Franz Fehringer (singer)

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Franz Fehringer (born September 7, 1910 in Nussloch ; † May 15, 1988 ibid) was a German opera , operetta , concert and radio singer ( lyric tenor ).

Life

Origin and education

Franz Fehringer grew up as the youngest of five children of the savings banks - internal auditor Franz Fehringer senior in Nußloch near Heidelberg on. After elementary school he attended a commercial college and then completed a three-year commercial apprenticeship .

During his apprenticeship he sang in the male choir of his hometown and in its "elite quartet". The conductor of the choir recognized Fehringer's singing talent and helped him audition with Zimmermann at the Badische Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe . Zimmermann was impressed by Fehringer's “lyrical elegance” and his “melancholy timbre”. Fehringer studied singing in Karlsruhe for two years . One of his teachers was the baritone Jan van Gorkom (1862–1941).

career

Fehringer debuted in 1934 in Karlsruhe as a concert singer with the tenor part in the 9th Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven . From 1935 to 1938 Fehringer was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe . His first major role was the title role in Georg Friedrich Handel's opera Xerxes under the direction of Joseph Keilberth , who also engaged him to perform on radio concerts. From 1938 to 1944 he was permanently engaged as first lyrical tenor at the Nassauisches Landestheater , today's Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden , where he was particularly used in operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Albert Lortzing . He sang Ferrando in Così fan tutte for two seasons . There he took part in the world premiere of the comic opera Dorfmusik by Fried Walter in 1943 . After the Second World War , he had a guest contract at the Nationaltheater Mannheim from 1946 to 1948 . During this time he also appeared in concerts, for example at oratorios and as a lieder singer. From 1948 Fehringer worked as a freelance opera and concert singer. In the following years, however, he became known mainly as a radio singer. From 1948 he worked for the Northwest German Radio in Hamburg , the Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt am Main , the Süddeutscher Rundfunk in Stuttgart and the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne in numerous complete recordings of operas and operettas and thus became the West German counterpart to the GDR until 1960 acting, equally versatile Gert Lutze , who called himself Charles Geerd as an operetta tenor .

Fehringer became known in particular through numerous operetta recordings that were made in the 1950s and 1960s under the musical direction of Franz Marszalek and released on records exclusively by Polydor . Fehringer recorded large parts of the operetta repertoire , mostly with Herta Talmar as a partner, including The Bird Trader , The Merry Widow , The Cousin from Dingsda , In the White Horse , Wedding Night in Paradise by Friedrich Schröder , Season in Salzburg and The Flower of Hawaii .

He also appeared regularly as a concert singer and song interpreter , including in Johann Sebastian Bach's Passions and in oratorios by Georg Friedrich Handel and in Franz Schubert's song cycles. He often took part in concerts by amateur choirs as a soloist, where he was able to bring his multifaceted spectrum of genres to effect. Today Fehringer is largely remembered as an operetta singer, but at the beginning of his career he also sang numerous operatic roles, including Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni , Count Almaviva in Der Barbier von Sevilla , Walther von der Vogelweide in Tannhäuser , the title role in Hoffmann's stories , Hans in The Bartered Bride and Narraboth in Salome .

In 1968 Fehringer's singing career came to an end. From then on he devoted himself increasingly to his work as a singing teacher. In the same year his wife Ilse, whom he married in 1946, died.

Teaching

His own singing experiences made Franz Fehringer a successful singing teacher . From 1960 taught at the Mainz University of Music and at the same time at the University of Music and Theater in Heidelberg, which was later integrated into the University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim , as well as privately. In addition to well-known singers and singing teachers such as Reinhard Leisenheimer , Ingeborg Most , Peter Parsch and Harald Stamm , he was able to pave the way for many school music teachers to natural, artistically responsible singing. Song accompanists, instrumentalists and conductors such as Jürgen Glauß , Uwe-Martin Haiberg and Wolfgang Balzer were also his students. Fehringer refused the professor title offered to him in Mainz in 1970 on the grounds that he was and will remain a "singer with body and soul" and is not a professor. Fehringer was known for his social commitment; he often gave free singing lessons to singing students from low-income families.

Fehringer's singing and teaching methods, in which the low larynx position, breathing support and vowel compensation played an important role, formed the basis for Harald Stamm's extensive teaching activities and his instruction in singing technique with the title powerfully relaxed singing .

meaning

As an unusually versatile lyric tenor, Franz Fehringer was an outstanding and busy radio singer as early as 1940, and especially after the end of his stage career in 1948. Many recordings from the areas of song, oratorio, operetta and opera on almost all German and some foreign broadcasters are evidence of this. After the Second World War , there was a particularly high demand for this, as the sound archives of the German broadcasters were largely destroyed by the effects of the war and looting. In addition, it was now possible to record the works of composers ostracized in the Third Reich such as Paul Abraham , Ralph Benatzky , Walter Braunfels , Léon Jessel , Emmerich Kálmán , Jacques Offenbach , Arnold Schönberg and Robert Stolz with Fehringer as a contributor. With him, many complete recordings of operettas and operas were made under well-known conductors such as Hans Müller-Kray , Wolfgang Sawallisch , Kurt Schröder , Werner Schmidt-Boelcke and Winfried Zillig, and in particular Franz Marszalek . Recordings of individual, popular opera and especially operetta melodies cemented Fehringer's popularity with radio listeners, especially in the 1950s.

Fehringer was also happy to campaign for the art song on the radio, sometimes with orchestrated versions, but also, as in the songs of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn, in anticipation of the then largely unusual historical performance practice with accompaniment of the fortepiano . His song repertoire included art songs by all well-known composers from the classic songs of the 18th and 19th centuries to the early Arnold Schönberg . He was particularly committed to songs by Richard Trunk and also devoted himself to lesser-known composers such as Robert Franz , Joseph Haas and Othmar Schoeck .

Fehringer was one of the first singers to double the vocal part of the actors in television productions of operettas, including a film adaptation of the operetta Die Fledermaus from 1959, in which he lent his voice to the actor Fred Kraus .

Audio documents

There are numerous recordings and audio documents by Fehringer. Mainly radio recordings are involved. A total of 97 complete recordings of operas and operettas have been recorded, 53 of them on the Hessischer Rundfunk alone.

Among other things, complete recordings of the operas The Barber of Seville (1948, as Almaviva with Sári Barabás ), The merry women of Windsor (1949, as Fenton), Così fan tutte (1951, as Ferrando), The Jewess (1951, as Léopold) have been preserved with Erna Schlüter ), Die toten Augen (1951, as Hirt), Genoveva (1951, as Golo), Pelleas and Melisande (1952, as Pelleas), Salome (1952, as Narraboth), The First People (1952, as Chabel) ' If I were King' (1953, as Zephoris), Oberon (1953, title role), Jenufa (1953, as Laca), Der Corregidor (1953, title role), Tiefland (1953, as Nando), Idomeneo (1954, as Arbaces ) and Rodelinda (1954, as Grimoaldo).

At Westdeutscher Rundfunk in the 1950s, Fehringer also made numerous complete recordings of operettas under the musical direction of the operetta conductor Franz Marszalek, often of lesser known or almost forgotten works: Der liebe Augustin (1950), Die Kaiserin von Leo Fall (1953, with Anny Schlemm ) , Lady Hamilton (1953, with Anny Schlemm), The Circus Princess (1955, with Sári Barabás), The Hungarian Wedding (1955, with Anny Schlemm) and Adrienne (1956, with Herta Talmar). The reception of Adrienne was particularly important to Fehringer. Shortly before his death, he wished to hear again the duet he and Herta Talmar sang Es der Nachtwind whispers .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Joachim Vierrath: Franz Fehringer - the lyrical tenor . In Günter Walter (ed.): Franz Fehringer , 25th year, issue No. 81 of the series Voices that went around the world . Münster 2009, p. 7ff
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Ulrich Mittelstaedt: Biographical data on the vita of Franz Fehringer . In Günter Walter (ed.): Franz Fehringer , 25th year, issue No. 81 of the series Voices that went around the world . Münster 2009, p. 11f
  3. ^ Franz Fehringer at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon
  4. ↑ Joachim Rath Four: Franz Fehringer - the lyric tenor . In Günter Walter (ed.): Franz Fehringer , 25th year, issue No. 81 of the series Voices that went around the world . Münster 2009, p. 2
  5. ↑ Joachim Four Rath and Ulrich Mittelstedt: Franz Fehringer - list of sound files . In Günter Walter (ed.): Franz Fehringer , 25th year, issue No. 81 of the series Voices that went around the world . Münster 2009, pp. 47–53
  6. ↑ Harald Stamm: Powerful, relaxed singing: Instructions for the technique plus some advice for young opera and concert singers . Darmstadt 2002
  7. ↑ a b Joachim Vierrath: Franz Fehringer - the lyrical tenor . In Günter Walter (ed.): Franz Fehringer , 25th year, issue No. 81 of the series Voices that went around the world . Münster 2009, p. 1
  8. ↑ Joachim Four Rath and Ulrich Mittelstedt: Franz Fehringer - list of sound files . In Günter Walter (ed.): Franz Fehringer , 25th year, issue No. 81 of the series Voices that went around the world . Münster 2009, pp. 100-102, p. 112
  9. ↑ Joachim Four Rath and Ulrich Mittelstedt: Franz Fehringer - list of sound files . In Günter Walter (ed.): Franz Fehringer , 25th year, issue No. 81 of the series Voices that went around the world . Münster 2009, pp. 122–125
  10. ↑ Joachim Four Rath and Ulrich Mittelstedt: Franz Fehringer - list of sound files . In Günter Walter (ed.): Franz Fehringer , 25th year, issue No. 81 of the series Voices that went around the world . Münster 2009, pp. 54-137
personal data
SURNAME Fehringer, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera, operetta, concert and radio singer (lyric tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Nut hole
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1988
Place of death Nut hole