Friedrich Sommer (conductor)

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Memorial stone for Friedrich Sommer

Friedrich Sommer ( January 19, 1875 in Kanitz - December 18, 1943 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovakian conductor , theater director and impresario .

Life

Sommer came from Moravia . Born near Brno , he worked in the 1899/00 season initially as second conductor at the Olomouc City Theater, and then as first conductor for the opera there in the 1900/01 season. To season beginning 1905/06 he came in October 1905 as Kapellmeister to the Municipal Theater Liberec . He worked there until 1922. From 1906 he took over the post of theater director at the Stadttheater Reichenberg together with Karl Krug. Sommer succeeded in setting up a demanding opera and drama schedule, which he financed in particular through the operetta performances popular with the public . Under his directorship were u. a. Richard Wagner's complete Ring des Nibelungen and Tristan and Isolde were already performed before the First World War . As a conductor he was also responsible for productions of Rienzi and Karl Goldmark's opera Götz von Berlichingen .

After Krug's death in 1919, Sommer ran the Reichenberg City Theater together with his widow Karoline Krug until 1922. In November 1920 he founded his own music and theater agency, through which he arranged concerts, guest performances and lectures. From 1923 to 1925, and later again from 1929 to 1934, he was again artistic director and theater director in Reichenberg. During the 1930/31 season, the Japanese soprano Hatsue Yuasa performed as Madame Butterfly under his directorship .

After the Munich Agreement , he left Reichenberg in December 1938 and fled to Brno. In December 1941 he was deported from there to the Theresienstadt concentration camp . In December 1943 he was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp , where he was murdered, probably immediately after his arrival.

In August 2016, a memorial stone was laid in front of the Reichenberg City Theater for summer .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Isa Engelmann: Reichenberg and its Jewish citizens: On the history of a once German city in Bohemia . LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf. Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-643-11737-3 .
  2. ↑ Provincial Theater and Its Opera German Opera Scene in Olomouc, 1770–1920 ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Theater staff at the Olomouc City Theater. Retrieved January 14, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / vffup.upol.cz
  3. ^ Reichenberg . In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Retrieved January 14, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Stanislav Beran: 19 stumbling blocks for the victims of National Socialism in Liberec . www.tschechien-online.org from August 19, 2016. Retrieved January 14, 2017
  5. ^ Reichenberg - the city with a diverse culture . www.reichenberg.de of May 29, 2012. Retrieved on January 14, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Summer, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-Hungarian conductor, theater director and impresario
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Kanitz
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 1943
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp