Frida Unfortunately

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memorial plaque for Frida Leider in Bayreuth
Memorial plaque on Granseer Strasse 9 in Berlin-Mitte
Memorial plaque on the building at Ziegelstrasse 12 in Berlin-Mitte
Concert poster from 1941

Frida Leider (born April 18, 1888 in Berlin ; † June 4, 1975 there ) was a highly dramatic soprano and one of the most important opera singers of the 1920s and 1930s.

Life

Unfortunately, Frida came from a humble background, her father was a carpenter. Nevertheless, she initially received a good education at a commercial school . Further training failed due to the early death of her father, which is why she initially worked as a bank clerk and was only able to take singing lessons from various teachers in her spare time and sang in the choir.

She received her first engagement in 1915 at the Stadttheater von Halle , where she made her debut as Venus in Tannhäuser . In the following years she made her way via Rostock and Königsberg to the Hamburg State Opera , where she was permanently engaged from 1919 to 1923. During this time she became known, made her first recordings and developed a broad repertoire (including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni , Leonore in Fidelio , Norma , Aida , but above all the great Wagner roles such as Isolde and the Brünnhilde ).

In 1921 she made her first guest appearance as Isolde at the State Opera in her hometown Berlin, which became her parent company from 1923 and with which she remained closely connected throughout her career. From Berlin, they have now made regular guest appearances at the world's major opera houses. a. the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London (1924-1938 every year), the Vienna State Opera (1924), the La Scala (1927), the National Theater in Munich , the Paris Opera , the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires , after Chicago, Zurich, Stockholm etc. Also at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (inaugural role: Isolde ) she appeared in 20 performances of five Wagner roles in the 1933/34 season. She also sang at the Wagner Festival in the Sopot Forest Opera (1924, 1925, 1927) and the Bayreuth Festival (1928 to 1938). During this time she was considered the most sought-after Wagner singer in the world.

In Germany, however, her situation became more and more difficult in the course of the 1930s, because her husband, the concertmaster of the Berlin State Opera, Professor Rudolf Deman (1880–1960), was Jewish, and she refused a divorce called for in Nazi Germany. She was heavily criticized abroad for her other glamorous appearances in Adolf Hitler's Bayreuth. After the Reichspogromnacht in 1938, Deman, who had to give up his career in Germany, was able to flee to Switzerland. Unfortunately, she stayed with her mother in Germany, she got a divorce under the pressure of the racial laws . She was on the opera stage for the last time in 1942. After that she only gave recitals.

After the end of the war, the singer would have had the opportunity to sing on stage again, but decided against it and instead took over the management of the State Opera singing studio from 1945 to 1952. In addition, she began to direct a. a. as early as 1945 with Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel and in 1947 in a production of Tristan and Isolde directed by Wilhelm Furtwängler . From 1948 to 1958 she also held a professorship at the Berlin Conservatory. She was publicly reviled by the denazified opportunist Heinz Tietjen for adapting to the Nazi era .

On January 16, 1946, Leider performed for the last time in the Berlin Admiralspalast together with the contralto Margarete Klose .

In 1959 the singer published her memoir under the title: That was my part - memories of an opera singer . After that, she largely withdrew from the public eye. On October 23, 1968, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class.

Honorary grave of Frida Deman-Leider on the cemetery Heerstrasse in Berlin-Westend

Frida Deman-Leider died in Berlin in 1975 at the age of 87. She was buried next to her husband, who died in 1960, in the Heerstraße cemetery in the Charlottenburg district in what is now Berlin-Westend . By resolution of the Berlin Senate , the last resting place of Frida Deman-Leider (grave location: field 19-N-26/27) has been dedicated as an honorary grave of the State of Berlin since 1978 . The dedication was extended in 1999 by the usual period of twenty years.

Today the Frida-Leider-Gesellschaft, based in Berlin, takes care of the artist's estate.

meaning

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Frida Leider is still considered one of the most important highly dramatic sopranos of all time. Special features of her representations are their special tension and expressiveness, and the soft, lively sound of her voice with its fast, light vibrato.

Unfortunately, herself repeatedly emphasized that she actually didn't have a typical Wagner voice, but an Italian vocal technique. As a result, she was not only able to sing Wagner, but also a very large and varied repertoire, which can be checked on the basis of her numerous recordings, on which she also sings Mozart, Beethoven or Verdi with style and convincing.

Fonts

  • That was my part - memories of an opera singer. Berlin: Herbig 1959. (autobiography)
  • Playing my part. London, Calder and Boyars 1966. (English translation of the autobiography, discography)
  • That was my part. Berlin (GDR), Henschel 1981. (Slightly abbreviated edition with an additional text from Leider's estate from 1973, discography)

literature

Web links

Commons : Frida Leider  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marianne Zelger-Vogt: Wagner as determination and fate . In: NZZ , October 8, 2016, p. 22; review
  2. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 . P. 485.
  3. ↑ Honorary graves of the State of Berlin (as of November 2018) . (PDF, 413 kB) Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection, p. 15; accessed on November 8, 2019. Submission - for information - about the recognition and further preservation of graves of well-known and deserving personalities as honorary graves in Berlin . (PDF) Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 13/4050 of 23 August 1999, p. 2; accessed on November 8, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Unfortunately, Frida
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 4th June 1975
Place of death Berlin