Rolf Telasko

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Rolf Telasko , also Ralph Telasco , originally Rudolf ( August 10, 1911 in Hollenstein an der Ybbs - March 8, 1991 in Darmstadt ) was an Austrian  opera singer with a bass-baritone voice , later also an actor and vocal teacher . At the beginning of his career he was engaged at the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival . In 1939 he was forced to emigrate because of his descent from the Nazi regime .

After the fall of the Hitler dictatorship, he returned to Europe, was involved in a number of opera houses and went on extensive guest tours.

life and work

Telasko studied singing at the Vienna Music Academy and the New Vienna Conservatory as well as musicology at the University of Vienna . He was a pupil of the baritone and singing teacher Viktor Fuchs (1888-1966) and made his debut in 1934 as Heerrufer in Wagner's Lohengrin at the Vienna Volksoper . From 1934 he was engaged for one season each at the Volksoper, the Vienna State Opera and the Stadttheater Troppau . In 1936 and 1937 he took on the role of Konrad Nachtigall in the legendary Meistersinger new production conducted by Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival , of which a complete recording is also available. From 1937 he appeared at the Graz Opera House and the Landestheater Linz , from 1938 he was also the director of the Linz Opera. After the annexation of Austria by Hitler's Germany in March 1938, he was still allowed to appear as a Jewish “half-breed”, but he must have been aware of the danger he was in. He also got a contract for the 1939/40 season, but used the theater holidays in the summer of 1939 to flee, almost at the last minute before the outbreak of the Second World War . He emigrated to South America via France, Spain and Portugal.

From 1940 to 1943 Telasko was engaged at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro and then worked as a guest singer in the United States , from 1944 with interruptions to 1953 at the New York City Opera , also in Chicago, New Orleans and Philadelphia. In May 1948 there were two guest appearances at the Vienna State Opera, once as Amonasro in Aida , once in the four villain roles of Hoffmann's stories . In 1949 he completed a tour of Central America.

In the early 1950s, he shifted the focus of his activities back to Europe. He made guest appearances at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck and was then from 1952 in permanent engagements at German and Swiss opera houses: 1952–54 at the Landestheater Darmstadt , 1954–55 at the Stadttheater Basel , where he played Golaud, Lescaut and Count Almaviva, 1955–61 on Saarbrücken State Theater and from 1961 to the end of his career in 1976 at the Zurich Opera House . There he showed the full range of his repertoire, from Mozart and Beethoven to Wagner and Bizet to contemporary composers both from the E area ( Henze , Krenek , Sutermeister ) and from the U area ( Burkhard ), from the classical baritone (Escamillo, Scarpia) to the basso cantante to the character bass (Boris Godunov, King Philipp).

Parallel to his permanent engagements, he was able to give guest performances at major stages across Europe - at Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Teatro Comunale in Florence, Liceu in Barcelona and São Carlos in Lisbon, in Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nice and Toulouse in 1963 and 1965 on Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, in Basel and Geneva, Prague and Brno, in Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Mannheim, Wiesbaden and Wuppertal. He also returned to North and South America and was seen and heard at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, as well as in Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Washington. In 1964 he took on Hans Foltz in the Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Bayreuth Festival . He was known for his flexibility and was happy to take on smaller roles as well as large roles. His stage repertoire was very extensive, but he was also successful as a concert singer. In 1982 he said goodbye to the Zurich Opera - as a music teacher in Ariadne auf Naxos .

At this point he had already been working as a singing teacher for twenty years. From 1969 to 1971 he directed the opera class of the Corbett Foundation in Zurich. He also continued his educational work in Darmstadt, where he worked as a singer and actor at the Darmstadt State Theater until 1986 . His last role was Burgoyn in Schiller's Maria Stuart .

Role Directory

premiere

Repertoire (selection)

Beethoven :

  • Don Pizarro, Don Fernando and the second prisoner in the Fidelio

Bizet :

  • Escamillo, Moralès and Zuniga in Carmen

Burkhard :

Debussy :

Luck :

Giordano :

Henze :

Krenek :

  • Pope Clement VII and Moritz of Saxony in Charles V.

Lehár :

Lortzing :

Massenet :

Mozart :

Mussorgsky :

 

Offenbach :

Puccini :

Johann Strauss :

Richard Strauss :

Verdi :

Wagner :

Weber :

Audio documents

Awards

  • 1980 Silver Cross of Merit of the Republic of Austria

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive of the Salzburg Festival : Schedule search , accessed on June 11, 2020
  2. ^ Music in Upper Austria at the time of National Socialism in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
  3. ↑ Jonathan Brown: Tristan and Isolde on Record , A Comprehensive Discography of Wagner's Music Drama with a Critical Introduction to the Recordings, Greenwood Publishing Group 2000, p. 47

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Telasko, Rolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Telasco, Ralph; Telasko, Rudolf (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian opera singer with a bass-baritone voice
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Hollenstein on the Ybbs
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1991
Place of death Darmstadt