Mechthild Gessendorf

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Mechthild Gessendorf (born June 6, 1937 in Munich ) is a German opera singer ( soprano ).

Life

Gessendorf has been giving concerts and appearing on Bavarian Radio since she was 10 . She studied at the University of Music and Theater in Munich and completed her studies in the master class with Josef Metternich at the University of Music Cologne .

She received her first engagement at the Vienna Chamber Opera in 1962 and made her debut in the soubrette field. After an engagement at the Stadttheater Bremen , she came to the theater of the Federal City of Bonn , where she performed until 1982.

In 1975 she switched to lyrical and dramatic voices. Mechthild Gessendorf was connected to the Bavarian State Opera through guest appearances , where she gained particular fame in 1981 with the title role of Aida , as Empress in the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss and later in The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten .

In a concert performance of Othmar Schoeck's Penthesilea , she sang the role of Meroe at the Salzburg Festival in 1982 . Further guest appearances have taken her to opera houses in Europe and overseas, such as Antwerp , Liège , the State Operas of Vienna and Hamburg , the Paris Opera , the Deutsche Oper am Rhein , the Deutsche Oper Berlin , the Milan Scala in Philadelphia and Montreal or ans Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires .

She participated in the Savonlinna Opera Festival and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and in 1983 took over the role of Agathe in Freischütz for a sick colleague at the Bregenz Festival with great success . She made her North American debut in 1983 with Aida at the San Diego Opera . In 1986 she made her successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York City , where she sang a total of 31 performances until 1997.

Mechthild Gessendorf was married to the tenor Werner Hollweg for a few years before she married her current husband, the director Ernö Weil .

voice

Mechthild Gessendorf had a special natural voice even as a child. That's why she sang her first solo parts in the children's choir of the Bavarian Radio. She always followed her singing instinct. For the last 20 years of her career she had problems with her voice. At that time, a doctor diagnosed edema on one of her vocal folds , which is now known as the vocal cord nodule and which also had the typical temporary effects on her voice quality. With sufficient rest periods between performances and rest during rehearsals, she was able to continue her professional activity until the end of her career. Since she kept her illness a secret and had to think carefully about how much she could claim her voice, she received, to her great regret, the reputation of a "rejecter" or a "difficult one" in organizer circles.

Discography

Repertoire (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography in Neuer Merker ( Memento of the original from April 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 5, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / der-neue-merker.eu
  2. ↑ Interview in the Mittelbayerische Zeitung : Singer full of fervor from November 16, 2019, vol. 75, no. 265, p. 28.
personal data
SURNAME Gessendorf, Mechthild
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich