Rut Berglund

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Autograph card, Bayreuth 1933

Rut Berglund , also Ruth Berglund ( April 12, 1897 in Åmål - August 29, 1984 in Stockholm ), was a Swedish opera singer with a mezzo-soprano and alto voices , who was engaged in Germany from 1924 to 1944. She was personally appointed Kammersängerin by Adolf Hitler .

life and work

Berglund studied singing with Gillis Bratt in Stockholm and with Ernst Grenzebach in Berlin. In the 1924-25 season she was engaged as a volunteer at the Great Volksoper in Berlin, but the house was closed in 1925 as a result of hyperinflation .

The singer made her debut at the Städtische Oper Berlin , received a permanent engagement at this house and stayed there until 1932 as a member of the ensemble. Berglund married the surgeon Nathanael Wessén in 1927, and the wedding took place in the church of her hometown Åmål. In 1929 she took part in performances of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen at the Grand Théâtre de Genève . In the 1932–33 season she was engaged at the City Theater in Königsberg in East Prussia. At the Bayreuth Festival in 1933, the year the National Socialists came to power, the singer took on the role of Magdalene in Wagner's Meistersinger von Nürnberg , directed and directed by Heinz Tietjen . She sang several times - both in Bayreuth and in Berlin - in the presence of Adolf Hitler and must have known him personally. In the autumn of 1933 she accepted a call to the Berlin State Opera , the most representative opera house during the National Socialist era. There she sang a wide range of mezzo and alto parts of the classical repertoire, including four central Verdi roles, Azucena, Eboli, Amneris and Emilia. However, her preference was for the Wagner roles.

In 1934 she sang Magdalene in the Meistersinger von Nürnberg again in Bayreuth and on guest appearances in London and Paris. In London she also appeared as Adelaide in the Arabella by Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss . In the German UFA feature film Fürst Woronzeff by Arthur Robison from 1934, Berglund is represented - together with the tenor Walther Ludwig - with the duet by Samson and Dalila from the opera of the same name by Camille Saint-Saëns . From 1936 to 1942 she returned to Bayreuth every year, where she took on various roles in the Ring of the Nibelung , including the Floßhilde, several Valkyries and a Norn. In Tietjen's new production of Parsifal in 1937, this time with Wilhelm Furtwängler at the podium, she sang the voice from above and embodied one of Klingsor's magical girls. In September 1938 she made a guest appearance - on the occasion of the Nazi party rally - as Magdalene in the Nuremberg State Theater .

On April 20, 1939, Hitler's 50th birthday, Berglund was personally appointed as a chamber singer . The letter of appointment indicates that the singer lived at Fontanestrasse 12a. At her parent company, the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, she increasingly embodied the German repertoire: in 1936 she sang in the cheerful opera Schirin und Gertraude by Paul Graener , which is as forgotten today as the two world premieres - Rembrandt and Schloß Dürande - in which she participated. Berglund remained a loyal member of the ensemble, performed in a series of opera concerts even after the theater was closed on September 1, 1944, and stayed in Berlin until the fall of the Nazi regime .

According to Karl-Josef Kutsch and Leo Riemens , she enjoyed "a great reputation" as a concert singer. Berglund also performed under the direction of the conductors Herbert von Karajan , Richard Strauss and Bruno Walter .

In 1945, shortly before the end of the war, she fled Berlin and returned to Sweden. In the church where she was married, she also appeared in public for the last time on October 31, 1948, at the wedding of her niece. She died in Stockholm, but is buried in the family grave in Åmål North Cemetery.

Roles (selection)

World premieres

repertoire

Auber :

Bizet :

Debussy :

Mozart :

Mussorgsky :

Puccini :

Saint-Saëns :

 

Richard Strauss :

Tchaikovsky :

Verdi :

Wagner :

Audio documents

There is a recording with the singer's voice, the Frauentzett with Tamino from Mozart's Magic Flute , with Helge Rosvaenge , Hilde Scheppan and Elfriede Marherr , published in the series Große Sänger Große Oper by Top Classic Historia on vinyl in 1971. The Berliners played Philharmonic under the direction of Sir Thomas Beecham .

In a complete recording of the Magic Flute on HMV, she sang both the 3rd lady and the 3rd boy. There are also excerpts from three German operas: from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel (on Electrola), from Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (as Magdalene, Nürnberg 1938, Koch / Schwann) and from Schoeck's Das Schloß Dürande (on Jecklin Disco).

source

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tamino Autographs: Bayreuth 1933 - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg Program ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.taminoautographs.com
  2. ^ Presidential Chancellery of the Führer: Facsimile of the appointment as a chamber singer , April 20, 1939, archive of the German Historical Museum Berlin , accessed on November 12, 2016.
  3. ^ In the Tamino Klassikforum there is a list of all concerts of the German State Opera Berlin in the 1944/45 season. Berglund should have occurred in 17 operatic concerts, in rolls of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner and finally, on 31 December 1944, when Annina in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss .
  4. ↑ Discogs : WA Mozart * - Die Zauberflöte , accessed on November 12, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Berglund, Rut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berglund, Ruth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish opera and concert singer with a mezzo-soprano and alto voice
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Åmål , Sweden
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1984
Place of death Stockholm