Martha Blech-Frank

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martha Blech-Frank , also Martha Frank-Blech , née Auguste Wilhelmine Martha Frank (born October 8, 1871 in Sondershausen , † July 21, 1962 in Berlin ) was a German opera singer ( soprano ).

Life

Her parents were the Jewish businessman Hermann Frank and Johanna Friederike Luise Frank. Martha Frank made her debut in 1892 at the court theater in her hometown Sondershausen, to which she belonged until 1894. From 1894 she was engaged for two seasons at the city ​​theater of Aachen . There she sang the title role in the world premiere of the opera Cherubina , the composer was her later husband Leo Blech . From 1896 to 1899 she worked at the court theater in Darmstadt , in 1899 she went to the German State Theater in Prague , of which she remained a member until 1906. Here she took part in the world premiere of the opera The Polish Jew by Karel Weis in March 1901 ; In November 1903 she sang the role of the maid Pepa in the world premiere of Eugen d'Albert's opera Tiefland . In 1906 she followed Leo Blech to Berlin and only appeared on stage or in the concert hall as a guest; By 1917 at the latest, it had withdrawn from the public eye. At the end of 1937, she and her husband emigrated to Riga . When Latvia was conquered by German troops in June 1941, the Blechs were able to flee to Stockholm with the support of the artistic director of the Berlin State Opera Heinz Tietjen and the Swedish embassy . In autumn 1949 the artist couple returned to Berlin, where Leo Blech died in 1958. Both are buried in the Heerstraße cemetery (Department 20 Wald - 1e).

The State of Berlin laid out and tended to Leo Blech's grave as an honorary grave, initially for a period of 50 years. The status of an honorary grave is checked every 20 years according to the administrative regulations. In 2013, the Senate Administration found that “a lasting memory in the general public beyond a century” was not to be expected. Therefore, at the beginning of 2013, the tombstone was sawed off and the grave site was re-occupied with the grave of the Germanist Peter Wapnewski . The protests of committed music lovers, for whom memory is important, unlike some cultural administrators, could not prevent this. Allegedly, the cultural administration has been considering making an appropriate souvenir possible in the cemetery for over a year. Some music journalists then joined forces to set a new monument with Leo Blech with a publication. With the action “Sheet metal for sheet metal” they call for support for the book.

Gravestone , Heerstraße cemetery, Trakehner Allee 1, in Berlin-Westend

In May 1899 Martha Frank married the well-known conductor and composer Leo Blech. The son Wolfgang (* 1904 in Prague; † 1988 in Los Angeles ) became a businessman and emigrated to the USA in July 1936, where he was active in the German Jewish Club .

The daughter Luise (Lisel) (* 1913 in Berlin-Charlottenburg ; † 2006 in Stockholm) became a singer (soprano) like her mother. Lisel's first marriage was to the Hungarian pianist Arpád Sándor (* 1896, † 1972). She emigrated to Sweden in 1936 and married the German-Swedish conductor Herbert Sandberg (* 1902, † 1966) in Stockholm in 1939 , a student of her father.

roll

Blech-Frank sang mainly roles from the coloratura and soubrette subject : Cherubino in Figaro's wedding , Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Fra Diavolo , Marzelline in Fidelio , Ännchen in Der Freischütz , the page Urbain in Les Huguenots , Frau Dot in Heimchen at the hearth of Karl Goldmark , Micaëla in Carmen . She was particularly popular in roles by Albert Lortzing such as Marie in Zar and Zimmermann or Baroness Freimann in Der Wildschütz .

Quotes

“Blech knows what to thank this loyal partner; who always have a clear look, free from all prejudice, knows how to help and advise the husband whom they care for carefully. "

- Hans Lebede

“I got to Prague in time for the May Festival. A Wagner cycle. The man who conducted before me was called Gustav Mahler; the man who conducted after me, Felix Mottl. In between, I, the young man from Aachen, conducted Lohengrin on a trial basis ... That was on the evening of May 18, 1899. On the morning of May 19, I traveled back to Aachen with the contract in my pocket. On the morning of May 20, I married the beloved companion of my long life, the woman who sang the title role in my Cherubina opera. At lunchtime, at the wedding supper, a telegram came from Wiesbaden to my young wife: “This evening, the imperial performance, Carmen. Urgently ask you to sing, because of the greatest embarrassment. Fee three hundred marks. ”In short: On the evening of my wedding day I sat there without a wife. Once again it was Carmen's fault and the fact that we urgently needed the three hundred marks. We wanted to go to Prague. "

- Leo Blech : The balance sheet

"She is a graciously fresh, never intrusive actress, an excellent representative of the soubrette trade, whose unaffected humor secures her rich applause, while her solid vocal training and her melodious vocal resources, which she knows how to bring to best advantage, are unanimously recognized."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth and baptism certificates, quoted in Wolfgang Poch: Leo Blech . Dissertation, Free University of Berlin 1985, p. 285
  2. ↑ Martha Blech-Frank in the dictionary of persecuted musicians of the Nazi era (LexM)
  3. ^ Proof of previous stage artists in: Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch 1918 , p. 227
  4. ↑ Peter Sommeregger on info-netz-musik April 23, 2013; accessed on March 29, 2015
  5. ↑ Danijel Majic: Abgesägt. Berlin has the honorary grave of the composer Leo Blech leveled and claims to keep his memory . In: Berliner Zeitung , May 31, 2013, p. 24.
  6. ^ Danijel Majic: Leo Blech - Sawn off. In: Berliner Zeitung , May 31, 2013
  7. ↑ Jutta Lambrecht (Ed.): Leo Blech. Composer - Kapellmeister - General Music Director . Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2015
  8. ↑ See Facebook ; accessed on March 29, 2015
  9. ^ Francis Nenik, Sebastian Stumpf: Seven Palms. The Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles . Spector Books, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-95905-180-4 , pp. 151 .
  10. ↑ Herbert Sandberg on sok.riksarkivet.se, accessed on September 26, 2014 (Swedish)
  11. ↑ Hans Lebede: Leo Blech on his 60th birthday - April 21, 1931 . Electrola sketches, Berlin April 1931, p. 6
  12. ↑ Leo Blech: The balance sheet . In: Josef Müller-Marein , Hannes Reinhardt: The musical self-portrait of composers, conductors, instrumentalists, and singers of our time . Nannen, Hamburg 1963, pp. 117/118.
  13. ^ Ludwig Eisenberg : Martha Blech-Frank . In: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century. Paul List, Leipzig 1903, p. 103-104 ( daten.digitale-sammlungen.de ).
personal data
SURNAME Tin Frank, Martha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frank-Blech, Martha; Frank, Auguste Wilhelmine Martha (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Sondershausen
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1962
Place of death Berlin