Heinrich Hammermeister
Heinrich Hammermeister (* 1799 in Stettin ; † 1860 in New York ) was a German opera singer ( baritone ).
Life
Hammermeister took part in the campaign against Napoleon as a youth in 1815 as a volunteer hunter in the Prussian army . After the campaign he was employed as a civil servant.
Hammermeister began his stage career as an opera singer in 1823 at the Schwerin Court Theater . From 1824 to 1828 he was at the Braunschweig court theater . In 1828 he went to the then newly formed Hoftheater Leipzig . Here he became known in operas composed by Heinrich Marschner , first in 1828 in Der Vampyr . In Marschner's opera Der Templer und die Jüdin , premiered in 1829 , Hammermeister sang the Templar, a role that Marschner had written for him. Richard Wagner heard him here too, and was impressed by him. From 1832 to 1835 he worked at the Royal Opera in Berlin , where Marschner's Templar was also performed with him in the lead role. From 1835 to 1840 Hammermeister was engaged at the Hamburg City Theater.
According to Joseph Kürschner's verdict in the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1879), Hammermeister was “a masterful dramatic singer, had ... a voice of rare power and scope. His Templar is the only one. ”In the history of theater and music in Leipzig (1864), Hammermeister was referred to as a“ star of the first magnitude ”. In his time, Hammermeister was “probably the first of all German baritone players”.
After 1840, however, things went downhill with Hammermeister. His singing voice dropped and he had financial difficulties. In 1842 he emigrated to the USA ; however, his wife, also a singer, did not go with him. There he failed with his attempts to build on his stage career. He had to work as a singer in inns, also as a cigarette seller, and finally died in New York in 1860 .
literature
- Joseph Kürschner : Hammermeister, Heinrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 487 f.
- Eckhard Wendt: Richard Wagner was impressed. A baritone from Stettin who liked - Heinrich Hammermeister for his birthday. In: The Pommersche Zeitung. No. 37/2009, p. 3.
Footnotes
- ^ Emil Kneschke: On the history of the theater and music in Leipzig. Friedrich Fleischer, Leipzig 1864, p. 103 ( online ).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hammermeister, Heinrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German opera singer (baritone) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1799 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Szczecin |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1860 |
| Place of death | new York |