Karel Berman

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Karel Berman (born April 14, 1919 in Jindřichův Hradec (German Neuhaus ); died August 11, 1995 in Prague ) was a Czech opera singer ( bass ) and composer of Jewish descent.

Life

From 1938 Berman studied singing with Egon Fuchs at the Prague Conservatory . After the German occupation of his homeland, he was arrested and taken to the Lipa (Linden) labor camp as a conscript . From there on March 5, 1943, he was deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto . There he took part in cultural life as a singer, composer and conductor and appeared in Karel Švenk's performances. In May 1944, for example, together with Rafael Schächter , he performed the Four Songs based on words from Chinese poetry by Pavel Haas for the first time. In Viktor Ullmann's opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis , he sang the role of Death in the dress rehearsal. On September 28, 1944, Bermans was transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp . After his liberation in the Blechhammer subcamp of Auschwitz , Karel Berman returned to Prague in 1945 and continued his vocal training. Engagements as a singer and opera director in Opava and Pilsen followed . In 1953 Berman moved to the Prague National Theater , where he worked for around 40 years as a singer in 120 roles and as a director of 50 productions. Guest tours led him a. a. to the Federal Republic of Germany, the former GDR, Finland, Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands as well as to the Edinburgh Festival . From 1961 to 1971 he taught at the Prague Conservatory and also at the Academy of Performing Arts .

Giuseppe Verdi; Messa da Requiem in the Theresienstadt Ghetto
Rafael Schächter , conductor; Gideon Klein , piano; G. Borger, soprano; H. Aranson-Lindt, Messosoprano; D. Grünfeld, tenor; Karel Berman, bass

Works

  • 1938–1945 Reminiscences Suite piano (first published in 2000)
  • Terezín Suite piano
  • Broučci (firefly - based on the then popular children's book by Jan Karafiát ) soprano and piano (later made world famous as an animated film by Jiří Trnka )

See also

literature

  • Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists 1933 to 1945. With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 383.
  • Herbert Gantschacher : Viktor Ullmann - Witness and Victim of the Apocalypse / Testimone e vittima dell'Apocalisse / Svědek a oběť apokalypsy / Prič in žrtev apokalipse. ARBOS-Edition, Arnoldstein et al., 2015, ISBN 978-3-9503173-3-6 , pp. 125, 139, 271, 286.
  • Clara-Marie Jantos: Brundibár in Terezín. On the importance of musical life in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Diplomica Verlag, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8428-9188-3 , p. 57.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Berman, Karel. In: Theresienstadt Lexicon. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Milan Kuna: Music at the Limit of Life. Musicians from Bohemian countries in National Socialist concentration camps and prisons . Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-86150-018-3 , p. 326 .
  3. ^ A b c Graham Melville-Mason: Obituary: Karel Berman. In: The Independent . September 25, 1995, accessed May 29, 2019 .
  4. ↑ In Memoriam-Birthdays in April: 14.4. Karel Berman: 100th birthday. In: Online marker. April 1, 2019, accessed December 6, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Berman, Karel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech opera singer (bass) and composer of Jewish descent
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Jindřichův Hradec
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1995
Place of death Prague