Richard Mayr

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Richard Mayr (born October 18, 1877 in Salzburg , † December 1, 1935 in Vienna ) was an Austrian singer ( bassist ) of classical music .

Live and act

Memorial plaque on Mayr's birthplace

Born as the son of an innkeeper in the Salzburger Bergstrasse , Mayr attended the Academic Gymnasium in Salzburg , where he became a member of the All-German Gymnasium Association Rugia Salzburg . Richard Mayr began studying medicine in 1897. Through active participation in social student life and after becoming a member of the Vienna Academic Burschenschaft Libertas in 1897 , he showed a keen interest in artistic events and classical singing during his studies. Just one year later, after a celebrated first public appearance in the “ Beer Opera ” “Dalibor und der Boehme” by Franz Pawlikowski, Mayr decided to give up his medical studies and devote himself to singing. He began his vocal studies with Johannes Ress in Vienna and quickly took over the bass part in Beethoven's Missa solemnis at the Bozen men's choir. The violinist and concertmaster Karl Prill , himself engaged at the Bayreuth Festival since 1897 , heard him in Antonín Dvořák's Requiem in Vienna and recommended him to Cosima Wagner , who immediately engaged him. In the winter of 1901/02 he continued his studies with Julius Kniese in his voice training school in Bayreuth . On July 28, 1902, he had his first opera appearance as "Hagen" in Wagner's Götterdämmerung at the Bayreuth Festival.

Richard Mayr as ox on Lerchenau

In the following years his career took a steep turn. In 1902 he was hired to work at the “kk Hof-Operntheater”, today's Vienna State Opera , where he made his debut on October 2, 1902 as Don Silva in Verdi's Ernani, and in his first season played 16 operatic roles. In 1905 he was appointed chamber singer . With the role of the baron "Ochs auf Lerchenau" in the opera Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, he shone at the Vienna State Opera (Vienna premiere on April 8, 1911) and later in 1924 at the Covent Garden Opera in London , which opened for his international career became. Between 1906 and 1934, with only a few exceptions, he took on regular engagements at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festival (he was seen as a leporello in the first opera performance of the Festival in 1922 ) as well as numerous guest appearances at various renowned European opera houses. With his debut in the role of goldsmith “Veit Pogner” from Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Mayr began a series of successful guest appearances in the USA at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on November 2, 1927 .

On September 23, 1934, as part of the partial opening of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road to the Fuscher Törl and the Edelweiss Road to the Edelweißspitze, he performed an outdoor vocal assignment. But only a year later he retired due to illness; he died on December 1, 1935 at the age of only 58.

Richard Mayr was a very dedicated singer. Of a total of 95 different opera roles, the characters of “Ochs auf Lerchenau” with 149, Pogner with 138, “Landgrave Hermann” from Wagner's Tannhäuser with 123 and “König Marke” from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with 101 appearances were his on most commonly embodied roles. He presented his characters with his own unique and novel characteristics and a psychological depth, especially where the comedic and the tragic were to be linked.

Together with his brother, the costume tailor Carl Mayr , he was in close contact with the Henndorfer Kreis , a literary artist group around Carl Zuckmayer in his home town of Henndorf am Wallersee near Salzburg. His niece Maria Mayr married the brewing and construction industrialist Gustav Kapsreiter and made a name for herself as a patron of the arts. Richard Mayr was married to the actress Berthe Marie Denk.

Richard Mayr was buried in the family crypt in the Salzburg Petersfriedhof . Half of his extensive estate was transferred to the International Mozarteum Foundation and half to the Salzburg Museum Carolino-Augusteum .

Honors

Family crypt in the Petersfriedhof Salzburg with an inscription for Kammersänger Richard Mayr

For his services, Richard Mayr was made an honorary member of the Vienna State Opera (1926), the International Mozarteum Foundation and the Vienna Academic Choir . In addition, he received:

Discography (selection)

  • Requiem, KV 626 Requiem; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. - Photo taken in 1931; New recording at Hamburg: Line Music, (sound carrier) [2008]
  • The Rosenkavalier; Strauss, Richard. - Abbreviated recording 1933 (with Robert Heger and the Vienna Philharmonic, HMV); New recording Hamburg: Line Music, [2002]
  • Church Sonata KV 67; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Photo taken in 1931; New recording Munich: Orfeo, [1995]
  • Living past; Vienna: Preiser; Recording 1921–1924; New recording Laer: Fono-Schallplattengesellschaft, Vertrieb, [1995]
  • Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125; Beethoven, Ludwig van. - Recording February 1935 (with Felix Weingartner and the Vienna Philharmonic, Columbia). Vienna: Preiser; New recording Laer: Fono-Schallplattengesellschaft, Vertrieb, [1995]
  • Edition Wiener Staatsoper live 1933–1941 / Vol. 16. [1994]
  • Edition Wiener Staatsoper live 1933–1941 / Vol. 15. [1994]
  • Edition Wiener Staatsoper live 1933–1936 / Vol. 14. Clemens Krauss conducts Richard Wagner [1994]
  • Edition Wiener Staatsoper live 1933–1936 / Vol. 1. [1994]

literature

Web links

Commons : Richard Mayr  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 484-485.
  2. ^ Ernst Elsheimer (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members according to the status of the winter semester 1927/28. Frankfurt am Main 1928, p. 327.
  3. ↑ a b Jürgen Kesting: The great singers. Volume 1, Hamburg: Hofmann and Campe 2008, p. 267.
  4. ↑ Christa Harten: Prill, Karl (1864-1931), violinist , ÖBL 1815-1950, Vol. 8 (Lfg. 38, 1981), p. 280, accessed on June 21, 2016.
  5. ↑ The Grossglockner High Alpine Road was only opened for through traffic on August 3, 1935, source Salzburgwiki - Building history of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and source Wallack there, Franz: The Grossglockner High Alpine Road - the history of its construction , second edition, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, 1960, Springer Verlag, Vienna.
  6. ^ High distinction Richard Mayr. In:  Salzburger Volksblatt , November 20, 1935, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / svb
personal data
SURNAME Mayr, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian tenor of classical music
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Salzburg
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1935
Place of death Vienna