Herbert Janssen

Herbert Janssen (born September 22, 1892 in Cologne , † June 3, 1965 in New York ) was a German opera singer ( baritone ).

Life

Janssen came from a music-loving family and received singing lessons in his youth. Nevertheless, he first studied law and was called up as a soldier in the First World War . After the end of the war, Janssen switched to singing, even against the will of his parents. After successfully completing his studies, in 1922 he received his first engagement at the Berlin State Opera , where he made his debut in the performance of Franz Schubert's Der Schatzgräber . Janssen worked his way up from small supporting roles. In the 1923/24 season he sang Wolfram for the first time in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser , which became one of his most important roles. Berlin remained his parent company for more than a decade and a half.

Janssen first appeared at the Wagner Festival in the Sopot Forest Opera in 1925 . He was also a permanent guest at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London from 1926 until the beginning of the Second World War . There were also guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera , the opera houses in Munich , Paris , Dresden , Barcelona and The Hague. From 1930 to 1937 he sang regularly at the Bayreuth Festival .

In 1937 Janssen became a member of the NSDAP and was appointed chamber singer . When the suspicion of homosexuality became known, he had to leave Germany because of the Nazi ideology. He went to the opera in Vienna for one season. With the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, in 1938 he first emigrated to England, then he made a brief guest appearance in Buenos Aires . From 1939 Janssen stayed in the USA and sang here successfully (until 1951) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a brief engagement also took him to Philadelphia . After all, Janssen stayed in New York after the war and in 1962 left the opera stage. After that he still worked as a sought-after music teacher .

repertoire

Although Herbert Janssen originally sang a very large and varied repertoire, from Mozart ( Count in Le nozze di Figaro ) to Lortzing (Tsar Peter in Zar and Zimmermann ), a lot of Verdi (Conte di Luna in the troubadour , one of his favorite roles, Renato in masked ball , Iago in Otello etc.) to Bizet (Escamillo in Carmen ) , in the later years of his career, especially in New York, he was mainly committed to Wagner roles, which he regretted. In his day, the singer was considered the most important performer of the composer's lyrical baritone roles, especially Kurwenal in Tristan and Isolde , Amfortas in Parsifal and Wolfram in Tannhäuser . Not only the well-known critic Jürgen Kesting is of the opinion that Janssen is unmatched in this role to this day (on record).

Janssen took on other roles as Kothner , Donner and Heerrrufer in other Wagner operas.

In addition, Janssen was an important song singer at a time when this art form was far less respected than it is today. Janssen's voice had a rich, soft, velvety sound and an Italian tinge with great expressiveness.

literature

• Jürgen Kesting: The great singers of the 20th century . ECON, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-517-07987-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} information boards in Bayreuth Richard Wagner Park with the title Voces enmedecidas ; Silent voices . Permanent open-air exhibition. Seen and photographed in May 2018.