Gerhard Lenssen

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Gerhard Lenssen, 1951
(Photo: Hildegard Jäckel )

Gerhard Lenssen (born February 20, 1912 in Zeitz ; † January 20, 1992 in Munich ) was a German conductor and opera director .

Live and act

Gerhard Lenssen turned to music after studying chemistry at the Technical University of Dresden , which he had completed at the request of his father. He was particularly interested in the works of Carl Orff , with whom he studied from 1937 to 1939. From 1939 to 1940 he worked as Kapellmeister at the Karlsruhe State Opera , later in the same position at the Dresden State Theater , which was then housed in the Great House of the State Theater . “ Joseph Keilberth appointed Lenssen to the Dresden State Opera. As head of the rehearsal, he played a major role in the preparation for the German premiere of Orff's Antigonae , which [...] achieved a sensational success in January 1950. "However, after a guest performance in Berlin, on the instructions of the SED Politburo, this Dresden production had to be" formalistic “work can be removed from the program immediately.

Then Lenssen created the “one-man theater” in Dresden, with which he performed pieces by Orff and Brecht (in the Parkhotel auf dem Weißen Hirsch in Dresden, in the Oberschule-Ost in Dresden-Blasewitz, in the community hall in Dresden-Strehlen as well in the large and small house of the Dresden State Theater). The Dresden musicologist Hans Böhm characterizes these performances with the following words: “There was a grand piano in the room, in front of it a chair that was only used occasionally and - a bald man. He played passages on his instrument, banging the keys and the wood, sang, spoke, and made scenic objections, gesturing fascinated. "Lenssen saw his one-man theater as a means of prohibitions, as an ensemble rather stage ban would receive as a solo artist. Lenssen was subsequently banned from performing in numerous cities in the GDR. In 1955 he was dismissed from the Dresden State Theater, but performed there irregularly until 1962. He then fled to West Germany, in 1964 he worked in Hamburg.

In the 1960s Lenssen worked as a freelance conductor and made guest appearances with his one-man theater in Goethe Institutes worldwide. In 1973 he musically prepared the world premiere of Orff's last work De temporum fine comoedia with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Herbert von Karajan . From 1977 Lenssen taught at the University of Music in Würzburg , where he received the title of professor in 1980.

In 1991 he returned once more to Dresden with Brechts / Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and Orff's Der Mond . Lenssen lived in Munich from 1974, where he also died. The funeral service took place in Munich's Ostfriedhof .

Conductors (selection)

Discography

  • Carl Orff: Die Kluge , sung, spoken, played by Gerhard Lenssen. Claves LP D 506 [1976] ( DNB 353218758 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kürschner's German musician's calendar. Berlin 1954. Quoted from: Gerhard Lenssen in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
  2. ^ New magazine for music. Schott, Mainz 1981, p. 173 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  3. ↑ The quotation says State Opera , it reads correctly State Theater - Opera division .
  4. ↑ a b c d Hans Böhm: A great memory / To the death of Gerhard Lenssen . In: Dresdner Latest News . Dresden January 26, 1992, p. 15 .
  5. ^ Herbert Ihering : role theater and real time piece. Gerhard Lenssen speaks Brecht. In: The other newspaper. Hamburg, May 1961. Printed in: ders .: Collected reviews of the Brechts Theater. Kindler, 1980, ISBN 3-463-00787-8 , pp. 244-246. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ a b Konrad Hirsch: Lenssen's one-man theater . In: Die Union , No. 126, June 3, 1991.
  7. ↑ Goethe. New series of the yearbook of the Goethe Society. Volumes 26-27. H. Böhlaus Nachf., Weimar 1964, ISSN  0072-484X , p. 355 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  8. ↑ De temporum fine comoedia at orff.de
  9. ↑ Andres Müry (Ed.): Little Salzburg Festival History. Anton Pustet, Salzburg 2002, ISBN 3-7025-0447-8 , p. 91 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  10. ↑ Melos: Zeitschrift für neue Musik , Volume 41. Schott, Mainz 1974, p. 55 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  11. ↑ a b c d e Michael Heinemann: The Dresden Opera 1945-1955 . In: Michael Heinemann, Hans John (ed.): The Dresden Opera in the 20th Century . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2005, ISBN 3-89007-651-3 , p. 143 .
  12. ↑ a b Carl Orff: Die Kluge . In: Blätter der Staatsoper Dresden, season 1960/1961, issue series A, No. 2, 6th edition .
personal data
SURNAME Lenssen, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor and opera director
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Time
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1992
Place of death Munich