Walburga Wegner

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Walburga Wegner (born August 25, 1908 in Cologne ; † February 23, 1993 there ) was a German opera singer. She has appeared on leading German theaters and internationally, from the Cologne Opera House to the La Scala in Milan , Grand Opéra Paris , Covent Garden London and Metropolitan Opera New York. She was also successful as a song and oratorio singer and as a radio soloist. She began as a mezzo and alto , but switched to the soprano subject and after the Second World War she had a long career as a dramatic soprano, with a repertoire ranging from baroque coloratura to highly dramatic parts.

Life

Wegner grew up in Bad Godesberg and Iserlohn . At the age of 16 she took her first singing lessons. In order to finance her singing studies, she first worked as a "house daughter " for an industrial family in Wuppertal, before she came to a German family in Chile as a "house daughter" at the age of 20 . From 1935 she studied at the Cologne University of Music . In 1938 she obtained a diploma as a music teacher. In 1939 and 1940 she passed the final exams for concert and opera singing. The entry into the professional singing career followed immediately afterwards. She made her debut in the concert hall in Cologne in 1939, on the opera stage in 1940 at the Düsseldorf Opera House as Suzuki in Madame Butterfly . Various parts of the repertoire for lighter mezzo and alto voice followed. In 1942 Wegner took on a second permanent engagement at the Oberschlesisches Landestheater in Beuthen . There she sang “heavier” roles, such as Mozart's Dorabella , Verdi's Ulrica and Azucena , Kordula and Marthe in Lortzing's Hans Sachs and Undine , trouser roles and contemporary, finally Carmen and even Wagner's Erda .

After the opera stages were closed in the " Total War " in 1944, Wegner took a forced break, which she used to study again with the Cologne voice professor Clemens Glettenberg . He expanded her vocal skills to become a dramatic soprano. Her actual career began in 1947 at the Cologne Opera with the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos . Wegner was soon one of the company's top performers with national and then Europe-wide appearances. Her repertoire grew rapidly and was diverse - with the Mozart roles Fiordilligi , Donna Anna , Elektra , Monteverdi's Poppaea , Handel's Cleopatra , Leonore in Fidelio , Gluck's Euridice , Rezia in Weber's Oberon , the Wagner roles Senta , Elisabeth , Ortrud , Eva , later Kundry , from Verdi the Leonors, Amelia , Elisabeth and Aida , Offenbach's Giulietta , Puccini's Manon Lescaut , Tosca and Turandot , from Richard Strauss after Ariadne the Salome , Marschallin , Arabella , Mascagnis Santuzza , Tchaikovsky's Tatjana and Lisa , Jaroslavna in Borodin's Prince Igor , Martha in the lowlands .

In addition, Wegner took on solo parts in oratorios, cantatas, masses and concert pieces by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Bruckner, Goetz, Pfitzner, Sibelius to Weingartner, as well as modern opera parts, for example in Braunfels' Annunciation , de Fallas La vida breve , Ludwig Hess' What you want , Hindemith's Mathis the painter , Francis Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites , Heinrich Sutermeister's The Black Spider , Hermann Reutter's widow of Ephesus , finally a repertoire of songs from Beethoven to Schubert , Schumann , Brahms , Wolf to to Richard Strauss, Pfitzner and Mussorgski .

reception

During her entire stage career as a soprano, Wegner was a permanent member of the Cologne Opera House, first in the Herbert Maisch era , then under the direction of Oscar Fritz Schuh and Wolfgang Sawallisch . When this began in 1959, Wegner was already an internationally known singer. Immediately after her soprano debut in Cologne, she was given guest appearances at the Vienna and Hamburg State Operas , German state theaters and leading concert venues. Under Wilhelm Furtwängler she was Freia and Gerhilde in the performances of Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen in 1950 at La Scala in Milan, in 1951 under Fritz Busch the Leonora in Verdi's Forza del destino at the festivals in Edinburgh and Glyndebourne , and then Amelia in a radio production in Verdis Masked ball at WDR Cologne. She appeared with Richard Kraus at the Opéra National de Paris in Mozart's Don Giovanni, then under Fritz Reiner at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in Wagner's Meistersingern and Strauss' Elektra. In the 1950s she made guest appearances at the Handel Festival in Göttingen , the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London. In 1968, at the age of 60, she gave her stage farewell in the title role in Puccini's Tosca at the Kölner Haus, but continued to work as vocal director at the Cologne Opera.

Despite her fame, Wegner did not have a record deal. Her only record is the title role of Salome in a complete recording by Philips from 1954 under Rudolf Moralt . In contrast, there are many radio recordings and live recordings, such as complete recordings or excerpts from Giulio Cesare , Rodelinda , Fidelio , La forza del destino , Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Ein Maskenball , Elektra , Die toten Augen as well as control recordings from performances by the Cologne Opera in the 1960s, finally orchestral songs from Westdeutscher Rundfunk.

Discography

  • CD-Edition Walburga Wegner - Hamburg Archive for Singing Art - Box with 3 CDs (Handel, Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, d'Albert, R.Strauss, song recordings)
  • Verdi / A MASK BALL (part of Amelia) / Cologne 1951 / Fr.Busch / Calig
  • Verdi / LA FORZA DEL DESTINO (part of Leonora) / Edinburgh Festival 1951 live / Fr.Busch / Connaisseur
  • Wagner / DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG (part of Eva) / Met NYC live 1952 / Fr.Reiner / ARL
  • Wagner / DAS RHEINGOLD (Part of Freia) / Scala di Milano live 1950 / W.Furtwängler / Cetra, Hunt u. a.
  • Wagner DIE WALKÜRE (part of Gerhilde) / Scala di Milano live 1950 / W.Furtwängler / Cetra, Hunt u. a.
  • Puccini / TURANDOT (title role) / Cologne Opera House live 1960 / M.Caridis / Hamburger Archiv
  • R. Strauss / SALOME (title role) / complete recording Vienna 1952 / R. Moralt / Philips (+ various labels)
  • R.Strauss / ELEKTRA (part of Chrysothemis) / Ms. Reiner / Met NYC live 1952 / BJS (+ various labels)

literature

  • Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . KG Saur Verlag, Munich 1999/2000, Digital Library Volume 33, ISBN 3-89853-133-3 , pp. 25.582-25.584
  • Jörg Sorgenicht: Walburga Wegner. The career of a singer in the mirror of the international press. Düsseldorf - Beuthen - Cologne - Göttingen - Milan - Paris - Glyndebourne - Edinburgh - New York - Vienna - London - Lisbon - Eutin. J. Sorgenicht, Essen 1997; ISBN 3-9800145-3-3
  • Klaus Ulrich Spiegel: Fascination in diversity - Walburga Wegner, a German soprano drammatico. (HAfG)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Eduard Prüssen (linocuts), Werner Schäfke and Günter Henne (texts): Cologne heads . 1st edition. University and City Library, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-931596-53-8 , pp. 94 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wegner, Walburga
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer (soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1993
Place of death Cologne