Kurt Gester

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Kurt Gester (born October 10, 1914 in Mettmann ; † December 8, 1997 there ) was a German opera singer ( baritone ). In 1977 he became an honorary member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein .

Life

Kurt Yester's musical training began as a primary school student in the school orchestra in Mettmann, where he played the violin . His voice was discovered at a school festival, whereupon the then director of the Düsseldorf theater promoted him. After finishing school he began to study singing, piano and violin at the Düsseldorf Conservatory . He then completed his vocal studies with Louis Bachner and Heinrich Schlusnus in Berlin from 1934 to 1938 . The then wife of the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler , Zitla Lund, sponsored him a. a. through grants and grants.

In 1938 he began his stage work as a lyric baritone at the Kaiserslautern City Theater . His first role was Figaro in The Barber of Seville . This was followed by other baritone roles in La traviata , La Bohème , The Armourer and The Night Camp in Granada .

In 1939 he was committed to the Wroclaw Opera House , to which he was a member until the end of the Second World War . Since he was the youngest soloist was at the opera, he expected his speedy convening in the Wehrmacht . Only with the closure of all German theaters and in the course of the total war effort of the cultural workers did he become a soldier. At the end of the war he learned that he had been on the special list of those artists who were not to be drafted.

post war period

After the end of the war Kurt Gester moved back to his mother in Mettmann and devoted himself to concert singing from 1945 to 1948. A radio station in Cologne and Frankfurt secured his collaboration for various opera recordings. The conductor Sergiu Celibidache discovered him and engaged him as a soloist for a concert program.

In 1947 he accepted a piece contract at the Wuppertal Opera House for the title role in Eugen Onegin and made a guest appearance in Düsseldorf as Count Luna in the Troubador . The then musical director Heinrich Hollreiser asked him after the concert whether he had sung the - mostly transposed - aria in the original key. Due to his profound baritone training, he was able to answer this question positively.

Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner : third act; first scene (Kurt Gester as Wolfram)
Wedding congratulations from Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and CDU Member of the Bundestag Gerhard Schröder (April 1950)

On August 15, 1948, he continued his career at the Düsseldorf Opera House (later the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg ) under the artistic director Gustaf Gründgens . There he sang the title role in the premiere of the opera Troilus und Cressida by Winfried Zillig in 1951, and in 1959 in the premiere of the opera Die tödlichen Wünsche by Giselher Klebe .

On April 20, 1950, he married Ursula Norbisrath, the daughter of the tobacco merchant and CDU city politician Otto Norbisrath. The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia Karl Arnold and the CDU member of the Bundestag Gerhard Schröder congratulated in writing.

In 1951 he sang the opera Genovera at the Maggio Musicale in Florence under the direction of Gustaf Gründgens and the musical direction of André Cluytens . He was considered an excellent interpreter of Mozart and Verdi, as well as guest performances at leading domestic and foreign theaters, but he was also a sought-after concert singer. At the Glyndebourne Festival in 1954 he sang in Arlecchino by Busoni. In 1961 he appeared again at the Maggio Musicale in Florence as Count Palatine Siegfried in Robert Schumann's Genoveva . In 1969 he took part in the premiere of the fairy tale of the beautiful lily by Giselher Klebe at the Schwetzingen Festival .

On 19 December 1977 he was the mayor of Dusseldorf, in the presence of Klaus Bungert , at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein for an honorary member appointed. There he had his big appearances as Count in Figaro's wedding , as Papageno in the Magic Flute , as Figaro in the Barber of Seville , as Count Luna in the Troubadour , as Eugene Onegin von Tschaikowsky and as Wolfram in Tannhäuser .

In November 1990 Kurt Gester was presented with the Medal of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the then District Administrator Willi Müser and the then Mayor Ingrid Siebeke .

Until December 1996 he sang the role of Alcindoro in La Bohème , from which he resigned for health reasons. He looked back on 48 years at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Kurt Gester died on December 8, 1997 in Mettmann. He is buried in the Goethestrasse cemetery (hallway C; field I; grave no. 38–39).

Recordings (selection)

Literature and Sources

  • Elisabeth Fellner: Düsseldorfer Hefte of the state capital Düsseldorf. No. 13, July 1-15, 1962, Michael Triltsch Verlag Düsseldorf, pp. 525-529.
  • Manfred von Stein, Victor Léon and others: Deutsche Oper am Rhein 1964–1967. Publisher Deutsche Oper am Rhein, 1966.
  • Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Volume 4, KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-598-11598-9 , p. 1705 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Peter Schmidt: Silesia and Prussia. Schweitzerhaus Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-939475-96-5 , p. 160.
  2. ^ Ensemble and staff , on the website of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, accessed on July 8, 2015.
  3. ↑ Eugen Szenkar : My way as a musician: memories of a conductor. Frank & Timme, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86596-406-9 , p. 37.
  4. ^ Guido Diesing: songs and memorial evening in the theater of the city of Duisburg; Former Mayor Krings remembered Karl Ridderbusch. In: Rheinische Post. December 20, 1997, No. 296.
personal data
SURNAME Gester, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Mettmann
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1997
Place of death Mettmann