Sigrid Kehl

Sigrid Kehl (born November 23, 1929 in Berlin ) is a German opera singer .

Life

Sigrid Kehl first studied singing at the Thuringian State Conservatory in Erfurt . Later she continued her education at the Berlin Music Academy in Berlin in the subjects piano and singing.

In 1956, while still a member of the opera studio, she made her debut at the Berlin State Opera as an apprentice in the small role of the Polowetz girl in the opera Fürst Igor ; The conductor was Horst Stein . In 1956 she won 2nd prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau . Then she was hired by the then GMD Helmut Seydelmann to Leipzig.

In 1957 she became a permanent member of the Leipzig Opera . Kehl remained a member of the ensemble for over 35 years. In the course of her career, she sang over 70 roles at the Leipzig Opera House, from the lyrical mezzo- soprano to the dramatic soprano . She began with classic beginner roles such as Ines in The Troubadour , the Polowetz girl or Mercedes in Carmen . She later added the dramatic mezzo roles to her repertoire: Amneris in Aida , Princess Eboli in Don Carlos , Venus in Tannhauser and Brangäne in Tristan and Isolde . There were also the classic trouser roles such as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier or Orpheus in Orpheus and Eurydice . In 1964 she sang the role of wet nurse in the Strauss opera Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Leipzig Opera House ; The director was Joachim Herz .

At the beginning of the 1970s, Kehl changed his subject to the dramatic soprano subject. Her first soprano role at the Leipzig Opera House was Leonore in Fidelio in 1970 . In 1974 she sang alle Brünnhilden in the legendary Ring production by Joachim Herz at the Leipzig Opera House . In 1981 her first Isolde followed at the Leipzig Opera House; The conductor was Kurt Masur . In the 1982/83 season she took on the role of Kundry in a new production of Wagner's Parsifal stage festival play at the Leipzig Opera House .

From 1971 she had a guest contract with the Berlin State Opera. She made her debut there in 1971 as a wet nurse in Harry Kupfer's production of Frau ohne Schatten . She also appeared at the Komische Oper in Berlin as Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria ; Director: Götz Friedrich on. At the Vienna State Opera she successfully performed as Ortrud in Lohengrin (1975–1976) and as Venus (1979). In March 1977 she took over the title role of the opera Elektra at the Theater Hagen as a substitute within a few hours ; she thus saved the premiere of the new production. In the 1980/81 season (premiere: January 1981) she took on a short-term premiere role in Elektra at the Hagen Theater , this time the role of Klytämnestra (as a replacement for her sick colleague Rose Wagemann ).

From 1960 Kehl made guest appearances internationally; she sang at the Grand Théâtre de Genève , in Bern , at the Graz Opera House (1972, as Sextus in La clemenza di Tito ), at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (as Fricka in Das Rheingold ), in Prague (as sexton), Budapest , Sofia and Varna . At the Teatro La Fenice in Venice she also sang the roles of Ortrud and Brangäne under the musical direction of Zubin Mehta .

Her last newly studied role was that of Herodias in Salome . She sang these in Venice at the Teatro La Fenice (1969) and at the Dresden State Opera (production: Joachim Herz). In 1989 she took leave of the stage with the role of sexton in the opera Jenůfa by Leoš Janáček ; she had developed this role for the first time in the season 1968/69 under the conductor Václav Neumann in Leipzig. Kehl still had a role contract for the roles of Kundry and Küsterin for the 1989/90 season; However, she preferred to resign due to the changes in the time of the fall. She was made an honorary member of the Leipzig Opera House.

Since 1979 she has been teaching as a singing professor at the Leipzig University of Music .

repertoire

She sang almost all of the major dramatic roles in opera literature. She took on roles in both the soprano and mezzo-soprano subjects. Her incarnations of the wet nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten and the Brünnhilden in Der Ring des Nibelungen were considered highlights of her artistic activity as a singer . Another important role for Kehl was Marie in the opera Wozzeck by Alban Berg .

Sigrid Kehl's musical work, which has been handed down through radio recordings, live recordings and records, has been partially re-released on CD in recent years. Her recordings include Mercedes in Carmen (1960; complete recording with Soňa Červená , Rolf Apreck ; conductor: Herbert Kegel ), Zenobia in Radamisto (complete recording), Preziosilla in Die Macht des Schicksals (cross-section / excerpts with Hanne-Lore Kuhse , Martin Ritzmann ) and Princess Eboli in Don Carlos (cross-section / excerpts with Kuhse / Ritzmann; conductor: Heinz Fricke ). In addition, a solo recital entitled An Opera Evening with Sigrid Kehl was published . All recordings were originally published in the GDR on the record label Eterna .

theatre

• 1957: Alexander Borodin : Fürst Igor - Director: Erich-Alexander Winds ( Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin )

literature

• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Third, expanded edition. KG Saur, Munich 1999. Volume 3: Hirata-Möwes, p. 1792.
• Sigrid Kehl: I can't be reduced . Conversation with Sigrid Kehl in: Orpheus , July 1993, pages 10-12.

Web links

• Works by and about Sigrid Kehl in the catalog of the German National Library