Rudolf Gmür (singer)

Rudolf Gmür ( May 17, 1857 in Tübach , Canton St. Gallen - September 16, 1921 in Weimar ) was a Swiss opera singer ( baritone ).

Life

Gmür initially devoted himself to the fine arts by starting his studies as an architect and continuing them as a painter . However, after his voice was discovered, he switched to the musical career. He took lessons from Brody in Paris, from Leoni in Milan, from Hasselbeck in Munich and from Ganz in Frankfurt.

Trained in this way, he made his debut in Rostock in 1888 , was at the Stadttheater in Lübeck from 1889 to 1890 and, after a guest performance in Strasbourg from November 1890 to February 1891 , was engaged on this stage from October 1, 1891, where he was the first baritone player until 1894.

Then he did not accept a permanent engagement for two years, but only appeared as a guest. In 1896 he accepted a call to the Weimar Court Theater, to which he belonged until his death and where he also worked as an opera director.

He had guest appearances in Schwerin (1888), at the Stadttheater Luzern, at the Aktientheatern Zurich and Munich (all 1889), at the Hofoper Dresden (1908), in Frankfurt am Main (1899), at the Stadttheater St. Gallen (1904), in Hamburg (1907), Cologne (1908), Leipzig (1908), at the Stadttheater Zürich (1908) and at the Covent Garden Opera London (1913).

Gmür was married to the Norwegian singer Amélia Harloff from 1889 until her death in 1900 , with whom he often gave concerts. His second marriage was to Anna Eisenhut. His daughter was the actress Walburga Gmür .

His repertoire included “Don Pizarro” in Beethoven's Fidelio , “Escamillo” in Bizet's Carmen , “Méphistophélès” in Gounod's Faust , “Kühleborn” in Lortzing's Undine and “Baculus” in Wildschütz . His preferred roles included the characters in Richard Wagner's operas : the title role in The Flying Dutchman , also “Wotan”, “Wanderer”, “Alberich” and “Hagen” in Der Ring des Nibelungen and “Hans Sachs” in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg .

literature

• Ludwig Eisenberg : Rudolf Gmür . In: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century. Paul List, Leipzig 1903, p. 332 ( daten.digitale-sammlungen.de ).
• Herrmann AL Degener : Who is it? , Verlag von HA Ludwig Degener, Leipzig, 1909, p. 455
• Paul Suter: Rudolf Gmür . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 725.

Web links

• Rudolf Gmür in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
• Rudolf Gmür at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon