Heinrich Marschner, lithograph after a drawing by F. A. Jung, c. 1830.

Heinrich August Marschner (Zittau, 16 August 1795 – Hanover, 16 December 1861), was the most important composer of German Romantic opera between Carl Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner, and is remembered principally for his operas Hans Heiling (1833), Der Vampyr (1828), and Der Templer und die Jüdin (1829). Marschner’s ability to depict supernatural horror by musical means is especially evident in the first two operas as well as in some of his ballads, such as "Die Monduhr" (c. 1839). Next to his operas, his most significant musical contribution is to the Lied, the best of which are comparable with those by Carl Loewe. Marschner also wrote a considerable amount of chamber music, including seven piano trios, as well as unaccompanied male choruses that were very popular in the nineteenth century. While Marschner’s operas strongly influenced Wagner, his chamber music, songs, and his cantata Klänge aus Osten (1842) were admired by Robert Schumann, whose cantata Paradise and the Peri (1843) shows the older composer’s influence. Marschner’s Bagatelles for guitar (1814) have been revived by guitarists, and so have been some of his piano trios. Among his operas, Hans Heiling and especially Der Vampyr have been adapted and revived in recent years with considerable success.

Biography[link]

Marschner was widely regarded as one of the most important composers in Europe from about 1830 until the end of the 19th century. He was a rival of Weber and friend of Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Even today, he is generally acknowledged as the leading composer of German opera between Weber's death and Wagner, producing many fairy or magic operas with thematic material based on folksong, a genre that had been introduced with Weber's Der Freischütz (1821). His last-mounted production was Austin in 1852, after which the rising star of Richard Wagner eclipsed Marschner.

Though he considered himself primarily a composer of opera, he wrote many lieder, seven piano trios, and two piano quartets. These did not escape the notice of Robert Schumann, who praised the piano trios lavishly. Marschner did not just toss off these works as an afterthought but clearly devoted considerable time and effort writing them. He gave the title "Grand Trio" to each of his works for piano, violin and cello, indicative of the importance he attached to them. In these fine works, one finds all of the emotions prevalent in the romantic movement during the mid-19th century.

Selected works[link]

Opera[link]

Schauspielmusik (Music to plays)[link]

• Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, Op. 56 (1821)
• Schön Ella (1822)
• Der Goldschmied von Ulm (1856)
• Die Hermannsschlacht

Chamber music[link]

• Piano trio no.1 in A minor, Op. 29
• Piano trio no.2 in G minor, Op. 111
• Piano trio no.3 in F minor, Op. 121
• Piano trio no.4 in D major, Op. 135
• Piano trio no.5 in D minor, Op. 138
• Piano trio no.6 in C minor, Op. 148
• Piano trio no.7 in F major, Op. 167
• Piano quartet no.1 in B-flat major, Op. 36
• Piano quartet no.2 in G major, Op. 158

Solo music[link]

• Douze bagatelles pour la Guitarre, Op. 4

References[link]

• Some of the information on this page appears on the website of Edition Silvertrust but permission has been granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
• Heinrich Marschner Biography; list of operas and singspiels.

• Hughes, Derek (July 1998). "Wie die Hans Heilings: Weber, Marschner, and Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus". Cambridge Opera Journal 10 (2): 179–204. DOI:10.1017/S0954586700004924. 
• Meyer, Stephen (July 2000). "Marschner's Villains, Monomania, and the Fantasy of Deviance". Cambridge Opera Journal 12 (2): 109–34. DOI:10.1017/S0954586700001099. 
• Palmer, Allen Dean: Heinrich August Marschner, 1795–1861. His life and stage works. Ann Arbor 1980
• Weber, Brigitta: Heinrich Marschner. Königlicher Hofkapellmeister in Hannover. Hannover: Niedersächsische Staatstheater 1995. (Prinzenstraße. 5) ISBN 3-931266-01-X
• Von der Lucretia zum Vampyr. Neue Quellen zu Marschner. Dokumente zur Entstehung und Rezeption der Lucretia. Vollständige Edition des Reise-Tagebuchs von 1826 bis 1828. Anmerkungen zu Marschners journalistischem Wirken. Hrsg. und kommentiert von Till Gerrit Waidelich. Tutzing: Schneider 1996. ISBN 3-7952-0837-8
• Heinrich August Marschner. Bericht über das Zittauer Marschner-Symposium. Ein Symposium des Instituts für Kulturelle Infrastruktur Sachsen. Hrsg. von Allmuth Behrendt und Matthias Theodor Vogt. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag 1998. (Kulturelle Infrastruktur. Bd. 5) ISBN 3-931922-22-7
• Reclams Opernführer. Reclam-Verlag 1994, ISBN 3-15-010406-8

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Heinrich Marschner

• JMucci.com | Biography
• Edition Silvertrust | Piano trio nos. 2 & 7, Opp. 111 & 167 soundbites
• Free scores by Heinrich Marschner at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Heinrich Marschner in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)

Kaufmann outside London's Royal Opera House following the dress rehearsal for Tosca on 9 May 2008

Jonas Kaufmann (born 10 July 1969) is a German operatic tenor. Although he has sung a variety of leading roles including both the Mozart and Wagner repertoire, he is particularly known for his performances in spinto roles such as Don José in Carmen, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur, and the title role in Don Carlos.^[1]

Early life and education[link]

Kaufmann was born in Munich. His father worked for an insurance company, and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. He had one older sister. He started studying piano when he was eight, and he sang in his elementary school choir. Although he studied for math entrance exams, in the summer of 1989 he began his vocal training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. While studying, he sang some small roles at the Bavarian State Opera. He graduated from school in 1994.^[2]

In 1995, after a vocal crisis, Kaufmann received help from American baritone Michael Rhodes who taught him a "new way of singing" and how to become "more relaxed in my voice and in myself."^[3] In Kaufmann's book Meinen die wirklich mich? he said, "To find a Michael Rhodes that can really help you and bring you to success is really a great stroke of luck."^[4]

Career[link]

He began his professional career at Staatstheater Saarbrücken in 1994^[5] and was soon invited to make debuts in German theaters such as the Stuttgart Opera and Hamburg State Opera, as well as international debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, and La Scala. He made his Salzburg Festival debut in 1999 in a new production of Busoni's Doktor Faust and returned there in 2003 as Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail and for concerts of the Beethoven's Ninth with the Berlin Philharmonic.

He performed in Covent Garden in 2006-2007 in the role of Don José in Bizet's Carmen to critical acclaim, and also sang Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera and in Covent Garden in 2008. In May 2008, Kaufmann made his role debut as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca in Covent Garden, again to critical acclaim.^[6]

In 2008-09 he performed Manon in Chicago opposite Natalie Dessay and in the title role of a new production of Lohengrin at the Bavarian State Opera. He also sang Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival opening night performance of the 2010 season; the production was staged by Hans Neuenfels and conducted by Andris Nelsons.

His debut recording with Decca, Romantic Arias, was released in January 2008. He has also recorded a Schubert song cycle on the same label and the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for EMI.

In January 2010 he assumed the title role in Jules Massenet's Werther at the Opera Bastille; the performance was recorded and released on DVD in November 2010.

In April 2011 he returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Siegmund in director Robert Lepage's new production of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre the second part of his much larger work Der Ring des Nibelungen, scheduled to be presented in its entirety during the 2011-12 season.^[7] In September 2011, he underwent surgery to remove a lymph node from his chest.^[8][9][10] In December, he was back, performing the title role in Gounod's Faust.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Kaufmann is married to mezzo-soprano Margarete Joswig. They have three children and live in Zürich, Switzerland.^[12]

Repertoire[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2012)

Kaufmann's repertoire includes the following:

• Abert: Ekkehard - title role
• Beethoven: Fidelio - Florestan, Jaquino
• Berlioz: La damnation de Faust - Faust
• Bizet: Carmen - Don José
• Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur - Maurizio
• Gounod: Faust - title role
• Humperdinck: Königskinder - Königssohn
• Massenet: Manon - Des Grieux
• Massenet: Werther - title role
• Monteverdi:Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria - Telemaco
• Monteverdi:L'incoronazione di Poppea - Nerone
• Loewe: Drei Wünsche- Hassan
• Mozart: Così fan tutte - Ferrando
• Mozart: Die Zauberflöte - Tamino
• Mozart: Idomeneo - title role
• Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail - Belmonte
• Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito - Tito
• Paer: Leonora - Florestano
• Paisiello: Nina, o sia La pazza per amore - Un Pastore + Lindoro
• Puccini:La Rondine - Ruggero
• Puccini: La bohème - Rodolfo
• Puccini: Tosca - Cavaradossi
• Rossini: Il Barbiere Di Siviglia - Almaviva
• Schubert: Fierrabras - title role
• Marc Schubring: Cyrano de Bergerac - Christian
• Smetana: The Bartered Bride - Hans
• Verdi:Falstaff - Fenton
• Verdi: La traviata - Alfredo
• Verdi: Otello - Cassio
• Verdi: Rigoletto - Duca
• Verdi: Don Carlos - title role
• Wagner: Tannhäuser- Walther
• Wagner: Parsifal - title role
• Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Walther
• Wagner: Die Walküre - Siegmund
• Wagner: Lohengrin - title role

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website jonaskaufmann.com
• Jonas Kaufmann on bach-cantatas
• Unofficial Website

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2011)

Hermann Prey (11 July 1929 – 22 July 1998) was a German lyric baritone, best known for his lieder renditions and for light comic roles in opera.

Biography[link]

Hermann Prey was born in Berlin and grew up in Germany. He was scheduled to be drafted when World War II ended. He studied voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and won the prize of the Frankfurt contest of the Hessischer Rundfunk in 1952.

He began to sing in song recitals and made his operatic debut the next year in Wiesbaden. He joined the Staatsoper, where he sang until 1960. During his last years in Hamburg, he also made frequent guest appearances elsewhere, including the Salzburg Festival.

He sang frequently at the Metropolitan Opera between 1960 and 1970 and made his Bayreuth debut in 1965. Although he often sang Verdi early in his career, he later concentrated more on Mozart and Richard Strauss. Prey was well known for playing Figaro (Mozart and Rossini), but he played other Mozart roles at least equally often, particularly Papageno and Guglielmo. He also played, and recorded, the Count in The Marriage of Figaro. He is regarded by many as the best Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus operetta.

He was at home with comic opera Italian-style, displaying scenic intelligence, liveliness and hilarity. His virtuoso agility and great comic acting made him an obvious choice for numerous productions of Mozart's and Rossini's operas in the 1970s. In 1972 he performed as Figaro in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's television film of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Teresa Berganza as Rosina, Luigi Alva as Almaviva and conductor Claudio Abbado. He appeared alongside Fritz Wunderlich in the live televised version of Il Barbiere di Siviglia in its German translation, Der Barbier von Sevilla. He also portrayed Figaro in 1976 in Ponnelle's film of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro.

Prey also sang operetta and performed on German television, becoming extremely popular with television audiences. He shared media-celebrity with Fritz Wunderlich until the latter's untimely death, often playing Papageno to Wunderlich's Tamino.

He is best remembered for his recitals, his first American recital having been given in 1956. He was a gifted interpreter of Schubert, as well as other Lieder (together with the German pianist Sebastian Peschko). He also appeared frequently in concert, particularly in the Bach Passions and Brahms' A German Requiem. A videotaped performance of Schubert's lieder-cycle Schwanengesang is available.

Prey possessed a clear, polished tone - darker and deeper-sounding than his slightly older contemporary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, but equally refined and equally capable of soaring into the tenor range without the smallest suggestion of vocal effort.

He recorded a multi-volume set for Phillips, tracing the history of the Lied from the Minnesänger to the twentieth century. In addition, he released numerous recordings of opera and song.

Unlike Fischer-Dieskau, Prey wisely limited his Wagner to the soft, high-baritone roles Wolfram and Beckmesser. He can be seen on video in the latter role, opposite Bernd Weikl.

Starting in 1982, he taught at the Musikhochschule Hamburg, and he wrote an autobiography which was translated as First Night Fever (ISBN 0-7145-3998-8).

In 1988, he directed a production of The Marriage of Figaro in Salzburg. His son Florian is also a baritone.

He died in Krailling, Bavaria.

For many years, Michael Endres was the pianist to Hermann Prey.

References[link]

• Fritz Wunderlich's Colleagues: Hermann Prey
• Prey - Stille meine Liebe: documentary DVD about Hermann Prey

External links[link]

• Interview with Hermann Prey by Bruce Duffie, October 12, 1985