Max Lorenz (singer)

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Max Lorenz, Bayreuth, August 1941

Max Lorenz , actually Max Sülzenfuß (born May 10, 1901 in Düsseldorf , † January 11, 1975 in Salzburg ) was a German opera singer ( tenor ).

Life

Instead of taking over his father's butcher 's shop , he decided on an artistic career and changed his name from Max Sülzenfuß to the stage name Max Lorenz during his vocal training in the early 1920s .

His teachers were Max Pauli in Cologne and Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin, later Heinz Tietjen promoted him . Lorenz made his debut at the Dresden State Opera in 1927 . In 1933 he was signed to the Berlin State Opera . Numerous guest appearances at many opera houses all over the world followed. At the same time he sang at the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth from 1933 to 1954 , for example Tristan in the Tietjen production in 1938 and 1939 , he was a member of the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1931 to 1934 and a member of the Vienna from 1948 to 1962 State Opera . In 1942 he played the small role of an opera singer in the film Old Heart Gets Young Again .

Lorenz was homosexual, but had been married to the Jew Charlotte (Lotte) Appel (1897–1964) since 1932, a singer who later also worked as his manager. His homosexuality was initially tacitly tolerated by the National Socialists . However, when Lorenz was brought to court because of an affair with a young man, Adolf Hitler informed the then director of the Bayreuth Festival, Winifred Wagner , that Lorenz had become intolerable for the festival. Wagner is said to have replied, according to his own account, that in this case she could "close Bayreuth"; “Bayreuth cannot be made” without Lorenz. After the end of the legal proceedings, Hitler assured her that Lorenz could continue to perform in Bayreuth in the future.

As for his Jewish wife, Lorenz insisted on showing himself with her in public, a behavior that the National Socialists perceived as a provocation. When SS men were supposed to pick up his wife and mother-in-law from the apartment during Lorenz's absence, this could be prevented at the last moment: Lotte Lorenz was able to contact a manager via a telephone number that she had received from Hermann Göring's sister ; From there instructions were issued to the SS men to leave the apartment and to leave the women unmolested. In response to this incident, Goering decreed in a letter of March 21, 1943 that Lorenz was under his personal protection; any action against Lorenz, his wife and mother must be avoided. Waldemar Kmentt According to Max Lorenz said to have used his privileged position in the Third Reich to protect next to his wife and a number of Jewish friends and colleagues from persecution.

After the Second World War, Lorenz settled in Vienna and acquired Austrian citizenship. During this time he was the leading hero tenor at the Vienna State Opera and also made numerous guest appearances at foreign opera stages. Lorenz sang in Bayreuth for the last time in 1954; this was followed by regular appearances at the Salzburg Festival . From 1962 to 1974 Lorenz taught at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and privately in Munich and Salzburg.

Max Lorenz celebrated his greatest successes as a hero tenor in Richard Wagner's operas . In 1960 he sang the title hero in Tristan und Isolde for the last time in Dresden . Lorenz had his last appearance on an opera stage in 1962 at the Vienna State Opera. Two years later his wife Lotte died. Her brother James, who lives in Israel, wrote a letter to Lorenz afterwards, which states, among other things:

"[...] what you have done in a human relationship will always be a role model for me: You have been loyal to your Jewish wife throughout the Hitler era, and beyond that you have kept my blessed mother hidden at your home at your own risk. I will always remember this with deep gratitude. In close friendship, James. "
Grave at the central cemetery

The grave of Max and Lotte Lorenz is in the grove of honor at the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 40, number 37).

roll

World premieres

Repertoire (selection)

Beethoven :

Mountain :

Bizet :

d'Albert :

Mussorgsky :

Offenbach :

Pfitzner :

Puccini :

Richard Strauss :

 

Tchaikovsky :

Verdi :

Wagner :

Weber :

Weinberger :

Awards

The following awards can be found in the online edition of the Austrian Music Lexicon :

Audio documents

Audio samples

Documentaries

year German title English title Label format running time annotation
2008 Wagner's master singer - Hitler's Siegfried. In the footsteps of Max Lorenz Max Lorenz - Wagner's Mastersinger / Hitler's Siegfried EuroArts DVD 54 min A documentary about the Wagner tenor Max Lorenz by Eric Schulz in collaboration with Claus Wischmann

literature

Web links

Commons : Max Lorenz (tenor)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c TV documentary Wagner's Meistersinger - Hitler's Siegfried. In the footsteps of Max Lorenz.
  2. ↑ Article “Max Lorenz” in the Austrian Music Lexicon (musiklexikon.ac.at).
  3. ↑ Max Lorenz - Wagner's Mastersinger / Hitler's Siegfried , under medici.tv.
personal data
SURNAME Lorenz, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sülzenfuß, Max (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH May 10, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf , Germany
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1975
Place of death Salzburg , Austria