Wilhelm Jahn (musician)

Wilhelm Jahn (born November 24, 1835 in Hof , Austrian Empire ; † April 21, 1900 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ) was an Austro-Moravian musician and conductor . At the age of 17, Jahn was also court opera director at the Vienna Opera House for longer than anyone before or after him .

Act

Wilhelm Jahn

Musical work

Career

Wilhelm Jahn was born on November 24, 1835 in Hof / Moravia in the house at Ringplatz No. 11 (1st floor). Nothing more is known about Jahn's youth and training as a musician and conductor. Jahn had made guest appearances as an opera singer and conductor in Temesvár, Hungary , where he sang subjects of all voices and played many instruments in the orchestra himself. Furthermore, as Kapellmeister he had directed the orchestras in the opera houses of Amsterdam , Prague and Wiesbaden . In addition, Wilhelm Jahn was a talented director and had great administrative skills. When the post of court opera director in Vienna became vacant after Franz Jauner , the first thought was the great Wagner conductor Hans Richter , who had been working in Vienna since 1875. However, after his previous work as opera director in Budapest, he no longer showed any administrative ambitions. At the instigation of his friend, the professor of music history and critic Eduard Hanslick , the appeal to Jahn fell and the handover took place on October 15, 1880.

Work at the Vienna Opera House

Wilhelm Jahn's management set records in three respects. No court opera director was in office for as long as he was 17 years. No one had so few enemies and critics as he did, and after all, no director had enriched the house's repertoire as much as Jahn. Between 1888 and 1896 alone, he made ten operas forever at home in Vienna. He brought the operas by Smetana , Mascagni , Leoncavallo , Massenet , Humperdinck , and Delibes to triumphant successes in Vienna. He opened the way to the opera for Johann Strauss (son) ( Ritter Pázmán 1892, Die Fledermaus 1894). Wilhelm Jahn was said to have recognized the taste of the Viennese opera audience in particular. He performed all Wagner operas except Parsifal , which was reserved for Bayreuth , in Vienna and did not need a single guest artist.

The years from 1888 to 1896 are considered the heyday of his management. Before that, the electric light was installed in the court opera in 1887, which meant a complete changeover. With Hans Richter at his side, Jahn's name was associated with many glamorous opera performances. In addition to Hans Richter, Jahn was supported by other outstanding conductors such as Wilhelm Gericke , Johann Fuchs , Franz Doppler , the ballet conductor Josef Bayer and the ballet director Josef Haßreiter . Jahn also knew how to tie the best artists to the Vienna Opera and thus had the greatest successes. They included Theodor Reichmann , Emil Scaria , Hermann Winkelmann , Berta Ehnn , Alois Ander , Marie Renard , Wilhelm Hesch , Ernest van Dyck and Rosa Papier . Jahn was also a promoter and discoverer of singers whom he sought out and found everywhere. He looked in the relevant schools, in the provincial theaters and on the operetta stages. He even looked in factories and workshops. For example, he found Antonie Schläger , who later became a popular singer, as a worker in a printing company.

In 1889 Wilhelm Jahn was awarded the first honorary citizenship of the city of Hof in Moravia .

In 1892 the International Music and Theater Exhibition took place in Vienna's Prater and Jahn knew how to use this important event accordingly. It was, as it were, a demonstration of the unity of the Habsburg Empire in the cultural field. During the five-month event, you could hear Italian operas sung by Italian ensembles, Czech artists sang Czech operas in their mother tongue and the Lviv Opera gave guest performances with Polish operas. Jahn also brought famous guest conductors to Vienna. This event brought the most interesting works to the Austrian capital and had a lasting influence on Viennese art taste. Jahn also staged many operas personal as Manon , Werther or Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo . It was said with enthusiasm how spirited and clever this plump, shapeless man played every gesture for every artist. He is said to have invented the Nedda (Bajazzo) dance of death for Paula Mark and danced in front of her.

The Jahn directorate was one of the most glamorous times of the Viennese opera even for today's terms. Alongside his successor Gustav Mahler, he is one of the most successful opera directors in Vienna.

In his last years Jahn became ailing and shy of people. He finally died in Vienna at the age of 64 .

His grave of honor is in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 0, row 1, number 26)

Eduard Hanslick on Wilhelm Jahn as a conductor

In 1880 Eduard Hanslick , the famous and feared music critic, who had an important say in every appointment of a new opera director in Vienna, traveled to Brussels. On the way home, Hanslick spent two days in Wiesbaden, where an artistic interest in particular had led him: He wanted to experience the celebrated Kapellmeister Wilhelm Jahn, for whom he had already received so much and always enormous praise. Hanslick attended a performance of the Flying Dutchman and noted:

“The sight of the orchestra significantly lowered my expectations. Really only three double basses and eight prime violins? I counted correctly. But what energy and delicacy did this miniature orchestra develop under Jahn's direction! I had hardly heard the difficult overture anywhere better; more powerful, but hardly in such a fine distribution of light and shadow, so musically inhaling and exhaling. Jahn holds his orchestra in a firm hand like a bell. The entirety of the musicians seemed to be connected by a peculiar musical something that emanated from the conductor's eyes and hand as an electrical fluid. Where there is such artistic agreement, it is certainly due to the conductor; mind you: a conductor who not only has a decisive influence on the orchestra, but just as much on the performance of the singers. Jahn was an opera singer himself for a while before he took up the tactical staff - a valuable preschool. The Wiesbaden audience behaved very coolly towards the singers on that 'Holländer' evening, but greeted Mr. Jahn with flattering acclamations when he entered the orchestra. I don't believe in miracles myself, but I've heard art lovers assure you that Jahn recently studied the Puritans of Bellini so masterfully that they weren't very boring. Certainly the man had to be won over to Vienna. "

- Eduard Hanslick : From my life

On February 25, 1881, Jahn made his debut with Oberon von Carl Maria von Weber as a conductor at the Vienna Court Opera. Hanslick judged: “The opera was extremely fine and precisely rehearsed, thanks to Director Jahn, who also conducted the orchestra personally. We wish and hope to see this excellent musician quite often at the conductor's desk in performances of classical operas. ”After the first performance of Otello by Giuseppe Verdi on March 14, 1888, Hanslick wrote:“ The performance of Othello in the Court Opera Theater is a true example of artistic reproduction. This première was like a party, destined to personally celebrate the aged master, who was thought to be present. The all-dominating, at the same time moderating and encouraging spirit of the whole is director Jahn, who conducts the opera just as energetically as he has carefully prepared it. "

First performances at the Vienna Court Opera under the direction of Wilhelm Jahn (selection)

• 1880 (December 15): Bianca , opera by Ignaz Brüll
• 1881 (January 28): Loreley , finale from the unfinished opera by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
• 1881 (March 29): Jean de Nivelle , opera by Léo Delibes
• 1882 (March 18): Mefistofele , opera by Arrigo Boito
• 1882 (November 18): Simon Boccanegra , opera by Giuseppe Verdi
• 1883 (October 4th): Tristan and Isolde , action in three acts by Richard Wagner
• 1885 (10 January): Viennese waltz , ballet by Louis Frappart and Franz Gaul. Music compiled by Josef Bayer
• 1885 (April 20): Nero , opera by Anton Rubinstein
• 1886 (January 30): The trumpeter von Säckingen , opera by Victor Ernst Nessler
• 1887 (November 22): Le Cid , opera by Jules Massenet
• 1888 (March 14th): Otello , opera by Giuseppe Verdi
• 1888 (October 4th): The Puppenfee , pantomime divertissement by Josef Haßreiter and Franz Gaul. Music by Josef Bayer
• 1889 (January 18): The Three Pintos , opera by Carl Maria von Weber, arranged by Gustav Mahler
• 1889 (November 19): Sun and Earth , ballet by Franz Gaul and Josef Haßreiter. Music by Josef Bayer
• 1890 (February 23): Das Pensionat , play opera by Franz von Suppè
• 1890 (October 4th): The Barber of Baghdad , opera by Peter Cornelius
• 1890 (November 19): Manon , opera by Jules Massenet
• 1891 (March 20): Cavalleria rusticana , opera by Pietro Mascagni
• 1892 (January 1st): Ritter Pázmán , opera by Johann Strauss
• 1892 (February 16): Werther , Lyric Drama by Jules Massenet
• 1893 (May 21): Falstaff , Commedia lirica by Giuseppe Verdi
• 1893 (May 21): Pagliacci , drama by Ruggiero Leoncavallo
• 1894 (February 27): The Kiss , folk opera by Bedřich Smetana
• 1894 (April 10): The Rose of Pontevedra , opera by Josef Forster
• 1894 (April 10th): Boy love , pantomime by Heinrich Regel and Josef Haßreiter. Music by Josef Bayer
• 1894 (October 4th): Mara , opera by Ferdinand Hummel
• 1894 (October 4th): The wedding in the hairdressing salon , ballet by Heinrich Regel and Josef Haßreiter. Music by Raoul Mader
• 1894 (October 28): Die Fledermaus , operetta by Johann Strauss
• 1894 (December 18): Hansel and Gretel , fairy tale by Engelbert Humperdinck
• 1895 (March 27): The Secret , opera by Bedřich Smetana
• 1896 (January 11th): Der Evangelimann , musical play by Wilhelm Kienzl
• 1896 (March 21): Das Heimchen am Herd , opera by Karl Goldmark
• 1896 (October 4th): The Bartered Bride , opera by Bedřich Smetana
• 1897 (January 30): The four year old post , Singspiel by Franz Schubert
• 1897 (March 23): Pierrot as a sentry , ballet pantomime by Alfred Maria Willner and Josef Haßreiter. Music by A. Clairon (pseudonym for A. Strasser)
• 1897 (May 22nd): The Bride of Korea , ballet by Heinrich Regel and Josef Haßreiter. Music by Josef Bayer
• 1897 (October 4th): Dalibor , opera by Bedřich Smetana

See also

• Schlaraffia

literature

• Jahn Wilhelm. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, p. 62.
• Andrea Harrandt: Jahn, Wilhelm. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-7001-3044-9 .
• Michael Jahn : The Vienna Court Opera in Bruckner's time was a world of its own. Using the example of the court opera director Wilhelm Jahn (1880 / 81–1897) , in: Bruckner Symposion 2008. Report . Linz 2010, pp. 79-89.
• Michael Jahn: Verdi's operas at the Vienna Court Opera under director Wilhelm Jahn (1881–1897) , in: Ders .: Verdi and Wagner in Vienna 2 . Vienna 2014, pp. 69–85.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Jahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Image by Wilhelm Jahn

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eduard Hanslick: From my life. Vol. 2. Berlin 1894, pp. 217f.
2. ↑ Eduard Hanslick in: Neue Freie Presse , February 27, 1881, p. 3.
3. ^ Eduard Hanslick in: Neue Freie Presse , March 18, 1888, p. 3.
4. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , December 15, 1880, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
5. ↑ Article  in:  Theateratine (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , January 28, 1881, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
6. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , March 29, 1881, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
7. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , March 18, 1882, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
8. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , November 18, 1882, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
9. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , October 4, 1883, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
10. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , January 10, 1885, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
11. ↑ Article  in:  Theateratine (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , April 20, 1885, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
12. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , January 30, 1886, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
13. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , November 22nd, 1887, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
14. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , March 14, 1888, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
15. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , October 4, 1888, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
16. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , January 18, 1889, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
17. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , November 19, 1889, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
18. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , February 23, 1890, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).
19. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , October 4, 1890, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
20. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , November 19, 1890, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
21. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , March 20, 1891, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
22. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , January 1, 1892, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
23. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , February 16, 1892, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
24. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , May 21, 1893, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
25. ↑ Article  in:  Theateratine (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , November 19, 1893, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
26. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , February 27, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
27. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , April 10, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
28. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , April 10, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
29. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , October 4, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
30. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , October 4, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
31. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , October 28, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
32. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , December 18, 1894, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
33. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , March 27, 1895, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
34. ^ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , January 11, 1896, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
35. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , March 21, 1896, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
36. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , October 4, 1896, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
37. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , January 30, 1897, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
38. ↑ Article  in:  Theateratine (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , March 23, 1897, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
39. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , May 22nd, 1897, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
40. ↑ Article  in:  Theatericket (Opera and Burgtheater in Vienna) , October 4, 1897, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).