Helen Traubel

Helen Traubel ( born June 20, 1899 in St. Louis, † July 28, 1972 in Santa Monica ) was an American soprano.

Life

After her vocal studies in St. Louis and New York Traubel debuted in 1923 as a concert singer with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. After a concert in 1926, she received a first offer for an engagement at New York's Metropolitan Opera, which she initially turned down but to educate yourself musically.

She first appeared on their subsequent headquarters had Traubel on 12 June 1937 in the world premiere of Walter Damrosch Opera The Man without a Country - at the request of the composer. This was followed by engagements at the operas of Chicago ( 1937-46 ) and San Francisco ( 1945-47 ). In 1939 she sang again at the Met, where she had as Sieglinde in a performance of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre as a partner of Kirsten Flagstad ( Brunnhilde ) and Lauritz Melchior ( Siegmund ) a sensational success. Result, she was a regular member of the house and in 1941, when Kirsten Flagstad was unable to return to the Metropolitan Opera from Norway because of the German invasion, its successor as the leading Wagnerian soprano in North America. Even during their tour of Mexico and Buenos Aires, she was celebrated. 1953, she has performed in London.

In 1953, the Treaty of the singer from the manager of the MET, Sir Rudolf Bing, not renewed because the singer increasingly appeared in operettas, musicals, films and television shows since the Second World War and he was of the opinion that this is with the reputation of the house would be incompatible. In 1955 she starred in a Broadway show Pipe Dream in New York.

She was also a writer gifted and gave out crime novels ( " Potomaine Canary ," "The Metropolitan Opera Murders ").

Importance

Traubel had a very voluminous, powerful and dramatic soprano voice, by which they, the leading Wagnerian soprano of the MET and thus the most famous opera house in the world was more than a decade, where she ten major roles in 133 performances ( plus 43 performances at the annual tour of the ensemble ) sang.

Traubel took on record for the company's Columbia and RCA. There are also numerous live performances from the Metropolitan Opera, especially as a partner of Lauritz Melchior and Friedrich Schorr, confirming its ranking as one of the major Wagner singers of the 20th century.

Clips

• " Softly and gently as he smiles " ( Tristan and Isolde )
• Tchaikovsky
• " Dedication " ( Richard Strauss )