Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender

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Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender on a photograph by Nicola Perscheid .

Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender (actually Fassbaender ; born February 19, 1897 in Aachen , † February 13, 1978 in Nuremberg ) was a German opera singer ( baritone ).

Life

Fassbaender studied in Aachen with Felix Knubben and in Berlin with Jacques Stückgold and Paul Bruns and finally in Milan with Giuseppe Borgattis singing. He made his debut in Aachen in 1922 at the local theater as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro .

From 1923 to 1925 Fassbaender worked at the German Opera House in Berlin, from 1925 to 1927 at the Düsseldorf Opera and from 1927 to 1928 at the Stuttgart State Opera . During his time in Stuttgart, Fassbaender added the nickname "Domgraf" to his surname due to frequent mix-ups with his colleague Wilhelm Fassbinder .

On the recommendation of Richard Tauber , he was engaged in 1928 at the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin , of which he was a permanent member until 1948. After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he became a member of the NSDAP in May 1933 . After the end of his engagement in Berlin, he first moved to Hanover and then went to Nuremberg, where he a. a. worked as senior director (1953–1962) and director at the municipal theaters ; In 1964 he took over the opera and singing class at the Meistersinger Conservatory .

Guest performances, including at the Glyndebourne Festival , the Salzburg Festival , the Vienna State Opera and La Scala in Milan , made him internationally known. Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender was particularly successful as a Mozart , Wagner and Verdi interpreter. He was considered one of the leading lyrical German baritones of his time. He was often referred to as the most Italian baritone in Germany. According to his own statements, he achieved his greatest successes as Figaro ( Le nozze di Figaro ) and Guglielmo ( Così fan tutte ), which he sang under the direction of Otto Klemperer at the Kroll Opera and at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1934 and 1935 under the direction of Fritz Busch . In 1937 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute . He was also successful in roles by Italian and French opera composers, such as Rigoletto , Escamillo ( Carmen ), Scarpia ( Tosca ), Tonio ( Pagliacci ), Sharpless ( Madama Butterfly ), Ford ( Falstaff ), Marcello ( La Bohème ) or as Charles Gérard ( Andrea Chénier ). Frequent partners were the Danish tenor Helge Rosvaenge and the Romanian (Moldovan) soprano Maria Cebotari .

The repertoire of the versatile artist included operettas and film hits as well as song singing (piano partners: Hubert Giesen , Michael Raucheisen ), and he also became a successful film actor. In the film The Bartered Bride, based on Friedrich Smetana 's opera of the same name , the first ever German opera adaptation, he sang Hans, although this role is actually intended for a tenor .

Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender was also a sought-after singing teacher. His students included B. Rita Streich , Erwin Wohlfahrt and his daughter, the mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender .

He was married to the actress Sabine Peters .

Discography (selection)

  • Johann Strauss : Die Fledermaus , with Robert Philipp, Marie Dietrich, Adele Kern , Egon Jordan; Conductor: Franz Lehar, complete recording Vienna 1942, Bel Age Records.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (with Helge Rosvaenge and others), conductor: Arturo Toscanini, Vienna 1937 (Line Music rem. 2002). Audio sample: Live recording from July 30, 1937 at the Salzburg Festival.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Così fan tutte (Glyndebourne Festival 1935), 2 CDs, Naxos 2004.
  • Giacomo Puccini : La Bohème (excerpts in German, 1942), 1 CD, Andromeda 2006.
  • Othmar Schoeck : Das Schloß Dürande op.53 (Berlin State Opera 1943), 2 CDs, Line Music 2014.
  • Carl Orff : Oedipus the Tyrann (1959), 2 CDs, Myto 2010.
  • The Art of Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender (recordings 1928–1933) , 2 CDs, AAD 1996.
  • Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender: Folk melodies, film hits, operettas and arias in original recordings 1927–1935 , 1 CD, RV 2000.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Art. "Domgraf-Fassbaender, Willi", in: Riemann Musiklexikon , personal section A – K, ed. by Willibald Gurlitt , Mainz a. a. 1959, p. 410f.
  • Harald Rosenthal: Art. "Domgraf-Fassbaender, Willi", in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , ed. by Stanley Sadie , 5th vol., London a. a. 1980, p. 533, ISBN 0-333-23111-2 .
  • Art. "Domgraf-Fassbaender, Willi", in: Das große Lexikon der Musik , ed. by Marc Honegger u. Günther Massenkeil , Freiburg a. a. 1992 (paperback edition), 2nd volume, p. 335.
  • Harald Rosenthal: Art. "Domgraf-Fassbaender, Willi", in: The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , ed. by Stanley Sadie , 1st vol., London a. a. 1997, pp. 1193f., ISBN 0-333-73432-7 .
  • Alois Büchl:  Domgraf-Fassbaender, Willi. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 5 (Covell - Dzurov). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2001, ISBN 3-7618-1115-2 , Sp. 1227–1228 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  • Anonymous: "Concert Willy Fassbands" , in: Pilsner Tagblatt , June 25, 1927, p. 2.
  • Joachim Vierrath: "Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender", in: Voices that went around the world. A magazine for lovers of historical sound recordings , ed. by Günter Walter, Münster 1992, issue 35, pp. 1-66.
  • Günter Walter: "Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender in Nuremberg - singer and director", in: Voices that went around the world. A magazine for lovers of historical sound recordings , Münster 1992, issue 35, pp. 69–75.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 118.
  2. ↑ Performances with Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender at the Vienna State Opera
  3. ↑ Performances of Mozart's Magic Flute under the direction of Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival in 1937
  4. ↑ Alois Büchl:  Domgraf-Fassbaender, Willi. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 5 (Covell - Dzurov). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2001, ISBN 3-7618-1115-2 , Sp. 1227–1228 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  5. ^ CD review by Kurt Malisch , October 1, 2002
  6. ↑ Cast of the opera film The Bartered Bride
  7. ↑ Cast of the film Theodor Körner
  8. ↑ Invitation to dance. The way of Carl Maria von Weber on DVD
  9. ↑ Scene from the film A Song of Love (1938)
  10. ↑ Figaro's wedding on DVD
personal data
SURNAME Domgraf-Fassbaender, Willi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fassbaender, Willi (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German opera singer
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1978
Place of death Nuremberg