Wilhelm Birrenkoven
Wilhelm "Willi" Birrenkoven (born October 4, 1865 in Cologne , † March 8, 1955 in Hanstedt ) was a German tenor and theater director .
Life
Birrenkoven, whose singing talent was noticed when he was 17, received a scholarship from 1884 to 1888 at the Cologne Conservatory , where he was tutored by Franz Wüllner .
After completing his training, he first belonged to the ensemble of the Düsseldorf Opera House from 1888 , then from 1890 to the Cologne Opera Theater. In 1893 he was engaged by Bernhard Pollini , the director of the Hamburg City Theater , where Birrenkoven first appeared on September 1, 1893 in the role of Walther von Stolzing in the Meistersingern von Nürnberg .
From 1892 until her death on April 20, 1903, he was married to the soprano Anna Slach .
Birrenkoven stayed at the Hamburg City Theater until 1912, despite numerous offers from other theaters. During this time he appeared a total of 1500 times; In the years 1901 to 1906 his annual fee was the immense amount of 25,000 gold marks for that time . In addition to the performances in Hamburg, he went on numerous tours in Europe and America . At the beginning of the 20th century Willi Birrenkoven was considered one of the leading tenors; His admirers included Gustav Mahler , Eugen d'Albert and Ruggiero Leoncavallo .
On May 30, 1912, Birrenkoven gave his farewell performance in Hamburg as Tannhäuser . Then he moved to Bochum , where he had been offered the position of director of the city theater .
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The new task turned out to be a fiasco for Birrenkoven. The theater building was not yet finished; the ensemble put together for a large, fully equipped stage therefore had to play in inadequate makeshift rooms. The temporary arrangement could not be held for long. Birrenkoven was forced to end the 1912 season prematurely and to dissolve the ensemble. In addition to the professional failure, there was a serious financial loss, as Birrenkoven lost 50,000 gold marks that he had invested during this time .
Birrenkoven returned to Hamburg and appeared occasionally at the Operettenhaus and the Stadttheater; in addition, he was dependent on income from his work as a singing teacher. After 1923 he ran the Stadttheater-Restaurant in Altona for a few years before moving to Hanstedt in the 1930s. In addition to his small pension, he received an honorary salary of 100 Reichsmarks per month from the Hamburg State Opera . After his death in 1955, the payment of the honorary gold was transferred to his second wife.
Willi Birrenkoven was buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery at Planquadrat R 3 ( Talstrasse behind the bus stops), where his grave is still located today.
The Birrenkovenallee in the Hamburg district of Oldenfelde , where Birrenkoven lived from 1903 to 1912, is named after him.
His brother Fritz Birrenkoven (1878–1939) was also an opera singer (tenor).
literature
- Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Published by Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 99 f. ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
- Dietmar Möller: Our Oldenfelde . Citizens' Association Oldenfelde, 1996. ISBN 3-00-000460-2
Web links
- Wilhelm Birrenkoven at Operissimo on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon
- Ohlsdorf cemetery: graves of well-known personalities
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Birrenkoven, Wilhelm |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Birrenkoven, Willi (nickname) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German tenor and theater director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 4, 1865 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cologne |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 1955 |
| Place of death | Hanstedt |