George London
George London (born May 30, 1920 (other source: 1919) in Montréal , † March 24, 1985 in Armonk , New York ; actually George Burnstein ) was an American opera singer with a bass-baritone voice .
Life
London grew up in Los Angeles as the son of a Jewish family of Russian descent. He made his Hollywood debut in 1942 as Dottore Grenvil in La traviata , then continued his vocal studies in New York and was initially successful in the entertainment sector (with Mario Lanza, among others ).
In 1949 he was discovered by Karl Böhm and brought to the Vienna State Opera . His first role there was Amonasro in Aida and subsequently he worked on the great roles of the dramatic ( bass ) baritone subject. In 1951 he sang for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Another important stage in his career was the Glyndebourne Festival . He had his greatest successes between 1951 and 1964 in Bayreuth , where he played the Dutchman and Amfortas . Other brilliant roles were Boris Godunow , Don Giovanni and Scarpia ( Tosca ).
His worldwide fame took him to all the major opera houses in Europe and the USA until he retired in the 1960s due to vocal cord paralysis. From 1968 to 1971 he was director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC , from 1971 to 1976 director of the National Opera Institute and the Washington, DC Opera (1975–1979).
George London was also a sought-after voice trainer. In 1977 he suffered a heart attack during this activity with subsequent brain involvement, as a result of which he suffered lifelong, one-sided paralysis. After this first heart attack, his health deteriorated considerably. A few years later, London survived a second, but died on March 24, 1985 in Armonk , New York, from the consequences of a third heart attack.
George London was a rather static performer, but his charisma grabbed his charisma with economical gestures. He had an extraordinary, not only beautiful, but above all unmistakably personal voice with great intelligibility. His phenomenal stage presence endowed his characters with charisma , demonia and suggestive power. Logically, he had his greatest successes in cryptic characters. So his Don Giovanni was not a decadent bon vivant, but a seductive demon , and his Boris Godunov was not a power-obsessed usurper , but a deeply lonely person threatened by the abyss of madness in his existence . Of course, this applies even more to his Dutchman and his Amfortas ( Parsifal ), who are among his most important roles.
literature
The book Von Göttern und Demonen by Nora London, the singer's widow, was published by Löcker Wien in October 2009 , supplemented by numerous documents and pictures, the singer's texts, his performances and an extensive discography. The volume also contains a CD with partly unpublished recordings.
Honors
- 1970: Mozart Medal from the Mozart Community in Vienna
Web links
- Sound carrier by George London in the catalog of the German National Library
- George London (engl.)
- cantabile subito
- George London in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library
Individual evidence
- ^ Inscription Deutschordenshof, Singerstraße: George London 1970 (accessed June 7, 2014)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | London, George |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Burnstein, George (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American opera singer with a bass-baritone voice |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 30, 1919 or May 30, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Montréal |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 24, 1985 |
| Place of death | Armonk , New York |