Reinhold Fritz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reinhold Fritz ( March 16, 1884 in Ruit auf den Fildern - October 30, 1950 in Stuttgart ) was a German chamber singer with a bass-baritone voice . He was engaged at the Stuttgart Court Opera for 25 years and was forced into retirement because of his Jewish wife after the Nazis came to power in 1933. This ended his career and he had to support his family with heavy physical labor.

life and work

Reinhold Fritz learned the profession of goldsmith and practiced it for six years in Esslingen am Neckar . In 1904 he began to study singing in Stuttgart and in 1908 he was engaged as a trainee at the court opera there . After only a year he was accepted into the ensemble of the court opera, was able to build up a broad repertoire in both serious and comic roles and quickly became one of the pillars of the ensemble. His vocal range also made it possible to occupy the subject of the hero baritone . In 1913 he was appointed royal chamber singer . He received offers from other opera houses, but remained loyal to the Stuttgart Opera. He only left Stuttgart for guest performances, which took him to the Bavarian Court Opera in Munich and the Grand Ducal Court Theater in Karlsruhe, among others .

Its universal applicability meant that it became one of the busiest members of the ensemble and was on stage on up to 130 evenings during a season, always alternating between comic and serious subject, main and supporting roles. He also took part in numerous world premieres, in works by Walter Braunfels , Paul Hindemith , Ture Rangström , Max von Schillings and Siegfried Wagner .

The singer was born in 1912 with Hilda. Landauer from Ravensburg married. The couple had at least one son, Walter Fritz (born 1915 or 1920), who later also embarked on a career as a singer, but as a tenor. Since the singer refused to divorce his Jewish wife after the Nazis came to power, he was officially called on August 1, 1933, at the age of 49, "due to health reasons." In contrast to his colleagues of Jewish origin, Hermann Horner and Hermann Weil , who were also dismissed , he was not denied the right to a farewell performance. On December 6, 1933, he sang Mayor van Bett again in Lortzing's Zar und Zimmermann , one of his comical parade roles. He was also made an honorary member of the House that evening. However, he was already noted as a guest on the theater bill. Silent voices summarize the effects of retirement as follows:

"Individual guest appearances at the Stuttgart House until 1935 did not change the fact that his singing career was suddenly ended at its peak."

This was followed by the exclusion from the Reichstheaterkammer , which amounted to a practical professional ban. Since the family could not survive with the meager pension, Reinhold Fritz had to work as an assistant in a Stuttgart coal merchant and in a Bielefeld company. To make matters worse, the family's home was destroyed by aerial bombs. In the season 1945/46 the singer was brought back to the Stuttgart Opera, but only with a guest performance contract for ten evenings.

He spent the last years of his life in Eningen under Achalm .

Roles (selection)

The hat is to blame for everything! (Cast sheet for the premiere, Stuttgart 1917)

The list of roles was created based on the information in Kutsch / Riemens, and also based on the silent voices .

World premieres at the Royal Court Theater Stuttgart
World premieres at the Württembergisches Landestheater Stuttgart
repertoire

Beethoven :

Halévy :

Lortzing :

Mozart :

Puccini :

  • Cesare Angelotti in Tosca

Richard Strauss :

 

Verdi :

Wagner :

Weber :

Commemoration

Reinhold Fritz was one of the leading bass players at the Stuttgart Opera. He also succeeded in guest appearances and impressed with his versatility.

His work in Stuttgart was recognized in the exhibition Mute Voices , which was also shown in the Stuttgart State Opera in autumn 2008 to expel Jewish artists from the opera from 1933 to 1945. On April 7, 2016, another memorial hour was held for the victims of National Socialism among the members of the Stuttgart State Theater. In this context, a blackboard "Silent Voices" for 23 artists, including Reinhold Fritz, was unveiled in the foyer of the State Theater.

literature

  • Hannes Heer : Silent voices. The expulsion of the "Jews" from the opera 1933 to 1945. The fight for the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart. An exhibition. Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86331-303-6 , p. 107
  • Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Fourth, enlarged and updated edition. KG Saur, Munich 2003, Volume 4, pp. 1578f
  • Anja Stefanidis on Kammersänger Reinhold Fritz, in: Lived Utopia. In the footsteps of the Freemasons in Württemberg , book accompanying the exhibition of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives, Main State Archives Stuttgart / edited by Albrecht Ernst and Regina Grünert, 2017, pp. 142–143

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "The Württemberg State Theater" crime scene .
  2. ↑ Hannes Heer, Jürgen Kesting, Peter Schmidt: Silent voices. The Bayreuth Festival and the "Jews" 1876 to 1945 , Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-98-7 , p. 107
  3. ↑ Baden-Württemberg State Archives .
  4. ↑ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg: Memorial plaque for Nazi victims unveiled in the Stuttgart State Theater (April 7, 2016)
personal data
SURNAME Fritz, Reinhold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer with a bass-baritone voice
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Ruit on the Filder
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1950
Place of death Stuttgart