Walter Riess

Walter Rieß (also Walter Ries ; born December 29, 1885 in Berlin ; died 1943 in Auschwitz ) was a German opera singer ( bass ).

Life

In 1910, after completing his musical training, Riess appeared as an actor and operetta singer at smaller theaters. In 1914 he was called up for military service in World War I. After the war he continued his career at the Stadttheater Krefeld , meanwhile as an opera singer. In 1920/21 he performed at the Elberfeld City Theater before moving to the Düsseldorf Opera House . There he took part in the world premiere of the opera Die heilige Ente by Hans Gál on April 29, 1923 . In 1926 he went to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich ; His roles there included Bartolo in Figaro's Wedding , Osmin in Abduction from the Seraglio , Falstaff in The Merry Women of Windsor , the Beckmesser in the Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Alberich in the Ring of the Nibelung and the night miracle Hans Pfitzner's Die Rose vom Love garden . In 1933, after the National Socialists came to power , he was dismissed as a Jew from the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera. This was followed by appearances from 1935–1937 at the Jewish Cultural Association in Frankfurt am Main, where he a. a. as Rocco in the opera Fidelio and as Sarastro in the Magic Flute . In March 1941 he was still playing at the theater of the Jewish Cultural Association in Berlin before he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp , where he perished in 1943.

literature

• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . 2004

Web links

• Walter Riess at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Johann Schloemann: A legend of the apolitical artist . Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 20, 2016, p. 9.
2. ↑ Karl-Josef Kutsch, Leo Riemens: Large singer lexicon . 2004, p. 3931