Henriette Sontag

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Henriette Sontag on a painting by Paul Delaroche , 1831

Henriette Sontag , actually Gertrude Walpurgis Sontag , after her ennoblement Henriette von Klarenstein (born January 3, 1806 in Koblenz , † June 17, 1854 in Mexico City ) was a German opera singer ( coloratura soprano , soprano sfogato ) of international renown . She was best known for her interpretations in operas by Rossini , Donizetti and Bellini .

Life

Henriette Sontag was the daughter of the actors Franz Sontag and Franziska Martloff , who were engaged in Koblenz . The actress and nun Nina Sontag was her sister, the actor Karl Sontag her half-brother. She performed for the first time at the age of five accompanied by her mother; In 1814 she sang on stage for the first time. At the age of 15, Sontag sang “Clara” in François-Adrien Boieldieu's opera Johann von Paris . At the age of 16, Sontag was sent to the Prague Conservatory .

She was discovered in Prague by Carl Maria von Weber and at the age of 17 he let her sing the title role in his opera Euryanthe . In the same year she and her mother accepted an engagement at the Deutsche Oper in Vienna . In 1824 she sang the soprano part in the world premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna. After the symphony was over, she and the singer Caroline Unger turned the deaf Beethoven over to the applauding audience. In the same year she was engaged by Karl von Holtei at the newly opened Königsstädtische Theater in Berlin , where she was soon appointed court and chamber singer .

Henriette Sontag, etching by Franz Xaver Stöber , 1827

From 1826 to 1827 Sontag made a guest appearance in Paris and made for an overcrowded house with every performance. She made her Paris debut in the role of Rosina in the Barber of Seville , and in her concerts she sang virtuoso variations by Rode with great success . She later sang other prima donna roles by Rossini, such as La donna del lago , Otello , Semiramide and L'italiana in Algeri , as well as in Mozart's Don Giovanni .

In Paris as well as during her guest performance in London , the writer Henriette von Montenglaut was her companion as a kind of society lady and secretary. There was also a Sunday rivalry with the famous Maria Malibran in Paris and London , but after they sang a duet from Rossini's Semiramide , they were ready to perform together in this opera.

After her wedding in Paris in 1827 with the diplomat and Sardinian envoy in Berlin, Count Carlo de Rossi (1797–1864), brother of Princess Flaminia zu Salm-Salm , nephew of Félix Baciocchi , later ambassador of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont in The Hague , she completely withdrew from the stage. She only made existing commitments to guest appearances in Petersburg , Moscow , Brussels , The Hague and Hamburg .

In 1828 Prince Pückler made a marriage proposal to Henriette Sontag, which she had to reject because of an existing marriage. Nevertheless, he erected a memorial to her in Branitzer Park .

On August 22, 1831 she received from the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. awarded a nobility diploma and since then she has been allowed to call herself Henriette von Klarenstein .

Until 1848 Sontag only acted as a wife and mother (seven children) at the side of her husband, but continued to sing privately in front of friends. When the family lost all their fortune due to the political circumstances of the revolution of 1848, Sontag attempted an artistic comeback. Despite this very long absence from the stage, Sontag was able to easily build on their old successes. On July 7, 1850, she appeared at the King's Theater in London in Donizetti's Linda di Chamounix and sang in Paris that same year; Bellini's La sonnambula and Donizetti's La fille du régiment were among her new star roles .

In 1851 she went on tour through the USA with sensational success ; She was accompanied by the pianist Karl Anton Eckert . On December 16, 1851, Sontag performed in the Koblenz Theater . It was the first and only appearance in her hometown.

Henriette Sontag died of cholera in Mexico in 1854 during another guest tour . At her own request, she found her final resting place in the Marienthal Monastery near Ostritz , Lausitz . She lies in the crypt of the Kreuz- und Michaeliskirche next to her husband. In Koblenz, a plaque on Am Plan 1 commemorates the house where she was born, which was demolished at the end of the 19th century.

Voice and singing

Henriette Sontag was an easy coloratura soprano of great virtuosity. The voice had a range from the low a or b to d '' ', whereby the high notes, for example from f' 'to c' ', were like "silver bells". Her singing was distinguished by great brilliance and fluency, and she possessed an unsurpassable lightness and grace, and shone with extreme purity and clarity. The timbre of Sunday has been compared to Joséphine Fodor , who was famous for her vocal beauty. Sunday's ornamentation is said to have been even more exuberant than those of Angelica Catalani , whose ostentatious virtuosity was almost notorious. However, Sontag's voice was lighter than Catalani's, which is why she focused more on roles in the opera semiseria and buffa than in the opera seria , which often required more dramatic skills than were available to her. This also explains what the Catalani meant when she said in a sour, malicious bon mot about Sontag: “She is the first in her genre, but her genre is not the first” (“ Elle est la première de son genre, mais son genre n'est pas le premier ”). Despite the quasi-instrumental display of her vocal skills, the Sunday was praised for her wonderful taste.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe called it his fluttering nightingale and August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote for it. In 1836 August Lewald helped the following epigram by the Württemberg court poet Johann Friedrich Schlotterbeck (1765–1840) to spread the word:

Where is it not praised as an ornament to the opera?
How many a leaf you panegyrist !
Oh, that Sunday would be so celebrated
how it is sunday!

Roles (selection)

The most important roles of Henriette Sontag follow:

Parts that were written specifically for the voice of Sontag are:

  • Lucia - Le nozze di Lammermoor ( Michele Carafa ), WP: Théâtre Italien, Paris, December 12th 1829
  • Miranda - La Tempestà ( Fromental Halévy ); WP: King's Theater, London, 1850

Trivia

Henriette Sontag's fame is also evident from this anecdote: “An Englishman has the peach stone, which is why Dlle. Sontag slipped and fell on the stairs, bought for 1248 Franks, had it set in gold, and now wears it on his watch chain, which has been woven from the curls of the most famous Italian singers and which has cost him dearly. "

gallery

literature

Web links

Commons : Henriette Sontag  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Henriette Sontag  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ After Friedrich Herzfeld : Henriette Sontag. In: Ullstein-Lexikon der Musik. 6th edition. Frankfurt, Berlin / Vienna 1973, p. 513.
  2. ^ After Anton Schindler , the contralto Caroline Unger turned Beethoven over to the audience.
  3. According to other sources, both singers together turned the deaf composer to the applauding audience.
  4. Michael Sachs: 'Prince Bishop and Vagabond'. The story of a friendship between the Prince-Bishop of Breslau Heinrich Förster (1799–1881) and the writer and actor Karl von Holtei (1798–1880). Edited textually based on the original Holteis manuscript. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 35, 2016 (2018), pp. 223–291, here: p. 281.
  5. ^ A b Marie & Léon Escudier: chap. XI: Mme Sunday . In: Vie et aventures des cantatrices célèbres , Paris 1856, pp. 268–273, here: p. 269; online at Gallica.bnf.fr (French; accessed August 9, 2019)
  6. ^ George T. Ferris: Henrietta Sontag . In: Great singers , Volume I ("Faustina Bordoni to Henrietta Sontag, First Series"), D. Appleton & Co, New York 1889, pp. 197–220, here: pp. 204 and 209 (English) Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  7. Sontag as soprano sang the title role and Malibran as mezzo-soprano sang the equally demanding trouser role of Arsace. Marie & Léon Escudier: chap. XI: Mme Sunday . In: Vie et aventures des cantatrices célèbres ,… pp. 268–273, here: p. 271; online at Gallica.bnf.fr (French; accessed August 9, 2019)
  8. City Archives Mainz, family register 1760-1900 , Family number 3075
  9. Marie & Léon Escudier: chap. XI: Mme Sunday . In: Vie et aventures des cantatrices célèbres ,… pp. 268–273, here: p. 271; online at Gallica.bnf.fr (French; accessed August 9, 2019)
  10. Heinrich Stümcke, Henriette Sontag , S. 289, footnote to page 162
  11. Marie & Léon Escudier: chap. XI: Mme Sunday . In: Vie et aventures des cantatrices célèbres ,… pp. 268–273, here: pp. 272–73; online at Gallica.bnf.fr (French; accessed August 9, 2019)
  12. ^ December 16, 1851. The singer Henriette Sontag's only appearance in Koblenz. ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: State Main Archive Koblenz @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landeshauptarchiv.de
  13. ^ George T. Ferris: Henrietta Sontag . In: Great singers , Volume I ..., New York 1889, pp. 197–220, here: pp. 200–201 (English) Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  14. a b c George T. Ferris: Henrietta Sontag . In: Great singers , ..., New York 1889, pp. 197–220, here: pp. 208–209 (English) Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  15. ^ George T. Ferris: Henrietta Sontag . In: Great singers , ..., New York 1889, pp. 197–220, here: pp. 204–205 (English) Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  16. Sunday celebration . In: Rheinische Musik-Zeitung. 2nd year, Nro. 79 [Nro. 27], January 3, 1852, pp. 627 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
  17. ^ August Lewald: Album of the Boudoirs. Leipzig / Stuttgart 1836, p. 16 f. ( Digitized in the Google book search).
  18. ^ George T. Ferris: Henrietta Sontag . In: Great singers , Volume I ..., New York 1889, pp. 197-220 (English) Text Archive - Internet Archive
  19. ^ Marie & Léon Escudier: Mme Sontag (Chapter XI), in: Vie et aventures des cantatrices célèbres , Paris 1856, pp. 268-273; online at Gallica.bnf.fr (French; accessed August 9, 2019)
  20. Jeremy Commons: Booklet text for the CD set: A hundred years of Italian Opera: 1820-1830 (various singers & Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of David Parry), Opera Rara: ORCH 104, pp. 258-271.
  21. ^ George T. Ferris: Henrietta Sontag . In: Great singers , Volume I ..., New York 1889, pp. 197–220, here: pp. 216, 218 (English) Textarchiv - Internet Archive
  22. ^ Augsburgische Ordinari postal newspaper. Nro. 248, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 1828. urn : nbn: de: bvb: 384 uba002888-2