Robert Leonhardt

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Robert Leonhardt (* 1877 in Linz ; † February 2, 1923 in New York City ) was an Austrian opera singer ( baritone ).

Life

Leonhardt was born in Linz in 1877 . There he made his debut as an opera singer in 1898. From 1899 to 1900 he was engaged at the Berlin Theater des Westens , 1900–1903 at the Theater von Teplitz-Schönau ( Teplice ), and 1904–1905 again at the Theater des Westens.

From 1905 he sang for four years at the Deutsches Theater in Prague .

He was a Wagner singer at the Brno Opera House between 1909 and 1911, and at the Vienna Volksoper . From 1911 to 1913 he had guest appearances at the Imperial Opera Vienna (1909) and the Gura Summer Opera Berlin (1910).

In October 1913 it was reported that Leonhardt had been called to the Metropolitan Opera of New York. He went on the express steamer "Bremen" and had to survive an arduous sea voyage before arriving in America on November 6th.

His first role with his new employer was that of Peter in Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel . After he had received positive reviews for his appearance, he appeared again and again in productions of the "Met" over the next nine years. Actually he was supposed to play a bigger role in this house, but world-historical circumstances prevented this.

On February 25, 1915, he took part in the American premiere of the opera Madame Sans-Gêne by Umberto Giordano , in 1917 in that of The Canterbury Pilgrims by Reginald de Koven.

From December 1917 on he wrote to Robert Leonard to distance himself from his German-speaking ancestry. Nevertheless, Leonhardt, as an Austrian citizen, was dropped by the “Met” in April 1918 because he was considered an “enemy alien” despite continued good reviews. His opera agent, Mr. Gatti, expressed his regret for this decision. Leonhardt's wife and children had stayed in Vienna during the war.

After the end of the war he was allowed to resume his work for the “Met”. From November 1920 he was back on stage there and continued to perform until shortly before his death. On November 19, 1921, as partner of Maria Jeritza , he sang Fritz in the New York premiere of the opera Die tote Stadt by Erich Wolfgang Korngold . He was last heard at the Metropolitan Opera in the opening performance of the 1922–1923 season in a Comprimario role in Puccini's Tosca .

Then he got a prolonged illness from which he did not recover. Robert Leonhardt died in St. Mark's Hospital in New York City on February 2, 1923. He was only 46 years old.

Singing style

Reviews of Leonhardt's performances cover a wide range of opinions. On the one hand, he was praised for his “dark, metal, throaty bass”, although this was probably due to the fact that he sang outside of the vocal range that he could easily control. Others, on the other hand, attested him a "light and lovely Italian voice" and a wonderful spontaneous sense of humor.

Media pioneer

Leonhardt's career as an artist on phonograms is perhaps even more significant than his stage career. His first recordings were made in 1900 at the Gramophone Company , for which he worked until 1905. Many of them found their way into the standard German catalog of this company. Several recordings he made in Europe also appeared on the International Zonophone Company and on the Homokord label. From 1903 to 1905 he also recorded for the European branch of Columbia in Vienna. Several times he sang records in a duet with the soprano Gertrud Runge.

He sang about the Edison cylinder before he came to America. They were successfully marketed there, especially among German-speaking immigrants. After moving to the United States, he continued to work for Columbia, this time on records, which he sang there from 1915 to 1920. Although he was advertised as being a member of the "Metropolitan Opera Co.", his repertoire consisted not only of opera singing, but also of numerous German folk and art songs, and like the Edison cylinders, his records also turned the prefix “E-”, which appeared in the “ethnic” catalog of Columbia, mainly to the German-speaking population, not so much to the general public of buyers in the USA.

Leonhardt's last recordings were made by Victor in Camden / New Jersey in 1920/21 and were also marketed in their ethnic series .

Sound documents (selection)

Music label Catalog
number		 Title of the piece year Remarks
Gramophones 42609 Put it on the table 1900
Gramophones 42322 Carmen: Toreador ( Georges Bizet ) 1900 matrix 641A
Gramophones 42349 Bonn ( August Bungert ) 1901
Gramophones 42461 Honor to the Boer, or The Boer's lost happiness 1901 matrix 648A
Gramophones 42319 Two eyes brown (Ferdinand Gumbert) 1901 matrix 1102B
Gramophones 42320 Your blue eyes (Kötzschke) 1901 matrix 1112B
Gramophones 42325 Two dark eyes ( Carl Heins ) 1901 matrix 1113B
Gramophones 42326 Light luggage (little hammer) 1901 matrix 1114B
Gramophones 42322 Oh, could I love like that again (Wilhelm Aletter) 1901 matrix 1115B
Gramophones 42324 The heart on the Rhine - There is a crown in the deep Rhine 1901 matrix 1146B
Gramophones 42473 Li-ti-ti, Rhinelander 1901 matrix 1302B
Gramophones 42383 Morning Anthem ( George Henschel ) 1901 matrix 119x
Gramophones 42380 Oh, could I love like that again (Wilhelm Aletter) 1901 matrix 120x
Gramophones 42404 Brother sloppy (paler) 1901 matrix 185x
Gramophones 42407 Two dark eyes (Carl Heins) 1901 matrix 199x
Gramophones 44029 The hazelnut, singing over the board 1901 with Gertrud Runge
Gramophones 42327 snowdrop 1902 matrix 1162B
Gramophones 42664 Lean your cheek on my cheek (Jensen) 1902 matrix 2113B
Gramophones 42675 I stand in gloomy midnight, folk song 1902 matrix 2187B
Gramophones 42682 Oh how about it then ( chickens ) 1902 matrix 2188B
Gramophones 42684 Germany above everything ( Haydn - August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben ) 1902 matrix 2190B
Gramophones 42685 Do I have to go to the town, folksong 1902 matrix 2192B
Gramophones 42073 There drew three boys, folk song 1902 matrix 2893B
Gramophones 42943 Freedom i mean (Karl Groos) 1902 matrix 1278x
Gramophones 42945 Whom God wants to show the right favor (Mathias Fröhlich) 1902 matrix 1280x
Gramophones 42982 Carmen: Torerolied (Bizet) 1902 matrix 1307x
Gramophones 42950 The beauty of New York: You my girl (Gustave Kerker) 1902 matrix 1313x
Gramophones 42986 Forest worship (Franz Wilhelm Abt) 1902 matrix 1371x
Gramophones 42980 I see a young man 1902 matrix 1286x
Gramophones 42949 The grave on the Haide (Heiser) 1902 matrix 1312x
Gramophones 2-42652 Aennchen in the garden (Hoelzel) 1903 matrix 1749x
Gramophones 2-42655 I send these flowers to you (Gallrein) 1903 matrix 1768x
Gramophones 2-42656 When the swallows go home 1903 matrix 1769x
Gramophones 2-42637 The Doll : A Song of Satisfaction - Someone Asks ( Edmond Audran ) 1903 matrix 1770x
Gramophones 2-42657 In the morning I'll send you the violets 1903 matrix 1784x
Gramophones 2-42658 The Doll : Song of Maximus ( Edmond Audran ) 1903 matrix 1785x
Gramophones 2-42114 Run of the World (Goldschmidt) 1903 matrix 3181B
Gramophones 3-42094 Oh, how is it possible then 1904 matrix 2475L
Gramophones 2-42247 The forget-me-not 1904 matrix 1901k
Gramophones 44436 This is the day of the Lord ( Conradin Kreutzer ) 1904 with Gertrud Runge; matrix 2326h
Gramophones 3-42057 Zampa : Lovely Girl ( Ferdinand Hérold ) 1904 matrix 2382L
Gramophones 3-42054 The forget-me-not 1904 matrix 2404L
Gramophones 3-42093 Morgenrot, Morgenrot, folk song 1904 matrix 2478L
Gramophones 2-42252 Do I have to go to the town, folksong 1904 matrix 1916k
Gramophones 3-42065 Do I have to go to the town, folksong 1904 matrix 2407L
Gramophones 3-42422 To Mantua in gangs (Leopold Knebelsberger) 1905 matrix 234r
Gramophones 3-42335 Forest worship (Franz Wilhelm Abt) 1905 matrix 236r
Gramophones 3-42310 In the jug for the green wreath, folk song 1905 matrix 238r
Gramophones 3-42311 O old lad glory, student song 1905 matrix 239r
Gramophones 3-42312 The linden landlady (Franz Wilhelm Abt) 1905 matrix 240r
Gramophones 2-42320 Two dark eyes (Carl Heins) 1905 matrix 256q
Gramophones 2-42327 The beauty of New York: You my girl (Gustave Kerker) 1905 matrix 257q
Gramophones 2-42322 Whom God wants to show the right favor (Mathias Fröhlich) 1905 matrix 260q
Gramophones 2-42323 O old lad glory, student song 1905 matrix 262q
Gramophones 3-42309 Two dark eyes (Carl Heins) 1905 matrix 5h
Gramophones 3-42093X Morgenrot, Morgenrot, folk song 1905 matrix 17h
Gramophones 3-42199 Deep in the Bohemian Forest, folk song (Hans Bichert) 1905 matrix 3066L
Edison 12262 Two dark eyes 1907
Edison 12264 Aria ( Pardon de Ploërmel : Ah! Mon remords te venge) 1907
Edison 15189 Edelweiss 1908
Edison 16090 Ballad of Nelusko (L'Africaine: Adamastor, roi des vagues profondes) ~ 1909
Columbia E2565 The music is coming (Oskar Strauss) 1915 matrix 46163 take 2
Columbia E2565 Prinz Eugen, the noble knight (Carl Löwe) 1915 matrix 46164 take 1
Columbia E2566 The Golden Cross - Song of the Bombardon 1915 matrix 46165 take 1
Columbia E2566 Bonn (if only the Rhine weren't ...) 1915 matrix 46166 take 1
Columbia E2644 Homesickness ( Hugo Wolf ) 1915 matrix 46169 take 1
Columbia E2644 Nightingale song, from " The Bird Trader " ( Zeller ) 1915 matrix 46170 take 1
Columbia A2053 The trumpeter von Säkkingen: It wasn't meant to be 1916 matrix 43921 take 1
Columbia A2053 O good time, O happy time (idol) 1916 matrix 43922 take 1
Columbia E2951 Andreas Hofer 1916 matrix 43923
Columbia E2951 God receive (Austrian folk hymn) 1916 matrix 43924
Columbia E3098 The Silesian revelers and the devils (Reissiger) 1916 matrix 43975 take 2
Columbia E3098 Three hikers 1916 matrix 43978 take 1
Columbia E3140 From the youth (Radecke) 1916 matrix 44070 take 1
Columbia E3230 From the Rhine with wine 1916
Columbia E3230 Still as the night, deep as the sea 1916 with Julia Kuebler
Columbia E3273 Six, seven or eight (Herrmann) 1916 matrix 44069 take 1
Columbia E3273 Praise of the Polish woman, from " The Begging Student " ( Millöcker ) 1916 matrix 44071 take 2
Columbia E4898 Well still drunk - Wanderlied 1920 matrix 86736 take 1
Columbia E4898 Loreley 1920 matrix 86737 take 2
Columbia E4935 From the youth 1920 matrix 86739 take 1
Columbia E4935 When the swallows return 1920 matrix 86891 take 2
Columbia E4997 Reiters Morgenlied 1920 matrix 86738
Columbia E4997 Andreas Hofer 1920 matrix 86875
Columbia E4956 The two grenadiers 1920 matrix 86874 take 1
Columbia E4956 Prince Eugene the Knight 1920 matrix 86889 take 3
Columbia E7073 The trumpeter from Säkkingen: God protect you 1920 matrix 86890 take 1
Columbia E7073 Nightingale song 1920 matrix 86896 take 2
Columbia E7489 The last greeting 1920 matrix 86873
Columbia E7489 Once I played with the scepter, from "Zar und Zimmermann" 1920 matrix 86897
Victor 68583 The trumpeter from Säkkingen: God protect you, it would have been too beautiful 1921 with Nathaniel Shilkret
Victor 68583 Elf king 1921 with Nathaniel Shilkret
Victor 73258 In the Prater the trees are blooming again (Kurt Robitschek - Robert Stolz ) 1922 matrix B 26208 take 2
Victor 73258 Do you know, Muatterl, what I was dreaming? (A. Kutschera) 1922 matrix B 26208 take 2

literature

  • Ernie Bayly, Michael S. Kinnear: The Zon-o-phone record: a discography of recordings produced by the International Zonophone Company and associated companies in Europe and the Americas, 1901-1903. Michael Kinnear, Victoria, Australia 2001, ISBN 0-9577355-2-9 . (English)
  • Alan Blyth, Malcolm Walker: Opera on Record. Volume 3, Hutchinson, London 1984, ISBN 0-09-158620-8 , p. 137. (English)
  • Alan Kelly: The Gramophone Company - Standard German Catalog (1898-1929). Greenwood Press, 1988, ISBN 0-313-26498-8 . (English)
  • Henry Edward Krehbiel: More Chapters of Opera: Being Historical and Critical Observations and Records Concerning the Lyric Drama in New York from 1908 to 1918. Henry Holt and Company, New York 1919, pp. 370, 398. (English)
  • Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens (Ed.): Immortal Voices: Small Singer Lexicon. A. Francke Verlag, Bern / Munich 1975, OCLC 835389281 .
  • Peter Martland: Recording History: The British Record Industry, 1888-1931. Rowman & Littlefield, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-8252-2 . (English)
  • Richard K. Spottswood: Ethnic Music on Records, a Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942. Vol. 1: Western Europe. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois 1990, ISBN 0-252-01719-6 , pp. 185-186. (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Piet Hein Honig, Hanns-Georg Rodek : 100001. The show business encyclopedia of the 20th century. Showbiz-Data-Verlag, Villingen-Schwenningen 1992, ISBN 3-929009-01-5 , p. 563.
  2. ↑ Operissimo
  3. ↑ here he sang a. a. 1905 in the world premiere of the opera Flauto solo by Eugen d'Albert and in the same year in the opera Zierpuppen by Anselm Goetzl, cf. Operissimo
  4. ↑ he sang the Beckmesser in the Meistersingern and the Alberich in the Ring des Nibelungen , cf. Operissimo
  5. ↑ at the Volksoper in 1911 he sang the minstrel in the Vienna premiere of Humperdinck's Royal Children ; on November 23, 1911 he took part in the world premiere of the opera Der Kuhreigen by Wilhelm Kienzl , cf. Operissimo
  6. ^ Hard Voyage for Bremen. In: The New York Times. November 7, 1913.
  7. ^ New Baritone Appears. In: The New York Times. December 27, 1913, p. 18.
  8. ↑ Article "[Met Performance] CID: 55450 Hansel and Gretel {75} Matinee ed. Metropolitan Opera House: 12/26/1913". The Metropolitan Opera Archives. The Metropolitan Opera (accessed September 28, 2014)
  9. ↑ Metropolitan Grand Opera Season Closes; Company Goes to Boston. In: The Sunday Oregonian. April 16, 1916. p. Section 5, p. 7.
  10. ↑ Operissimo
  11. ^ Opera Clears Out 20 Enemy Aliens. In: The New York Times. April 27, 1918, p. 10 (accessed September 28, 2014)
  12. ↑ Operissimo
  13. ^ Obituary: Robert Leonhardt, Opera Baritone. In: The New York Times. February 3, 1923, p. 13.
  14. ↑ so Alan Blyth, Malcolm Walker: Opera on Record. Volume 3, 1984, p. 137.
  15. ↑ z. B. Season of Grand Opera Draws Near to Close in New York City. In: The Sunday Oregonian. April 2, 1916, Section 5, p. 2 (accessed September 28, 2014)
  16. ^ Peter Martland: Recording History: The British Record Industry, 1888-1931. 2013, pp. 21 f., 60, 69 u. 74, and Ernie Bayly, Michael S. Kinnear: The Zon-o-phone record: a discography of recordings produced by the International Zonophone Company and associated companies in Europe and the Americas, 1901–1903. 2001.
  17. ↑ cf. on this Art. at grammophon-platten.de
  18. ↑ "In contrast to other" record singers ", all of her recordings are of a high artistic level. These recordings reflect a repertoire of incredible versatility, so that her soprano voice cannot be assigned to any specialty ”, cf. Operissimo
  19. ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens (Ed.): Immortal Voices: Small Singer Lexicon. 1975, p. 381.
  20. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Alan Kelly: The Gramophone Company - Standard German Catalog (1898–1929). Recordings for which the composer is not stated. June 13, 2013, accessed December 9, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Leonhardt, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer (baritone)
DATE OF BIRTH 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Linz
DATE OF DEATH February 2, 1923
Place of death New York City