William Blankenship

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William Leonard Blankenship (born March 7, 1928 in Gatesville , Texas , † December 2, 2017 in Vienna , Austria ) was an American opera singer ( tenor ).

Life

Origin and education

William Leonard Blankenship comes from the small Texas town of Gatesville. He grew up in a family of music-loving amateur musicians. His mother Hortense was a music teacher and a great admirer of Johann Strauss . Blankenship came into contact with music early on. He heard music on the radio, got to know film and church music.

During World War II , Blankenship went to Austin , Texas, where, unbeknownst to his parents, he took singing lessons from University of Texas graduates . In Austin he became a soloist in a well-known church choir . In 1947, at the age of 19, he received a three-year scholarship to study singing with Mary McCormic at the College of Music at the University of North Texas at Denton , without having received any real vocal training . He sang his first leading operatic roles at university performances in his early twenties. He completed his studies in 1950 with a " Bachelor of Music". From 1950 to 1953 he was in military service with the United States Air Force in the Korean War , but was able to continue his vocal studies outside the military base and performed at military concerts on radio and television.

After retiring from US military service, he moved to the Juilliard School in New York for two years to continue his studies , where Mack Harrell and Povla Frijsh were his teachers. At the expense of the Mary Garden Foundation, he was able to complete his vocal studies in Europe from 1955 to 1956 at the Vienna Music Academy (today: University of Music and Performing Arts ) as the winner of the “Mary Garden European Fellowship Award” . His teachers there included u. a. Sergei Radamsky and the tenor Josef Witt . During his studies he worked out a total of 15 opera roles and various oratorio roles.

Career as a singer

Blankenship made his debut in 1956 at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt , where he was engaged as a member of the ensemble in the 1956/57 season. This was followed by permanent engagements at the Braunschweig State Theater (1957–1960), at the City Theater in Bern (1960/61 season) and at the Mannheim National Theater (1961–1964). In December 1961 he took part in the world premiere of Paul Hindemith's one-act opera The Long Christmas Supper at the Nationaltheater Mannheim .

In 1964, under the management of the then director Albert Moser , Blankenship was permanently engaged at the Vienna Volksoper . In 1965 he made his debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich . From September 1967 until the end of the 1978/79 season he was a member of the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera . He made his debut in January 1967, still as a guest, as Conte Almaviva in the Rossini opera The Barber of Seville at the “Haus am Ring”, where he was the so-called “First Lyric Tenor” . Blankenship appeared in a total of 203 performances at the Vienna State Opera, in which he sang 30 different roles in 29 works. His opera roles there included u. a. Tamino ( Die Zauberflöte , 1967–1972), Don Ottavio ( Don Giovanni , 1967–1970), Hoffmann ( Les Contes d'Hoffmann , 1968–1972), Belmonte ( The Abduction from the Seraglio , 1969–1972), singers ( Der Rosenkavalier , 1967–1972) and Henry Morosus ( Die Schweigsame Frau , 1968–1970, in a new production directed by Hans Hotter ).

Blankenship was also active as an interpreter of modern operas. At the Vienna State Opera he sang in this subject a. a. the painter ( Lulu ) and Camille Desmoulins ( Danton's death ). Blankenship performed regularly at the Vienna State Opera until 1975. Due to health problems and a recurring illness, he gave up his singing career in 1975. In May 1979 he took over the small role of the 1st Brabant noble in two performances of the Wagner opera Lohengrin .

Guest performances

As a representative of the lyrical subject and interpreter of Mozart roles, Blankenship has given numerous international guest performances in Europe and overseas. He kicked u. a. at the Stuttgart State Opera , at the Hanover State Theater , at the Graz Opera House , at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels (1964), at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (1964 as Ferrando in Così fan tutte , 1965 as Nureddin in The Barber of Baghdad ), at the Budapest National Opera (1967), at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (1967 as Belmonte) and at the Bregenz Festival (1972, as Phoebus in The Fairy-Queen ). He also made guest appearances at the Rio de Janeiro Opera House (1965, as Don Ottavio). In the United States he has appeared at the San Diego Opera House (1968, as Tamino), the Houston Grand Opera , the Dallas Opera , the Santa Fe Opera, and the San Antonio Opera House .

Later career

After finishing his singing career, Blankenship worked as a singing teacher, director, actor and television editor. He has been a lecturer at the American Institute of Music in Graz since 1968 . As a singing teacher he taught at the Sydney Conservatory in Sydney ( Australia ), at the University of Texas, from 1980 in New York City and later in Vienna.

As an actor, he appeared in US television series ( All My Children ) and in commercials. In the 1984/85 season he appeared on Broadway in the musical My One and Only . He had other stage appearances as an actor in Kiss Me, Kate (1987, in a production in Chautauqua near New York), Die Fledermaus (1986, as a frog in a production in Key West ), in the play The Man Who His Wife confused with a hat by Oliver Sacks (1987, in New York and Bordeaux / USA) and in The Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1987, in a production in Key West), where he also took over the direction.

In 1999 he interpreted the silent role of Sir Edgar at the Landestheater Linz in a new production of the opera The Young Lord , directed by his daughter Beverly Blankenship . He also took on the mystical Druidenführer in a guest role in Blankenship's filmic directorial debut Der Hund muss weg, made in 1999 (screenplay: Elfriede Hammerl ; first broadcast in November 2000).

Private

Blankenship was married to Barbara Connally (1930-1997). The marriage had three children. His daughters are the opera and film director Beverly Blankenship (* 1952) and the opera singer Rebecca Blankenship (* 1954). In 1991 William and Barbara Blankenship returned to Vienna and settled there permanently until his death. After his wife's death, Blankenship lived with the concert pianist and piano teacher Sawako Yamada .

Blankenship died in Vienna at the beginning of December 2017 at the age of 89, according to the Vienna State Opera with his family.

William and Barbara Blankenship are buried in the cemetery of the Simmering fire hall (Section 7, Ring 3, Group 4, No. 149).

Audio documents

A few audio documents have been preserved from Blankenship, almost exclusively live recordings and radio recordings ( ORF / NDR ).

In 1975 BASF published a complete recording of the opera Penthesilea by Othmar Schoeck , which was made in 1973 with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (conductor: Zdeněk Mácal ) at the Lucerne International Music Festival; Blankenship sings the role of Diomedes in it. In 1981 Amadeo released a recording of the opera Jonny plays on LP with Blankenship as composer Max, which is an ORF recording from 1964 (conductor: Heinrich Hollreiser ).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e tenor William Blankenship died . In: Der Standard from December 4, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Tenor William Blankenship passed away . Obituary. Klassik.com from December 5, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b c d e VIENNA OPERA MOURNS TO AMERICAN SINGER . Obituary. SlippedDisc.com on December 4, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ List of roles by William Blankenship. In: Chronik der Wiener Staatsoper 1945-2005 , p. 312. Löcker Verlag, Vienna 2006. ISBN 3-85409-449-3 .
  5. ↑ Beverly Blankenship: Makes her first TV movie: Men, Dogs and Wellness Zores . In: Wiener Zeitung of September 13, 1999. Retrieved on December 17, 2017.
  6. ↑ Compare the information in the catalog of the German National Library.
  7. ↑ Compare the information in the catalog of the German National Library
personal data
SURNAME Blankenship, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blankenship, William Leonard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American opera singer (tenor)
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Gatesville , Texas , United States
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 2017
Place of death Vienna , Austria