Hans Beirer
Hans Beirer ( born June 23, 1911 in Wiener Neustadt, † June 24, 1993 in Berlin) was an Austrian operatic tenor and chamber singer, who was firmly committed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera and the Hamburg State Opera. He became internationally known primarily as a Wagner singer.
Life
Beirer began after high school, first studied medicine in Vienna, but saddled on to study singing at Tino Pattiera and Paul Neuhaus at the Vienna Academy of Music. 1936 Beirer debuted at the State Theatre in Linz as Hans in The Bartered Bride. In the following years he appeared as a lyric tenor and sang such roles as Rodolfo in La Bohème, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, the Duke in Rigoletto, the Turridu in Cavalleria Rusticana and the José in Carmen. From 1937 to 1939 Beirer was engaged at the municipal theaters of Basel and St. Gallen. Then he sang at controlled from KdF Mellini Theater in Hannover operetta roles. With the beginning of World War II his career was temporarily interrupted by military service in the army, but he soon entered Berlin at the Theater am Nollendorfplatz again in operetta roles such as the Barinkay in the Gypsy Baron and Danilo in The Merry Widow on. In 1943 he was engaged at the German Opera House Berlin, where he made his debut as Nando in the lowlands.
In the post-war period Beirer turned to the heroic tenor compartment and began an international career as a Wagner singer. In 1948 he sang in the premiere of Werner Egk opera Circe at the Berlin Municipal Opera. As early as 1949 he was a guest at the Opera of Rome as Parsifal, with Maria Callas and Cesare Siepi as stage partners. At the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, he guested 1949/1950 as the Drum Major in Wozzeck. 1950/1951 he sang at La Scala Tannhauser, 1951 Parsifal and 1952 the Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, both under the baton of Wilhelm Furtwängler 1957 he guested as Tristan at La Scala. In 1955 he sang at the Grand Opéra Paris Siegfried in the Ring of the Nibelung.
Beirers repertoire included almost all the major tenor roles of Richard Wagner, also the Florestan in Fidelio, Otello in Verdi 's opera, Radames in Aida, the Pedro in the lowlands, the Vasco da Gama in Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera The African, Samson in Samson et Dalila and Alfred in Die Fledermaus. Beirer has performed in Japan, the U.S. and several leading opera houses of the world. Between 1958 and 1962 he sang at the Bayreuth Festival Tannhäuser, Tristan and Parsifal.
1958 was Beirer addition to his work at the Deutsche Oper Berlin committed to the Hamburg State Opera, where he sang until 1971. From 1962 to 1987 he was in addition to the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera.
1966 came Beirer in the headlines when he used wrong at a gala performance of Fidelio, conducted by Lorin Maazel in the final and thus threw the performance.
On May 23, 1971 Beirer sang at the Vienna State Opera in the world premiere of Gottfried von Einem's opera The Visit of the Old Lady by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, 1976 also in the premiere of Love and Intrigue by the same composer.
Even after his 60th year Beirer sang Tristan and until 1981 the Siegfried in Wagner 's opera. In 1986 he joined Vienna on his 75th birthday as Herod in Salome. His stage farewell he took in 1987 at the Vienna State Opera in the role of Aegisthus in Elektra.
Although Beirer had an indestructible powerful voice, but no record voice, and so existed during his active singing career only one official recording with a cross-section of the opera Tannhäuser at the company Opera. Meanwhile, several recordings of opera performances are on CD, such as the Vienna premiere of Tannhäuser conducted by Herbert von Karajan and the world premiere of Gottfried von Einem's opera The Visit of the Old Lady.
Hans Beirer was buried at Forest Cemetery in Berlin Zehlendorf.
Recognitions
- 2011: Exhibition Hans Beirer. From 1911 to 1993. The last dinosaur ... the opera stage. the City Museum Wiener Neustadt
- 2013: Exhibition Hans Beirer. in the Vienna State Opera Museum