Hertha Töpper
Hertha Topper ( born April 19, 1924 in Graz) is an Austrian contralto, which has shown a great vocal versatility in the 1950s and 1960s and, inter alia, frequently worked as an opera and oratorio singer with Ferenc Fricsay (Le Nozze di Figaro, Oedipus Rex, Great Mass ).
Biography and artistic work
Hertha Topper, daughter of a music teacher, studied before his graduation singing at the Opera School of the Landeskonservatorium her hometown. She made her debut in 1945 at the Graz Opera as Ulrica. The first Bayreuth Festival after the Second World War in 1951 committed the contralto for Wagner's Ring Cycle. Further invitations followed. In the same year she made her debut as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and sparked real enthusiasm from. A year later, Hertha Topper ensemble member at the Bavarian State Opera, where she at the premiere (11 August 1957) by Paul Hindemith's opera was collaborated The harmony of the world.
The artist was asked nationally and internationally, particularly as Dorabella, Fricka, Brangäne, Octavian, Judith, Carmen. She has performed at all major opera houses in the world, in London, Vienna, Milan, Brussels, Amsterdam, Rome, Zurich, etc. Highlights of her meteoric career were sure their exposures at the Salzburg Festival as well as at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
In addition to her operatic career, the singer gave as a song, oratorio and concert singer legendary reputation. Especially as Bach pianist ( with Karl Richter ) they set high standards. In recognition and appreciation of their artistic work of alto 1955, the title of a Bavarian Chamber singer was awarded.
Hertha Töppers former fame was based on both a reliable, highly adaptable vocal technique as well as a distinctive Iberian -looking face and a confident, charismatic stage presence, and their merits " in strong expression and tasteful phrasing, less in the vocal range ( were )" ( Herrmann / Hollaender 2007, p 84). In her professional relationship with Fricsay and judges Töpper was in a sense the deep counterpart to Maria Stader.
1949 married the singer composer Franz Mixa ( 1902-1994 ). From 1971 to 1981 she was a professor of singing at the Munich Academy of Music (now the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich ). Students from her were: Ulrike Buchs- Quante, Camilla Ueberschaer, Elisabeth von Magnus and Brenda Mitchell.
Her voice is immortalized on many sound recordings.