Josef Traxel

Josef Friedrich Traxel ( born September 29, 1916 in Mainz, † October 8, 1975 in Stuttgart ) was a German singer (tenor ).

First song was not on his program of life: When he began his studies at the Music Academy in Darmstadt, he took composition and conducting. To a proper vocal training did not happen. 1942 debuted the war veterans during a hospital stay in Mainz " helping out " as Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni recognized at the time, of lucid critics as a young artist with great future potential. After release from captivity his actual singing career began in Nuremberg, where he was employed at the City Theatre as a lyric tenor. In 1952, and appointed him to the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where he remained until his death. In 1954 he was appointed there to the chamber singers.

Hardly any other tenor had such an extensive repertoire as Traxel: from lyric roles in Mozart operas (Belmonte, Don Ottavio and Tamino ) and the Italian trade ( the leading tenor roles in Rigoletto and masked ball, Manon Lescaut and La Bohème ) to the heroic Trade in Wagner operas, ranged his roles; he was regarded as a brilliant Don José in Carmen and great Hans in The Bartered Bride. Its spectrum included tenor parts in Bach 's Passions and Haydn oratorios to excursions into the field of operetta ( The Bird Seller, The Last Waltz, Old Heidelberg ). In many premieres and first he worked with, among others, in Antigone by Carl Orff and Oedipus Rex by Igor Stravinsky in Stuttgart. The Salzburg Festival in 1952 heard and saw his imposing stage presence in the love of Danae by Richard Strauss.

Numerous guest performances and tours led Josef Traxel to all major opera houses in Europe such as La Scala in Milan and also to North America, where he in 1964 as a tenor star at New York Concert Opera Association as Leicester in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda as interpreter of bel canto roles enthusiastic ( at New York's Metropolitan Opera, he is, however, not published ). Since 1954, he celebrated at the Bayreuth Festival, a great success, including as Froh in Das Rheingold, helmsman and Erik in The Flying Dutchman, Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger. As a concert singer, especially in the Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as a song singer, he made ​​his name. From 1963 he took a vocal professor at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule.

Discography

(Selection)

• CD edition Josef Traxel / Hamburger Archive for Song Art ( 12 CDs in four boxes)
• Josef Traxel rarities and discoveries / Hamburger Archives ( 1 Special Edition CD )
• Josef Traxel sings arias ( published by Uracant ).
• Josef Traxel. A portrait. Recordings 1955-1961 (EMI).
• Tenor part in J. S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio, 1958 Dir: . Kurt Thomas (EMI).
• Ernesto in Gaetano Donizetti: Don Pasquale. Dir: Werner Schmidt- Boelcke.
• Uriel in Haydn: The Creation 1960 Dir. , Karl Forster ( EMI).
• Canio in Leoncavallo: Pagliacci ( cross section). Dir: William Schüchter (EMI).
• Fenton in Otto Nicolai: The Merry Wives of Windsor. Dir: Altmann.
• Adriano in Richard Wagner: Rienzi 1957 Dir: . Lovro von Matacic ( Living Stage / Hamburger Archive ).
• Helmsman in Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman. . Bayreuth 1955 Dir: Keilberth ( Teldec ); Bayreuth 1955 Dir: Hans Knappertsbusch ( Cetra ); Bayreuth 1956 Dir: Keilberth ( melodrama ).
• Erik in Richard Wagner: The Flying Dutchman. Bayreuth 1958 Dir:. W.Sawallisch (Hamburger Archive )
• Walther von der Vogelweide in Richard Wagner: Tannhäuser. Bayreuth 1954 Dir: Keilberth ( Teldec ); Bayreuth 1955 Dir: André Cluytens ( Orfeo ).
• Glad to Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold. . Bayreuth Bayreuth in 1956 and 1957 Dir: Hans Knappertsbusch ( Golden melodrama ).
• Laca in Leos Janacek: Jenufa. Vienna 1959 ( Hamburg archive)
• Zivny in Leos Janácek: Osud. Stuttgart 1958 ( Hamburg archive)