Henriette Grabau-Bünau

Eleonore Henriette Magdalena Grabau-Bünau , also Henriette Bünau or Henriette Grabau , (born March 29, 1805 in Bremen , † November 18, 1852 in Leipzig ) was a German opera singer ( mezzo-soprano ).

biography

Grabau was the daughter of the teacher and organist at the Liebfrauenkirche Bremen Johann Christian Lebrecht Grabau and of Margarethe Anna Adelheid Arensberg. The father founded the Grabau'schen Singverein in 1811 . She grew up with four siblings. Her brother Andreas (1808–1885) was a famous cellist in Leipzig, sister Adelheid (1807–1854) concert singer in Bremen and Leipzig and sister Maria (1812–?) Also concert singer.

Grabau was taught by Schröder-Devrient in Dresden. From 1824 she completed singing studies in Dresden with the Bohemian singer and singing teacher Johann Aloys Miksch . In the spring of 1826 she performed successfully in a subscription concert in Leipzig with an aria by Rossini . She then engaged the Concert Direction as the main singer in the Gewandhaus for many years . Her sister Adelheid also performed here at this time. In 1835 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy became Kapellmeister in Leipzig, who promoted her and used her at concerts in the Gewandhaus until 1937. She also sang Clara Wieck's songs at the first concerts .

In 1827 she performed with her sister Adelheid at the Bremen theater . In 1835 or 1836, at the premiere of the oratorio Paulus von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Düsseldorf, she was a soloist. He repeatedly engaged her for the Niederrheinische Musikfest . In 1836 she sang for the role of Vitellia in Titus von Mozart . In 1837 she sang in a concert by the piano virtuoso Adolf Henselt at the invitation of Schumann in Leipzig. She was friends with Henselt and with him at the Davidsbündler , a group of young artists founded by Schumann in the Leipzig pub Zum Arabischen Coffe Baum . Mendelssohn enthused on October 30, 1835: “She is one of the few genuinely musical singers I have met, she could also conduct the orchestra on the side, or play the piano or the harp if she wanted ... if only she was pretty and wanted to be younger! You could fall in love over your ears. ”From 1839 to 1852 she and Schumann had a lively correspondence.

In 1843 the "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" University of Music and Theater in Leipzig was founded. Henriette Bünau-Grabau, the violin virtuoso Ferdinand David, the violinist and music theorist Moritz Hauptmann , the organist and music writer Carl Ferdinand Becker and Robert Schumann teach there; Henriette sang choir and solo until 1849.

In 1837 she married the merchant Julius Alexander Bünau (1809–1871); In 1838 their daughter Helene was born.

Works

• Grabau album : Copies of Mendelssohn's songs without words and an excerpt from the opera Ali Baba by Luigi Cherubini . Leipzig 1852.

literature

• Edith Laudowicz : Grabau-Bünau, Eleonore Henriette, b. Grabau . In: Women's history (s) , Bremer Frauenmuseum (ed.). Edition Falkenberg, Bremen 2016, ISBN 978-3-95494-095-0 .
• Emil Kneschke: The hundred and fifty-year history of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Concerts 1843-1893 . Leipzig 1893.
• Wilhelm Albert Grabau, The story of the Grabau family , 2 volumes, Leipzig: Sturm & Koppe 1929 and 1932/33
• City of Leipzig: 100 portraits of women: Music : Henriette Eleonore Grabau-Bünau

Individual evidence

1. ^ City of Leipzig: 100 portraits of women: Music : Henriette Eleonore Grabau-Bünau