Harriet Behnne

Harriet Behnne

Harriet Behnne , also Harriet Behnee , married Harriet Krafft-Spikermann (born January 30, 1874 in New York ; † October 4, 1963 ibid) was an American opera singer with an alto voice (later soprano ).

Life

Behnne was first trained by Mrs. Asch in New York. Then she went to Berlin and became a student of August Bungert , Luise Ress and Lilli Lehmann . In 1895 she began her career in Königsberg , where she worked for a year until she was offered a position in Breslau . There she worked as an artist for five years and said goodbye on May 15, 1901 in Gluck's opera Orpheus and Eurydice . At the time, a critic commented on the artist's achievements:

“In Fräulein Behnne we had until now an artist who is a thoroughly worthy and noble representative of“ Orpheus ”in appearance, conception, play and expression of the song. With a somewhat restless voice at first, later steadfast, she sang the lamentations of the unhappy husband really beautiful and moving. If we had lost through her going away, we really came to consciousness again: a singer and actress equipped with rich artistic means, who was equally at home in the serious as well as in the cheerful field, who always offered us interesting performances, and who now comes from here leaves because she has not been given enough space to fully develop her skills. In the five years of her activity here she has grown significantly in every respect and in the end she was one of the best performers in our opera, the number of which is not very large. Many of their designs will live on as exemplary in the memories of our opera goers. "

She was then from 1901 to 1902 at the Stadttheater von Halle / Saale , then again from 1902 to 1905 in Breslau and from 1905 to 1906 at the Komische Oper in Berlin .

In 1906 she left Germany to return to her homeland, the USA. She was won by Henry Wilson Savage for his Savage Opera Company , which went on a major tour of North America. With this ensemble she sang Suzuki in the American premiere of Puccini's Madama Butterfly at the Columbia Theater in Washington, DC in 1906. In 1909 , Behnne participated in a recording of scenes from Madama Butterfly in English on 12-inch records for Columbia Records .

Then she went back to Europe, where she was engaged at the Municipal Theater of Mulhouse (Alsace) from 1909-10 . During this time she switched to the dramatic soprano subject and from then on sang z. B. Leonore in Fidelio and the female title role in Tristan and Isolde . After that she performed at various theaters in Germany for a few years. After getting married, she also called herself Harriet Krafft-Spikermann.

Her further life is unknown.

literature

• KJ Kutsch, Leo Riemens (Hrsg.): Großes Sängerlexikon. Volume 1. 4th edition, KG Saur, Munich 2003, p. 319, entry Behnne, Harriet .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harriet Behnne (PDF) 78opera.com
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} K. J. Kutsch, Leo Riemens (Hrsg.): Großes Sängerlexikon. Volume 1. 4th edition, KG Saur, Munich 2003, p. 319, entry Behnne, Harriet .
3. ^ Ludwig Eisenberg : Harriet Behnne . In: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century. Paul List, Leipzig 1903, p. 77 ( daten.digitale-sammlungen.de ).
4. ^ Tim Brooks, Brian Rust: The Columbia Master Book Discography. Volume IV. Greenwood Press, Westport (CT) / London 1999, p. 14.

This article is based on a public domain text from Ludwig Eisenberg's Large Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the 19th Century , 1903 edition.

Please only remove this note if you have revised the article to such an extent that the text reflects the current state of knowledge on this topic, this has been proven and it meets today's linguistic requirements.