Gertrud Burgsthaler-Schuster

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Gertrud Burgsthaler-Schuster born. Schuster ( February 22, 1916 in Vienna - October 28, 2004 there ) was an Austrian opera singer specializing in mezzo-soprano and alto as well as a singing teacher . She was engaged at the Vienna State Opera for five years and at the Linz State Theater for fifteen years .

life and work

Gertrud Schuster studied singing from 1935 to 1938 at the State Academy for Music and Performing Arts , today's University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 1938 she married Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Burgsthaler. The couple had two sons, Peter and Heinz. Due to the annexation of Austria by Hitler's Germany, the Second World War and the associated restrictions on the theater business and her small children, the singer did not find or seek employment at first. In 1944 her husband died in Normandy.

Vienna State Opera

The Vienna State Opera , the Haus am Ring, was destroyed by a bomb on March 12, 1945. The zero hour of the State Opera began in May 1945 in the alternative quarters of the Volksoper building and Theater an der Wien . Gertrud Burgsthaler-Schuster's debut took place on July 29, 1945 as part of the Matinée Popular Opernfiguren , in which she gave Carmen's card aria and habanera , arias of a role that she never sang on stage. Two days later she took on the young shepherd in Puccini's Tosca , a role that is sung backstage. Her actual debut in costume and mask only took place in September 1945 as Aibler's wife in Der Evangelimann , alongside famous colleagues such as Rosette Anday , Alfred Jerger , Sena Jurinac and Alois Pernerstorfer . Already in December 1945 was followed by her debut as Prince Orlofsky in the bat of Johann Strauss . The trouser role of the heavy duty officer should become her star role at the State Opera, according to Bach Cantatas she sang this role at this house 60 times.

Burgsthaler-Schuster took on a total of 28 roles at the State Opera, mostly small and medium-sized, and, according to Bach Cantatas, had a total of 328 performances. There she also sang central roles like the old Buryja (in Janáček's Jenůfa ), the Ulrica (in Verdi's Masked Ball ) and the Kundry ( Wagner's Parsifal ). In 1950 she went to Linz, but in 1955 she appeared again at the State Opera, as Amneris and First Maid, both at the Theater an der Wien. She never performed in the house on the Ring, which was reopened in November 1955 after being rebuilt.

In Vienna she sang under the musical direction of Otto Ackermann , János Ferencsik , Herbert von Karajan , Josef Krips , Wilhelm Loibner , Rudolf Moralt , Felix Prohaska and Franz Salmhofer and Kurt Tenner .

Linz State Theater

In 1950 the singer married Horst Granzner, a doctor from Linz, and then accepted an engagement at the Landestheater Linz . She sang over sixty roles there and stayed with the company for 14 seasons, under the seven directorships of Brantner , Walleck , Fischer-Colbrie , Schroer , Krahl and Wöss / Stögmüller / Holschan . In Linz she showed her enormously broad spectrum of singing skills as well as dramatic art, sang both the tragic sexton in Janáček's Jenůfa and the humorous countess in Lortzings Wildschütz or as a half-world lady Metella in the Offenbach operetta Pariser Leben . She sang a total of sixty roles at the Landestheater Linz, the vocals also varied extremely, from the deep Erda in the Ring of the Nibelung to the significantly higher and lighter Lady Macbeth.

"Actually, I sang all the beautiful parts right down to the highly dramatic subject, especially all Verdi parts."

When asked what she had not sung, she answered with a role: “The Carmen !” In particular, her Verdi and Wagner performances evoked jubilation and enthusiastic reviews. Ortrud had the critic write: "This is not the first time we have established that this artist belongs to Bayreuth." The Azucena was commented as follows: "Her demonic, tragic drawing of this female figure is reminiscent of Elisabeth Höngen's heyday ."

The singer was also represented in two world premieres. In 1960 she sang the Jokaste in Helmut Eder's Oedipus , and in 1964 she created the monodrama Regen am Sonntag by Bert Rudolf . Again enthusiastic reviews: "Your voice mastered the major technical requirements with ease." Burgsthaler-Schuster was also involved in numerous Austrian premieres - including Bizet's Ivan IV , Martinů's Greek Passion , Hindemith's Mathis the painter , Krenek's Pallas Athene weeping , Egk's magic violin and Liebermann's Leonore 40/45 .

A hip problem made her performances difficult, whereupon she decided to retire from the stage in 1965. She said goodbye to a brilliant Princess Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos , but returned to the Landestheater's stages in 1967 as Waltraute in Wagner's Götterdämmerung .

In Linz she sang under the musical direction of Giuseppe Patanè and Kurt Wöss .

Guest performances

Although the singer was a loyal member of the ensemble in Vienna and Linz, she occasionally made guest appearances on other stages at home and abroad. In 1949 she took over the Mary in the Flying Dutchman at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples , in 1950 she sang at the Perugia Music Festival , and in 1951 she appeared again in Naples. 1957 Castle Thaler Cobbler by was Mörbisch Lake Festival invited alongside Helge Rosvaenge , the role of Czipra in Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss to take over. She sang the same role there in 1966. The audience and the press were full of praise: "Excellent Gertrud Burgsthaler's Czipra, who not only sings splendidly, but also demonstrated how to master the prose convincingly on an open-air stage".

In the concert hall

Little is known about her concert activities. Kutsch / Riemens write in Volume 4 of their Great Singer Lexicon : “In addition to her work on the opera stage, she had a second successful career as a concert and oratorio altist. As such she appeared u. a. 1949 at the Vienna Bruckner Festival. ”Kutsch / Riemens also mention appearances at the Salzburg Festival in 1956, 1964 and 1965. In Salzburg she made her debut in 1956 in two concerts of sacred music with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra in the Aula academica , directed by Joseph Messner . Works by Mozart and Bruckner were performed . Of course, Kaut / Jaklitsch lead the artist there as Gertrude Burgstaller . In the 1960s she sang the alto solo in Mozart's Requiem twice in Salzburg , again with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra under Joseph Messner.

There are recordings of Bach's B minor Mass (with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hermann Scherchen in 1950), Mozart's Coronation Mass , KV 317, and the Heinrich Schütz Oratorio La résurrection .

As a singing teacher

From 1963 to 1980 Gertrud Burgsthaler-Schuster worked as a singing teacher at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz : “In teaching, I see the continuation of the stage profession.” She became a highly valued singing teacher. Alois Aichhorn and Manfred Pilsz were among her students . In 1976 the Federal President of the Republic of Austria awarded her the professional title of Professor .

Her husband died in 1998, after which she returned to her hometown Vienna. There she died in 2004 at the age of 88.

Roles (selection)

Bizet :

Luck :

Gounod :

Engelbert Humperdinck :

Janáček :

  • The old Buryja and sexton in Jenůfa

Lortzing :

Mozart :

Offenbach :

Puccini :

Smetana :

  • Ludmila and Háta in The Bartered Bride

Johann Strauss :

 

Richard Strauss :

Tchaikovsky :

Verdi :

Wagner :

Weber :

Weinberger :

Audio documents

Operas and operettas

Oratorios and masses

Image documents

The website musiktheater.at shows the cast from the masked ball in 1947 at the Vienna State Opera, four scenes of the singer from the Landestheater Linz: alone as Gluck's Orpheus (1955) and with partners Pavel Mirov (in the Troubadour , 1953), Otto Lagler (in Euryanthe , 1956) and Hans Lättgen (in Hansel and Gretel , 1964).

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References and comments

  1. ↑ The archive of the Vienna State Opera lists the singer as Gertrude Schuster-Burgstaller , but there is also an evening poster for the masked ball from 1947 in which she was announced as Gertrude Schuster .
  2. ↑ The online archive of the Vienna State Opera lists only 33 performances up to October 21, 2016, but the database of all opera performances since the reopening of the house in 1955 up to the present was processed there, as well as some of the historical performances since 1869 The dates of the historical performances are continuously updated.
  3. ↑ Interview with the singer in the Linzer Theater Zeitung, September 1965
  4. ↑ Numerous editions of her sound recordings can be found on WorldCat , keyword: au: Burgsthaler-Schuster, Gertrud., Accessed on October 22, 2016.
  5. ↑ Further audio documents in smaller roles exist from Vienna ( Salome , Der fiegen Holländer and Die Walküre ), all 1948.
personal data
SURNAME Burgsthaler-Schuster, Gertrud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schuster, Gertrud (maiden name); Burgstaller-Schuster, Gertrude (frequent misspellings); Granzner, Gertrud
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer with a mezzo-soprano and alto voice
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 2004
Place of death Vienna