Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann

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Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann ( July 15, 1853 in Munich - June 2, 1883 in Trieste ) was a German opera singer ( soprano ).

Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann

Life

According to her own statement, she owed all of her skills to her father August Kindermann , who initiated her, his fifth daughter, into the basic teachings of the art of singing at an early stage. Her mother (née Hoffmann), a student at the Leipzig Conservatory, and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy taught her to play the piano from the age of five. At the age of 15 she entered the Munich music school as a pianist, and here, in the choir lessons under Franz Wüllner , it was also revealed that she had a voice, namely a deep contra-alto, which made it possible for her to perform the Sarastroarie in its original position to sing.

With difficulty, the knowledgeable father managed in one year to turn the female bassist into a singer who at least managed to some extent in the middle register. Now Hedwig came to the court theater as a choir player and served her art from scratch for two years, in drama, ballet and opera.

The great forces of the Munich stage, a Stehle, Mallinger, Diez, were their ardently admired role models. In addition, she practiced diligently to remedy any shortcomings in her voice. After brief work in Karlsruhe, she was employed as a solo singer in Munich. But little was trusted in the former choir leader and no opportunity was given to show her progress. So it came about that, while Ernst von Possart temporarily intended to use her enormous speech organ for the tragedy and advised her to give up singing, a desperate leap into the field of operetta initially decided her further career.

Until then, she had enthusiastically turned to classical and sacred music - Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orpheus was her favorite role and her singing in the Hofkirche choir aroused the admiration of connoisseurs even then - she had to make herself comfortable, at the Gärtnerplatztheater the lightly tucked characters of Jacques Offenbach and Lecocq portray only in an effort to employ their talent.

But this time was not lost for her art. Her voice and her playing became immensely agile; the daily appearance in the most varied of roles, not only in the operetta, but also in Ferdinand Raimund's and Ludwig Anzengruber's folk plays, gave her routine and self-confidence; the great success spurred them on to new endeavors.

At that time she married the actor Emanuel Reicher , against the wishes of her parents. Cast out by them, she lived through a number of sorrowful years, often in a dire financial situation, into which she got into not without her own fault.

In Bayreuth 1876 she could hardly attract Richard Wagner's attention in small roles ; in Hamburg she had great successes as Orpheus, Ortrud, Fides, but soon left this city, lured to Vienna by an advantageous offer.

Here she sang Erda, Leah in the Maccabees before Rubinstein himself, the fury of hatred in Armide ; but in spite of the warm applause she was soon forced to give up her position by intrigue and burdensome private relationships. Now she is returning to Munich; but here again, humiliated and only employed in small roles, in a most dire situation in October 1879 she made the decision to go to Paris and there to gain the recognition she had always missed.

She was immediately recommended to the opera by Faure, who recognized her splendid means; but for the time being she was preparing for a guest performance in Monaco through serious studies. In six weeks she learned nine roles in French; she was immensely popular when she first appeared in "Favorit"; but as a Bavarian hostile from her envious colleagues, she gladly followed an invitation from her home country, which she called to the Leipzig City Theater before she appeared in Paris.

On the trip she still had the opportunity in Milan to receive the highest praise from Giuseppe Verdi , who performed his operas with her. Hedwig fell seriously ill in Munich, so that she could only perform in Leipzig in May 1880. She sang Leonore in “Fidelio”, which she had never played but had studied passionately for many years. The success was great; After a second appearance as Brünnhilde she had to travel to the bathroom to recover completely from the illness; but then, on returning, she did an admirable activity.

First as Donna Anna, then as Valentine, as Elisabeth, she won the hearts of the audience. Angelo Neumann , the director of the Leipzig stage, carefully and considerately introduced her to the big new tasks, so that she was soon able to appear in the biggest roles eighteen times a month. The scope of her subject expanded so that she sang Isolde, Brünnhilde, as well as Gretchen and Carmen. It was Kapellmeister Anton Seidl who initiated her into a deeper understanding of Wagner's female characters, the embodiment of which would soon bring her great fame.

It is true that when Neumann presented the “Ring des Nibelungen” for the first time in Berlin in May 1881, she still had to step back behind an Amalie Materna and Vogl; But her performances in smaller roles, as "Erda", "Fricka", "Waltraute" already caught the attention of connoisseurs. In 1882 her friend Katharina Klafsky sang next to her. Soon after, in London, she was destined to venture into bigger things, and the most complete success now established her reputation. When Neumann then performed the tetralogy for the second time in Berlin, Hedwig rose to the zenith of her career.

With every new role she won new triumphs, the enthusiastic audience could not do enough with enthusiastic applause; she darkened everyone else next to her. But she experienced the most beautiful day when her father hurried to a sample performance of “Fidelio” in Berlin, to perform with her and enjoy her size.

Meanwhile the turn in their tragic fate began. A grave ailment, aggravated by clumsy surgery, gave her excruciating pain; however, a consuming thirst for action, combined with a demonic lust for life, made her forget every sparing thing, ignore every warning. Divorced from her husband, she considered it her life's work to make her then seven-year-old son happy through her work. She signed a brilliant contract with the Berliner Hofbühne, which signed her for the opera from autumn 1883; but perhaps feeling that she would no longer experience this time, she went on the tour that Neumann undertook with his “Nibelung Theater” through the big cities of Germany, Belgium and Italy.

She was the star of this traveling theater; everywhere, especially beyond the Alps, it was celebrated exuberantly.

But her body was not up to the tremendous exertion; often in excruciating pain she pulled herself up to rush to the stage, where she forgot her suffering. She was not allowed to celebrate because the troops' income and the well-being of the staff were based on her. Not as if one had forced her to strenuous work: she herself thwarted all care with her restless drive, with her destructive enthusiasm. She had to lie down in Venice; recovered, she caught another cold in Trieste; the unwillingness of the audience, which she did not want to miss, caused her to sing, terminally ill, in “Götterdämmerung”. Then she died on June 2nd, 1883 in Trieste. A few hours earlier she had joked unsuspectingly in letters to her son and to her family in Munich and expressed the hope for beautiful summer days.

It was one of the most important stage appearances of its time. A stately, not too big, but imposing figure, an impressive, energetic profile, a glowing pair of eyes enabled her happily to embody heroic, passionate women, a Leonore, Isolde, especially Brünnhilde. In the representation, too, she succeeded in everything fiery and mighty better than the feminine surrender. Hence the Valkyrie was more appropriate to her than Sieglinde; and as Brünnhilde, the moments of foaming thirst for revenge hit her better than the loving love. But what made her most of all her successes was her voice. If her playing left a lot to be desired in detail, which the future would certainly have granted, her organ was in every way perfect. It sounded wonderful in the low register; But nobody would have noticed the former shortcomings in terms of height in recent years: even the highest notes responded effortlessly. Pleasant, even with the greatest strength, balanced in all positions, flexible but invulnerable like steel, healthy and persistent even in the most strenuous parts, this incomparable voice was predestined to meet all the requirements that Wagner's dramas place on the singers; in addition there was an impeccable intonation and a musical certainty, which gave the singer complete control over every role, although her myopia prevented her from seeing the conductor of the orchestra.

If you missed some singing in detail, which could have made the overall performance richer in variety, this was due to the whole individuality: a lot of thought, petty nuances averted, she always drew from the full in game and song, immediately abandoned herself to the great Trained her nature and completely absorbed her role; Creating more with the heart than with the mind, she not only had to sweep the audience away, but also disarm any critical criticism, because all concerns in detail vanished in view of the whole great and uniform achievement, before the joyful realization that one was here to an original one , found strange, truly dramatically inclined personality towards every fake, semi-skilled person. In a letter to her sister, she said about her art: “But I can assure you: my suffering made me a great artist! That's why I hope the best for you too! Sink all your suffering in your singing - forget the bad world - be entirely the character you have to portray and your soul will speak to the heart of the public. "

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Text based on ADB, Richard Sternfeld
personal data
SURNAME Reicher-Kindermann, Hedwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 1883
Place of death Trieste