Wolfgang Windgassen

Autograph 1967

Wolfgang Fritz Hermann Windgassen (born June 26, 1914 in Annemasse , Haute-Savoie , France, † September 8, 1974 in Stuttgart ) was a German opera singer ( tenor ).

Life

"Mein Held" was used by the director and festival director Wieland Wagner to address him. Together with him, Wagner's grandson cleared out the Bayreuth Festival after the Second World War - Wagner scenic, set design and ideological, Windgassen vocally and theatrically.

The fact that he was to become a great singer - perhaps the most popular German Wagner tenor of the second half of the twentieth century - was "sung in the cradle": his father Fritz Windgassen was a celebrated hero tenor in Kassel and Stuttgart, his mother Vali von der Osten a coloratura soprano in Kassel, the mother's sister, Eva von der Osten , was the favorite soprano of the Dresden opera goers. In his second marriage, Windgassen was married to the soprano Lore Wissmann .

Initially, Wolfgang Windgassen became a technical volunteer at the Stuttgart Opera, but then studied singing with Alfons Fischer and with his father at the Stuttgart Music Academy . In 1939 he made his debut at the Stadttheater Pforzheim as Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly .

After the war ended, he came to the Stuttgart State Opera in 1945 , where he initially sang lyrical roles such as Tamino in the Magic Flute , Hoffmann in Hoffmann's Stories and many roles from the Italian subject ( La traviata , A Masked Ball , Rigoletto , Die Macht des Schicksals , Aida , La Bohème , Tosca , Madama Butterfly , Bajazzo , Cavalleria rusticana ), but also roles from the intermediate subject such as Florestan in Fidelio and Max in Freischütz . In 1946 he sang the swallow in the German premiere of the opera Mathis der Maler by Paul Hindemith in Stuttgart.

From 1950 he took over Wagner roles, his first Siegmund in Die Walküre was a resounding success in Stuttgart in 1951. From 1951 to 1970 he sang all the big Wagner roles at the Bayreuth Festival: Erik , Tannhäuser , Lohengrin , Loge , Siegmund , Siegfried , Walther von Stolzing , Tristan and Parsifal . Under the support and guidance of Wieland Wagner, he grew into a great singer-actor who, as his long-time stage partner Martha Mödl once put it, “no longer plays and sings his roles, but is simply Tristan, Siegfried and Parsifal! This is how these embodiments lived in Richard Wagner's wishful imagination. ”The conductor Karl Böhm said:“ Windgassen is one of the rare fortunes in which nature has brought together everything that is desirable: voice, musicality, appearance, intelligence and the highest artistic sense of responsibility ... Anyone who has even a spark of artistic receptivity must be carried away by the indescribable creative power of Windgassen. In my opinion, those who remain unaffected cannot be helped. "

Windgassen's repertoire did not only include Wagner roles. Other brilliant roles were Adolar in Weber's “ Euryanthe ”, the Kaiser in “ Die Frau ohne Schatten ” by Richard Strauss , Florestan in “ Fidelio ” and Otello in Verdi's opera of the same name. He often sang Eisenstein from Johann Strauss' " Fledermaus " and most recently Prince Orlofsky in a television production.

Countless guest appearances have taken him to all leading opera houses in Europe (including Vienna , London , Paris , Milan , Barcelona ), South America ( Buenos Aires ), Australia ( Sydney ) and the USA ( Met , San Francisco ). Despite tempting offers, he remained loyal to his parent company, the Stuttgart State Opera, to the end. Every day he called when he could be reached at four o'clock to ask whether the evening performance was secured or whether he was needed.

Since 1970 he has also staged operas, from 1972 to 1974 he was artistic director of the Stuttgart State Opera, from 1963 to 1972 president of the Cooperative of German Stage Members .

Grave of Wolfgang Windgassen and Lore Wissmann

In 1974 he died unexpectedly of a heart attack after singing Tannhäuser at the Stuttgart Opera on his 60th birthday . Windgassen's grave is located in the forest cemetery in Stuttgart .

Honors

• 1972: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Movies

• Black Forest Girl (1973)

Discography

Unless otherwise stated, selections are complete recordings:

The CD provides an overview of the artist's versatility

• Windgassen - a portrait of a singer. Recordings 1950 to 1958. Dir .: Ferdinand Leitner et al. (Uracant in collaboration with the SWR).
• Florestan in Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio. Vienna 1953. Dir .: Wilhelm Furtwängler (EMI).
• Florestan in Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio. Vienna 1953. Dir .: Herbert von Karajan (Walhall).
• Otello in Giuseppe Verdi: Otello (cross section) 1953. Dir .: Otto Gerdes (Deutsche Grammophon).
• Galba in Eugen d´Albert: The dead eyes. Stuttgart 1951. Dir .: Walter Born (Myto Records).
• Aegisth in Richard Strauss: Elektra (HRE).
• Gerard in Carl Maria von Weber: Euryanthe. Stuttgart Opera live January 8, 1954 Dir .: Ferdinand Leitner (Walhall).

Works by Richard Wagner:

• Rienzi in Rienzi 1957. Dir .: Lovro von Matacic (Living Stage).
• Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer 1953. Dir .: Ferenc Fricsay, (Deutsche Grammophon); Bayreuth 1955. Dir .: Hans Knappertsbusch (melodrama).
• Tannhauser in Tannhauser. Bayreuth 1955. Dir .: André Cluytens (Walhall).
• Tannhauser in Tannhauser. Bayreuth 1962. Dir .: Wolfgang Sawallisch (Philips).
• Lohengrin in Lohengrin. Bayreuth 1953. Dir .: Joseph Keilberth (Teldec).
• Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (excerpts) 1952. Dir .: Ferdinand Leitner et al
• Walther von Stolzing, Bayreuth 1956 Dir .: André Cluytens (Music and Arts); Bayreuth 1960, cond .: Hans Knappertsbusch (melodrama).
• Tristan in Tristan and Isolde. Bayreuth 1966, Dir .: Karl Böhm (Deutsche Grammophon).
• Tristan, State Opera Stuttgart 1973, Dir .: Carlos Kleiber (Living Stage).
• Tristan (scenes). Dir .: Hermann Weigert, Ferdinand Leitner.
• Parsifal in Parsifal. Bayreuth 1951 (Teldec), Bayreuth 1952 (Archipel records), Bayreuth 1954 (melodrama), Dir .: Hans Knappertsbusch

The Ring of the Nibelung:

• Siegmund in Die Walküre. Stuttgart 1951 (only 1st elevator). Dir .: Ferdinand Leitner (Deutsche Grammophon).
• Lodge in Das Rheingold. NDR Hamburg 1952. Dir .: Wilhelm Schüchter (Gebhardt).
• Loge in Das Rheingold, Siegmund in Die Walküre. RAI Roma 1953, Dir .: Wilhelm Furtwängler (EMI, Gebhardt).
• Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Bayreuth 1953, Dir .: Clemens Krauss. (Archipelago)
• Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Bayreuth 1953, Dir .: Joseph Keilberth (Andromeda).
• Siegmund in Die Walküre. Bayreuth 1956. Dir .: Hans Knappertsbusch (melodrama).
• Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Bayreuth 1955 (stereo!), Dir .: Joseph Keilberth (Decca / Testament).
• Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Bayreuth 1956 and 1958, Dir .: Hans Knappertsbusch (melodrama).
• Siegfried in Götterdämmerung. Bayreuth 1957, director: Hans Knappertsbusch (melodrama).
• Siegfried in Siegfried (1962) and Götterdämmerung (1964). Dir .: Georg Solti (Decca).
• Lodge in Rheingold, Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. Bayreuth 1967, Dir .: Karl Böhm (Philips).

literature

• Alex Natan: Primo Uomo. Great opera singers . Basilius Presse, Basel et al. 1963. Quote benevolently assumed without further information.
• Berndt Wilhelm Wessling: Wolfgang Windgassen . Schünemann, Bremen 1967.
• Jürgen Kesting : The great singers of the 20th century . Special edition. Cormoran, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-517-07987-1 , Chapter VII.

Web links

• Sound carrier with Wolfgang Windgassen in the catalog of the German National Library