Otto Wiener (singer)

Otto Wiener (born February 13, 1911 in Vienna ; † August 5, 2000 there ) was an Austrian opera singer with a baritone voice .

Life

Otto Wiener first studied veterinary medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. But then he took singing lessons in Vienna , among others with the well-known chamber singer and baritone Hans Duhan . From 1939 Wiener worked as a singer, initially exclusively as a concert singer . During this time he could also be heard on broadcasts on the Wiener Rundfunk. After the Second World War he also sang in concerts and oratorios . His debut as an opera singer took place in 1953 at the Stadttheater Graz in the title role of the opera Simone Boccanegra by Giuseppe Verdi . From 1956 to 1959 he could be heard regularly at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg .

From 1952 Wiener sang regularly at the Salzburg Festival . From 1952 to 1955 he worked there as a concert singer. In 1955 he took over the role of bishop "Ercole Severolus" in the opera Palestrina by Hans Pfitzner . In 1960 he sang "Joseph" at the festival in the world premiere of the opera passion play Mysterium von der Geburt des Herr von Frank Martin . In 1961 and 1969 he sang the "Faninal" in the musical comedy Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss in Salzburg . In 1967, 1968 and 1970 he took on the small but dramaturgically important role of “speaker” in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute .

From 1957 to 1963 Wiener was a permanent member of the Bayreuth Festival . There he took on the great hero baritone roles in Richard Wagner's musical dramas : 1957–1959 and 1963 he sang “Hans Sachs” in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , in 1958 “Gunther” in Götterdämmerung , 1959 the title role in Der Fliegende Holländer , 1962 the "Wotan" and 1962–1963 the "Wanderer" in Der Ring des Nibelungen .

Since 1957 Wiener was a permanent member of the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera , of which he was a permanent member until he retired from the stage in 1976. He was heard there in a total of almost 30 different roles in over 600 performances. In Vienna he sang other Wagner roles such as “Amfortas” in Parsifal and “Kurwenal” in Tristan and Isolde . He also took on roles from the German and Italian repertoire, including the “Don Pizarro” in Fidelio , the “music teacher” in Ariadne on Naxos , the “Orest” in Elektra , the “Jochanaan” in Salome , the “Borromeo” in Hans Pfitzner's Palestrina at the side of Fritz Wunderlich and the "Amonasro" in Aida . His most sung role in Vienna was the “speaker” in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte , which Wiener sang 113 times.

From 1960 to 1970, Wiener was also a member of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich . There he sang "Hans Sachs" in November 1963 in the first public performance of the rebuilt National Theater under the musical direction of Joseph Keilberth . Wiener's partners included Hans Hotter , Jess Thomas , Benno Kusche , Claire Watson and Lilian Benningsen .

Wiener made guest appearances at the Covent Garden Opera in London , at the Grand Opéra in Paris and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (1962–1963 as Hans Sachs ). In 1964 he sang the theater director “La Roche” in Capricco by Richard Strauss at the Glyndebourne Festival .

Until shortly before his death, Wiener continued to be artistically active as a singing teacher and music teacher. From 1976 he was director of the Vienna State Opera 's junior studio. Wiener was awarded the title of Kammersänger for his artistic merits .

He was buried at the Neustifter Friedhof (H-13-21).

Audio documents

There are only relatively few original studio recordings that document Wiener's voice on vinyl . For example, he sang the title role in Julius Caesar in Vienna in 1954 under the musical direction of Hans Swarowsky . In a complete recording of the opera Lohengrin at EMI , he sang the Heerrufer in 1962/1963 under the musical direction of Rudolf Kempe . Under Georg Solti he took up the Faninal at the Decca in 1968/1969 . He sang in a recording of the operetta Das Dreimäderlhaus on ORF .

However, there are numerous live recordings of operas and radio recordings . Numerous performances with Otto Wiener, especially those from the Bayreuth Festival , were recorded every year for radio and later published on records. In the meantime, these performances have also been re-released on CD, often under various different record labels. His "Hans Sachs" with the performance recordings from Bayreuth in 1958 and 1959 has appeared twice on the Myto label: 1958 with André Cluytens at the podium (partners: Elisabeth Grümmer , Josef Traxel , Toni Blankenheim ), in 1959 with Erich Leinsdorf as conductor and Rudolf Schock as "Walther von Stolzing".

A recording of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg from Munich (1963) on the occasion of the reopening of the National Theater with Joseph Keilberth at the podium appeared on record and has meanwhile also been re-released on CD.

From 1964 there is a live recording from the Vienna State Opera in which Wiener sings “La Roche”: (Madeleine: Lisa della Casa ; musical direction: Georges Prêtre ).

Awards

• 1964: Awarded the professional title of chamber singer
• 1969: Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class
• 1981: Honorary member of the Vienna State Opera

literature

• Rudolf Grossmaier: Otto Wiener: The unforgettable Hans Sachs , Vienna 2014 ISBN 978-3-7357-7935-9 .
• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Third, expanded edition. Munich 1999. Volume 5: Seidemann – Zysset , pp. 3717/3718. ISBN 3-598-11419-2 .
• Christian Fastl: Wiener, Otto. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 .

Web links

• Works by and about Otto Wiener in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Otto Wiener (singer) in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Otto Wiener with Bach Cantatas (English)
• Otto Wiener in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
• Otto Wiener in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl J. Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Large singing dictionary . Third, expanded edition. Munich 1999. Volume 5: Seidemann – Zysset, ISBN 3-598-11419-2 , pp. 3717/3718, give 1913 as the date of birth.
   The DNB, on the other hand, mentions 1911, as does the Austria Lexicon at www.aeiou.at.
   Christian Fastl: Wiener, Otto. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 . expressly states February 13, 1911 [not 1913] .
2. ↑ Frank Martin • MYSTERY OF THE BIRTH OF THE LORD  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Homepage of the Salzburg Festival, archive 1960  
3. ↑ List of roles Otto Wiener.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Homepage of the Salzburg Festival (with search function)  
4. ↑ 1876 ​​BAYREUTH 1991 . Chronicle of the Bayreuth Festival, editor: Peter Emmerich.
5. ↑ Vita Otto Wiener ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Homepage of the Bayreuth Festival 
6. ↑ List of roles by Otto Wiener in: Chronik der Wiener Staatsoper 1945-1995 . Verlag Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna / Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7031-0698-0 , p. 672/673.