Erika Köth
Erika Köth ( born September 15, 1925 ( in some Dictionaries of Music is named as 1927 birth year) in Darmstadt, † February 20, 1989 in Speyer ) was a German opera singer and soprano. With her coloratura soprano, she was famous in Mozart operas, especially as Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. Width notoriety she reached also by roles in operas and operettas by Albert Lortzingstraße, Robert Stolz, Johann Strauss and Franz Lehár. She was one of the great coloratura sopranos of the 20th century in Germany. Her voice was characterized by " highest virtuosity, exquisite beauty of sound and special luminosity at the highest altitudes " ( Herrmann / Hollaender 2007, p 35).
Life and work
Erika Köth ill with eight years of polio, from which it largely recovered after a protracted therapy. At 17, she received a scholarship from her hometown, but the war prevented the career as a singer and she landed in an ammunition factory instead of in the theater. After the war, Erika Köth their livelihood earned as pop and schmaltz singer for the American army and studied singing at the Darmstadt Academy for Musical Arts.
In 1947, she won a singing competition among 300 applicants from Radio Frankfurt with the aria of the Queen of the Night. Then she got her first engagement at the Pfalz Theatre in Kaiserslautern, where she made her debut in 1948.
In 1950, she learned on the football field to know her future husband, the actor and director Ernst Dorn, who also managed them later. In addition, she received an engagement at the State Theatre in Karlsruhe, under the direction of Music Director Otto Matzerath. The three years at the Karlsruhe theater were decisive for her career to a celebrated coloratura soprano. Over their time in Karlsruhe, the artist expressed in retrospect: "This was my favorite time, when I was so poor and never had money ... Otto Matzerath in Karlsruhe, I owe everything. "
Köth moved in 1953 to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, whose ensemble she belonged until 1978. In the capital city of Bavaria, she had one of her first successes as Lucia di Lammermoor. There were her singing partner Sari Barabas, Hertha Topper, Lilian Benningsen, Hans Hotter and Fritz Wunderlich and Hermann Prey.
In addition, Erika Köth regularly performed in productions of the Hamburg and Vienna State Opera. In addition, she was still at the State Theatre on Gaertnerplatz active. Erika Köth sang more than 270 times the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Magic Flute, including in 1953 at the Vienna State Opera, and in 1956 at La Scala. In 1960 she became a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and expanded her repertoire into the lyrical subject: roles such as Mimi, Antonia, Liù or Micaela were added as new games. 1955-1960 and 1962/1963 Erika Köth sang at the Salzburg Festival. In 1958 she undertook a U.S. tour, 1961 tour of the Soviet Union in 1963, 1966 and 1971 in Japan, including the opera Le Nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute and Falstaff. She starred in three feature films and 1958 was on the side of Wolf Albach -Retty leading lady in My whole heart is full of music. In it she played a woman who led a strange double life.
At the Bayreuth Festival Erika Köth sang the role of forest bird in Richard Wagner's Siegfried. More gigs followed in London's Covent Garden, in Rome, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Budapest, mainly in Richard Strauss roles. She also sang the Lucia di Lammermoor and Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème.
Your last highly acclaimed appearance on an opera stage she had in Munich in 1978 as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème. After that she worked until 1988 as a lecturer at the conservatories of Cologne and Mannheim, gave master classes in their place of residence Neustadt on the Wine Route and also became involved in August Ever thing "Singing School " in Munich. Among her students were among other Anna Maria Kaufmann and Ruth Frenk.
Away from the opera stage, she was several times a guest in the TV show Zum Blauen Bock with Heinz Schenk. Here she sang songs of light entertainment.
In 1989 the artist died of cancer. On February 23, 1989, she was at the old cemetery in Darmstadt by the bishop of the diocese of Speyer, Anton Schlembach buried. The eulogy was given by the former Minister President of Rhineland -Palatinate, Bernhard Vogel.
In Darmstadt, Baldham near Munich, Neustadt on the Wine Route streets were named after Erika Köth.
Erika Köth chain
The Foundation for the Support of the Semperoper in Dresden gives an irregular basis to outstanding singers of the Erika Köth chain. So far Birgit Fandrey (1994) and Christiane Hossfeld (2001) were excellent.
Discography (selection)
- Abduction from the Seraglio (Opera ) Gesamtaufnahme
- Banditenstreiche ( operetta ) Gesamtaufnahme
- Rigoletto (cross section, with Rudolf Schock )
- Lucia di Lammermoor (cross section, Rudolf Schock )
- Don Pasquale ( cross-section with Josef Traxel )
- The Bird Seller ( Operetta - cross-section, Rudolf Schock )
- Erika Köth sings arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Erika Köth. portrait
- German folk songs
- Erika Köth in their favorite roles