Leonardo Aramesco

Leonardo Aramesco , called Funkaruso (born January 27, 1898 in Temesvár , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary ; died December 1946 in New York City ) was a Hungarian opera singer ( tenor ). Aramesco became known in the 1920s as the first lyric tenor of the Westdeutsche Rundfunk AG . After the National Socialists came to power , he was dismissed in 1933 - like many Jewish artists - and had to emigrate from Germany .

Life

The tenor
Leonardo Aramesco , 1928
Photographer August Sander
MoMA Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

Stumbling stone in front of the residential building at Weißhausstrasse 25, Cologne-Sülz

Leonardo Aramesco was born on January 27, 1898 in Temesvár, Kingdom of Hungary , as the son of a Jewish merchant. From 1920 to 1923 he studied singing with Otto Iro and Käthe Naether-Osten in Vienna . He received his first engagement in 1920 at the Vienna State Opera . In 1923 he moved to the State Opera in Berlin . This was followed by engagements at the Erfurt City Theater (1924/25) and (1926/27), the Bielefeld City Theater (1925/26) and the Essen Opera House (1926 to 1928). During this time he started recording records .

He achieved great national recognition through his engagement as the first lyric tenor at Westdeutsche Rundfunk AG (WERAG) in Cologne. Here he produced numerous radio recordings and records. In addition to opera arias, Aramesco also sang operetta parts and popular songs. The photographer August Sander portrayed Leonardo Aramesco in Cologne in 1928.

From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, Aramesco also worked for radio stations in Munich, Vienna, Prague, Stuttgart and Frankfurt am Main. After the National Socialists came to power, he was dismissed from West German Broadcasting on March 31, 1933 because of his Jewish religious affiliation. After that he lived from occasional appearances and guest performances, u. a. in Austria and the Netherlands. In 1935 he went to Switzerland, where he got an engagement at the Lucerne Theater for a year. The New City Theater of Teplitz engaged the tenor in the summer of 1937. He made his debut on September 28, 1937 in the Strauss opera Das Spitzentuch der Königin . In Teplitz he took on singing roles in 35 operettas. Shortly before the Munich Agreement Aramesco emigrated in the summer of 1938 in the Netherlands . In addition to occasional appearances, he also worked as a singing teacher in Amsterdam .

In 1940 he succeeded in emigrating to the United States of America . Here he earned his living by occasional concert appearances. At the age of 48, Leonardo Aramesco died of a heart attack in December 1946 while on a concert tour in New York .

On March 18, 2019, a stumbling block in memory of Leonardo Aramesco was laid by the artist Gunter Demnig in front of the former home at Weißhausstraße 25 .

Singing roles and song interpretations by Leonardo Aramesco (selection)

Gramophone record - Leonardo Aramesco in The Circus Princess

In the press, Aramesco was hailed as "the second Richard Tauber ". His best known singing roles include:

• Rodolfo in La Bohème ( Giacomo Puccini )
• Cavaradossi in Tosca (Giacomo Puccini)
• Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni ( Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart )
• Tamino in Die Zauberflöte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
• Don José in Carmen ( Georges Bizet )
• Count Almaviva in the Barber of Seville ( Gioachino Rossini )
• Riccardo in the Un ballo in maschera ( Giuseppe Verdi )
• Lohengrin in Lohengrin ( Richard Wagner )

Numerous songs and opera and operetta arias interpreted by Leonardo Aramesco have been released on records by Polydor , Deutsche Grammophon , His Master's Voice and Electrola . a .:

• A boy saw a little rose , Franz Lehár
• Yours is my whole heart , Franz Lehár
• I was happy to kiss women , Franz Lehar
• Happy is the one who forgets , Johann Strauss
• Firefly Idyll , Paul Lincke
• I've seen spring , folk song

literature

• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Großes Sängerlexikon , Volume 1, KG Saur, 2012, ISBN 978-3-598-44088-5

Web links

Commons : Leonardo Aramesco  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• teplitz-theatre.net: Leonardo Amaresco (in French)
• University of Hamburg: Lexicon of persecuted musicians during the Nazi era : Leonardo Amaresco
• Leonardo Aramesco in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Leo Riemens, Hansjörg Rost: Large singer lexicon . 4th edition. KG Saur, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-598-44088-X , p. 134 .
2. ↑ August Sander. The tenor [Leonardo Aramesco]. c. 1928 | MoMA. Retrieved February 17, 2019 . 
3. ↑ tenor [Leonardo Aramesco] (Getty Museum). Retrieved February 17, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Christa Nink: Consequences of National Socialist Personnel Policy in West German Broadcasting, 1933. Biographical Notes - a work report. In: Studienkreis Rundfunk und Geschichte . tape 19 , no. 4 , 1993, ISSN  0175-4351 , pp. 176 ff .
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Amaresco Leonardo - Le théâtre de Teplice (Teplice). Retrieved February 17, 2019 (fr-fr). 
6. ↑ Leonardo Aramesco | Germania Broadcast. Retrieved February 17, 2019 . 
7. ^ German Music Archive: Recordings by Leonardo Aramesco. Retrieved February 17, 2019 .