Herman Geiger-Torel

Herman Geiger-Torel (born July 13, 1907 in Frankfurt am Main , † October 6, 1976 in Toronto ) was a German-Canadian opera director and music teacher.

Life

The son of the pianist and composer Rosy Geiger-Kullmann studied opera conducting with Lothar Wallerstein at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt after taking private lessons . From 1928 to 1930 he was assistant director at the Frankfurt Opera , in 1930 he was Wallerstein's assistant at the Salzburg Festival . In the 1930s he was an opera director in Aussig, Bremerhaven and Troppau.

Since 1934 Geiger-Torel worked in Latin America (due to the National Socialist takeover in the German Reich in 1933). At the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires he produced six operas, including La traviata and Manon Lescaut with Claudia Muzio and in 1938 Siegfried with Max Lorenz and Herbert Janssen under the direction of Erich Kleiber . Until 1943 he worked as a director and actor at the German Free Theater in Buenos Aires, then he went to Montevideo as chief director for the opera production of SODRE . From 1945 to 1948 he was chief director of the Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro.

At the invitation of Nicholas Goldschmidt , Geiger-Torel taught at the Royal Cons Opera School of the University of Toronto from 1948 . In 1949 he founded Opera Backstage , a group of musicians with singers Mary Morrison , Patricia Snell , Joanne Ivey , Ernest Adams and Andrew MacMillan , pianist and conductor George Crum and manager Walter Homburger , with whom he performed excerpts from operas in Western Canada . In 1950 he became director of the Opera Festival Association (later Canadian Opera Association , COC), in 1956 artistic director and in 1959 general director. He directed her until her retirement in the year of his death and produced more than thirty operas with her, including Deirdre by Healey Willan and Louis Riel by Harry Somers .

Geiger-Torel was also artistic advisor to the CBC Opera Company (1948-56), produced thirteen operas for CBC television and directed performances at the Montreal Festivals , the Théâtre lyrique de Nouvelle-France , the Guelph Spring Festival , and the Manitoba Opera in Winnipeg, Southern Alberta Opera , Edmonton Opera , Vancouver International Festival, and Vancouver Opera . In 1969 he was named Officer of the Order of Canada .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ see about her: Working group in exile music at the Musicological Institute of the University of Hamburg (ed.): Life paths of female musicians in the "Third Reich" and in exile. von Bockel, Neumünster 2000 ISBN 978-3-932696-37-4 pp. 33-61

personal data
SURNAME	Geiger-Torel, Herman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-Canadian opera director and music teacher
DATE OF BIRTH	July 13, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH	Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH	October 6, 1976
Place of death	Toronto

[1] see about her: Working group in exile music at the Musicological Institute of the University of Hamburg (ed.): Life paths of female musicians in the "Third Reich" and in exile. von Bockel, Neumünster 2000 ISBN 978-3-932696-37-4 pp. 33-61