Traugott Gey

Traugott Gey , also Traugott Gay ( November 25, 1796 in Zschopau - May 1, 1875 in Hanover ) was a German child actor ( soprano ) and opera singer ( bass ) and theater actor .

Life

Gey was to become a theologian and received his training from the Kreuzkantor Christian Theodor Weinlig in Dresden. His beautiful soprano voice was often used in church and in children's roles on the stage of the Italian Opera in Dresden and it was especially the music director at the Leipzig City Theater , where Gey was studying theology at university , who persuaded him to use his voice on the stage.

Gey should have a quiet theater career ahead of him and work on two stages. His first engagement was in Leipzig, where he stepped onto the stage for the first time in 1818 as the "high priest" in the festival of sacrifices and was one of the audience's favorites for ten years, and his second and last engagement in Hanover , where he was called in 1820. There he sang not only all high but also low bass parts and even successfully played first roles in acting . Mainly, however, it was Heinrich Marschner's operas in which he excelled, and the master has repeatedly said that no one would have understood how to make his compositions heard as Gey. As proof of this, he composed the part of " Hans Heiling " for him. This was always a brilliant role for the artist, as was the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni . Gey could not sing the role of Hans Heiling in the world premiere, however, because it took place in Berlin and the role was sung by Eduard Devrient . Gey, however, was the first to perform Bäbu in Marschner's opera of the same name in 1838 .

He worked with youthful freshness and tireless zeal until 1863 at the Hanoverian court stage and even as an aged artist, his rare loyalty to his duties aroused admiration. On May 29, 1863, he took leave of the stage and his audience as a “beggar” in Ferdinand Raimund's spendthrift . Not a single eye remained dry when the sound of the immortal Conradin Kreutzer's songs. Gey died on May 1, 1875 in Hanover.

In Leipzig as well as in Hanover, it was mainly the heroic roles that seemed outstandingly appropriate to his artistic individuality and which also aroused general admiration.

His son was the painter Leonhard Gey .

literature

• Ludwig Eisenberg : Traugott Gey . In: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century. Paul List, Leipzig 1903, p. 324 ( daten.digitale-sammlungen.de ).

Web links

• Traugott Gey at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon
• Traugott Gey in the Stadtwiki Dresden

This article is based on a public domain text from Ludwig Eisenberg's Large Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the 19th Century , 1903 edition.

Please only remove this note if you have revised the article to such an extent that the text reflects the current state of knowledge on this topic, this has been proven and it meets today's linguistic requirements.