
  18. ^ Karl Josef , Leo Riemens : Großes Sängerlexikon , Volume 4, pp. 5282 and 5286; ISBN 978-3-598-44088-5
  19. ↑ Obsolete landscape for host according to Duden. The German spelling of the German language , p. 455 column 1, keywords “Leigeb u. Leitgeber " ISBN 978-3-411-04011-7
  20. ↑ Wachter, Ernst . In: Herrmann AL Degner (Ed.): Who is it? III. Edition, Leipzig 1909, p. 1444, column 1
  21. ^ DeutschesTheater-Lexikon . Fifth volume. Zurich / Munich 2004; P. 2846, keyword Wachter ; ISBN 3-907820-40-1
  22. ↑ Wachter lived in Zurich, Höschgasse 64, according to the Neuer Theater-Almanach. Theater history year and address book . Publisher: “Cooperative of German Stage Members”. 22nd year, Berlin 1911, p. 728
  23. ^ New theater almanac. Theater history year and address book . Publisher: “Cooperative of German Stage Members”. 23rd year, Berlin 1912, p. 704: "Abggangs", u. a. Ernst Wachter.
  24. ^ German stage yearbook . 27th year, 1916, p. 474, “Oper Herren” and others. Ernst Wachter, Löhrstrasse 33
  25. ↑ Wachter, Ernst . In: Horst Seeger : Opern-Lexikon [Collaboration for the areas of opera figures a. -quotes: Eberhard Schmidt]. 3rd, expanded edition; extended new edition 1987, ISBN 3-7959-0271-1
  26. ^ Möckernsche Straße 24, according to Leipzig address book, Volume 112 (1933), Part I, p. 1147, column 1; Digitized SLUB Dresden
  27. ^ Address book, Leipzig Volume 113 (1934), Part I, p. 1077, column 1
  28. ↑ Leipzig Address Book 1932, Part II, p. 274, column 3
  29. ↑ membership no. 10213 according to the Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch (previously Neuer-Theater-Almanach), 26th year, Berlin 1915, p. 781
personal data
SURNAME Watcher, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ernst Julius Wächter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Mulhouse (Alsace)
DATE OF DEATH August 1931
Place of death Leipzig