Richard Breitenfeld
Richard Breitenfeld (born October 13, 1869 in Reichenberg , Bohemia , Austria-Hungary ; died December 16, 1942 in the Theresienstadt ghetto ) was an Austrian - German opera singer ( baritone ) of Bohemian origin with a long career at the Frankfurt Opera.
Life
Breitenfeld, who came from northern Bohemia, received a commercial apprenticeship. He then worked as a worker in a factory. Breitenfeld received his artistic training from the voice teacher Johann Reß. On January 17, 1897, Richard Breitenfeld made his debut at the Cologne City Theater with Count Luna in Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore . In May 1901, Breitenfeld appeared for the first time during the music festival in Magdeburg . In 1902 he moved to the City Theater of Frankfurt am Main. Breitenfeld was a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble for over three decades . In 1903, the Bohemian took part in the Bayreuth Festival for the first time.
Breitenfeld's most important singing roles in 36 years of stage activity were Rigoletto , Figaro and Tannhauser . In 1912 he caused a sensation with his participation in the world premiere of Franz Schreker's Der ferne Klang . At the same time, in the last four years before the outbreak of World War I , Breitenfeld was recording records for the companies Odeon and His Master's Voice .
Breitenfeld had to end his career in 1932 because of his severe myopia and lived in Frankfurt as a pensioner and singing teacher. After 1933 his pension was cut, and later he and his wife Olga had to sell their furniture and forcibly move to Hansaallee 7 in Frankfurt. On September 1, 1942, the couple were deported to Theresienstadt, where they died soon after.
literature
- Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 73.
- Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Third edition, Berlin 2000, pp. 2972f.
- Hannes Heer ; Jürgen Kesting; Peter Schmidt: Silent voices: the Bayreuth Festival and the "Jews" from 1876 to 1945; an exhibition . Bayreuth Festival Park and Exhibition Hall New Town Hall Bayreuth, July 22 to October 14, 2012. Berlin: Metropol, 2012 ISBN 978-3-86331-087-5 , p. 322; P. 376.
- Hannes Heer; Sven Fritz; Heike Brummer; Jutta Zwilling: Silent voices: the expulsion of the "Jews" and "politically intolerable" from the Hessian theaters 1933 to 1945 . Berlin: Metropol, 2011 ISBN 978-3-86331-013-4 , p. 368f.
- Initiative Stolpersteine Frankfurt am Main (ed.): Stolpersteine in Frankfurt am Main, Volume 1: Ten tours , 2nd edition, Frankfurt a. M .: Brandes & Apsel 2017, p. 172.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Breitenfeld, Richard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-Austrian opera singer (baritone) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 13, 1869 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Reichenberg , Sudetenland , Austria-Hungary |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 16, 1942 |
| Place of death | Theresienstadt ghetto , Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia |