Josef Hopferwieser

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Josef Hopferwieser (born May 25, 1938 in Graz ; † July 9, 2015 there ) was an Austrian opera singer with a tenor voice .

Live and act

Hopferwieser came from a musical family in Graz. His father Josef Hopferwieser (1907–1999) was an organ builder there . Josef Hopferwieser began playing the piano at an early age, and he liked to sing for it. However, he came to singing as a profession more by chance. He first trained as a painter and varnisher in the automotive sector and ran his own workshop in Graz. After the Graz Academy was opened in 1960, he received his vocal training there from the age of 18/19 with the soprano Herma Handl . At the Graz Academy he studied for about a year as an extraordinary student in addition to his actual job. On the advice of his teacher, Hopferwieser went to audition at a Viennese artist agency. There he was discovered by the then Braunschweig theater directors Heribert Esser and Hellmuth Matiasek and immediately engaged as a lyric tenor in Braunschweig.

In 1964 he made his professional debut as an opera singer at the Staatstheater Braunschweig with the role of Count Almaviva in the opera The Barber of Seville . Other roles in his time in Braunschweig were Fenton in Falstaff , Don Ottavio, the Duke of Urbino in the operetta One Night in Venice and the two buffalo- tenor roles Brighella and Tanzmeister in Ariadne auf Naxos . Further permanent engagements followed, two years at the Essen Opera House (1967–1969), and then four at the Frankfurt Opera (1969–1973), where, in addition to lyrical roles such as Lindoro in L'italiana in Algeri (with Agnes Baltsa ) gradually took over the youthful hero tenor subject. In Frankfurt he sang roles like Alwa in Lulu (with Anja Silja in the title role and the conductor Christoph von Dohnányi at the podium), the title role in Hoffmanns Erzählungen , Tom Rakewell in The Rake's Progress , the title role in Margarethe (with Julia Varady ; director: Bohumil Herlischka ) and Don José in Carmen (1973; director: Jean-Pierre Ponnelle ), as well as some roles in the Italian field, such as the title role in Don Carlo and Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera . In Frankfurt Hopferwieser finally made the permanent change of subject from lyric tenor to youthful heroic tenor .

In October 1970 he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera ; he sang the title role in Hoffmann's stories . In the summer of 1972 Mörbisch was a guest at the Seefestspiele as Duke in One Night in Venice . He then received an audition for the Vienna State Opera. In May 1973, according to other sources with the beginning of the 1973/74 season, he became a permanent member of the ensemble there. There he always had around 15-20 roles in the repertoire, focusing in particular on the composers Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss . He was a member of the Vienna State Opera without interruption until his retirement in 1998. He sang over thirty different roles in a total of 472 performances at the Vienna State Opera.

His roles at the Vienna State Opera included a. a. Erik in The Flying Dutchman , Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Narraboth, Matteo in Arabella (1977–1981, inter alia, with Gundula Janowitz in the title role), later also Herodes in Salome (for the first time in the summer of 1993 in Vienna), Aegisth in Elektra , Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos , Graf Elemer in Arabella (in total in over 60 performances, about half of them at the Vienna State Opera), host in Der Rosenkavalier , Steva in Jenůfa and the Kavalier in Cardillac . In over 60 performances he interpreted the singing teacher Alfred in the operetta Die Fledermaus . In the third act he satirized his own image as a hero tenor with vocal interludes from Wagner operas. In April 1998 Hopferwieser sang his last performances at the Vienna State Opera: Herod and, as the last part, the 1st armored man in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute . In Vienna he also sang regularly at the Vienna Volksoper . In September 1973 he sang there, with Renate Holm as Marie, the Hans in the opera The Bartered Bride as part of the reopening of the newly renovated Volksoper. In 1975 he sang the officer Phoebus at the Vienna Volksoper in the seldom performed, late romantic opera Notre Dame by Franz Schmidt . In the 1988/89 season he sang the first armored man in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Vienna Volksoper in a takeover of the Savary production from the Bregenz Festival .

On September 26, 1989 he was awarded the professional title of "Austrian Chamber Singer ".

In the 1979/80 season he appeared as Matteo in Arabella (December 1979) as part of the so-called “Festive Opera Evenings” at the Mannheim National Theater ; He not only cut a good figure tenorally, but also sang verbatim in an exemplary manner. In the 1980/81 season he sang the role of Admète in Alceste at the Stadttheater Bern "with a sense of style and taste" . In the 1981/82 season he took over Erik in a new Dutch production at the Stadttheater Gießen (premiere: April 1982); he sang with "radiant permanent fort", but seemed "monotonous". In the 1982/83 season he made a guest appearance at the Kiel Opera House in the role of Walther von Stolzing (premiere: October 1982; director: Werner Saladin ); he approached his role with "promising, somewhat baritone-tinged material, which has luminosity especially in the forte and in the heights, in the mezzoforte is sometimes slightly roughened in the middle position." In October 1983 he gave a concert performance of at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe Richard Wagner's early work The Fairies ; he sang the part of Arindal. In July 1985 he sang the Kaiser in the Strauss opera Die Frau ohne Schatten in Karlsruhe . In the 1985/86 season he appeared at the Mainz State Theater as the title hero in Tannhäuser .

Hopferwieser also made several guest appearances at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich , a. a. as Kavalier in Cardillac (premiere of the 1982/83 season; resumption of the 1984/85 season) and 1987 as Froh in Das Rheingold , as well as there again and again, u. a. also in January 1984, as Alfred's music teacher in Die Fledermaus . In 1986 he sang the part of Menelaus in the world premiere of the opera Troades by Aribert Reimann and also took part in the recording of this work. In the 1990/91 season he made guest appearances at the Bavarian State Opera as drum major in Wozzeck .

He has also made several guest appearances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin . At the beginning of the 1980/81 season he sang Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos “with a brightly shining tenor” , and in March 1986 Walther von Stolzing; he also made a guest appearance there as drum major in Wozzeck , with Karan Armstrong as a partner.

He has also made guest appearances at the Stuttgart State Opera , at the Hamburg State Opera (including in December 1984 as Graf Elemer in the last Arabella series of performances by Otto Schenk ) and several times at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (including as Don José). In May 1989 he made a guest appearance, together with the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper, at the International May Festival at the Wiesbaden State Theater "with a good singer performance" as Tichon in Katja Kabanowa . In February 1992 he made his role debut as Hermann in the opera Pique Dame at the Braunschweig State Theater .

In 1971 he appeared at the San Francisco Opera as Alwa in Lulu . The role was one of the roles he sang very often. He also sang the Alwa at the Grand Théâtre de Genève (1986) and in Madrid (1988). Abroad, he also sang at La Scala in Milan , at the Rome Opera and at the opera houses in Lyon and Nancy . As a concert singer he performed a. a. in the Verdi Requiem ; in a performance in March 1980 with the Bruckner Orchester Linz , he performed the tenor role "to the greatest satisfaction".

Hopferwieser was married for over 50 years and the father of two children. He died after a short, serious illness in his hometown Graz, where he also lived.

Audio documents

Hopferwieser's voice has been documented through a number of complete opera recordings, radio recordings and various live recordings. Studio recordings with Hopferwieser, however, are rare. In 1978, Decca Records released a complete recording of the opera Lulu , in which Hopferwieser sang the role of Alwa. His partner is Anja Silja ; it was conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi . In 1993 the Naxos label released a complete recording of the operetta Die Fledermaus , in which John Dickie and Gabriele Fontana are his partners.

In 1975 a live recording of the opera Notre Dame from the Vienna Volksoper was released on the MRF label . The Polish label Muza released a live recording of the opera Fidelio in 1981 , in which Hopferwieser sings the part of Florestan. The performance was recorded in Warsaw in 1979 and published on 3 LPs. A live recording from 1986 from the Bavarian State Opera was published on VHS , with Hopferwieser as Alfred in the operetta Die Fledermaus , with Pamela Coburn as Rosalinde.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e State Opera tenor Josef Hopferwieser dies Death report in: Der Standard from July 13, 2015; accessed on July 14, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Josef Hopferwieser ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2015 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. ; Obituary; Online marker; July 14th edition. Retrieved July 14, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.der-neue-merker.eu
  3. ↑ a b c list of roles by Josef Hopferwieser in: Chronik der Wiener Staatsoper 1945-2005 , p. 479/480. Löcker Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-85409-449-3 .
  4. ^ Opera concertante: "Notre Dame" by Franz Schmidt ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Internet presence of the Vienna Volksoper  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.volksoper.at
  5. ↑ Kurt Osterwald: FESTIVE OPERA EVENING . Performance review. In: Orpheus . Issue January 1, 1980. Page 33.
  6. ↑ Jürg L. Steinacher: SWITZERLAND – BERN: ALCESTE . Performance review. In: Orpheus . Issue June 6, 1981. Page 472
  7. ↑ Michael Arndt: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN . Performance review. In: Orpheus . Issue 7–8. July / August 1982. Page 607/608.
  8. ↑ I. Bünsch: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg . Performance review. In: Orpheus . Issue December 12, 1983. Page 993/994.
  9. ↑ Margot E. Hoffmann: EXTRAORDINARY . Performance and concert reviews. In: Orpheus . Edition 11/12. November / December 1980. page 757.
  10. ↑ Hartmut Jakobi: INTERNATIONAL MAY FESTIVAL . Performance and concert reviews. In: Orpheus . Issue 13, November 1989. Festival booklet. Page 1059/1060.
  11. ↑ René Knapp: LINZ CONCERT SCENE . Performance review. In: Orpheus . Issue May 5, 1980. Page 373/374.
personal data
SURNAME Hopferwieser, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz , Styria, Rep. Austria
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 2015
Place of death Graz , Styria, Rep. Austria