Leo Slezak
Leo Slezak ( born August 18, 1873 in Moravian- Schönberg, Austria - Hungary, † June 1, 1946 in Rottach -Egern, American occupation zone ) was a popular singer ( tenor) and actor.
Life
Leo Slezak was born the son of a miller in Moravian- Schoenberg. His childhood was marked by material hardship. As a rather poor and disciplinary "difficult" student he had to finish the secondary school prematurely. He tried it briefly a gardening apprenticeship in Gmunden am Traunsee, and finally he met three years machinist in Brno. During this time, his enthusiasm grew for the theater, especially for comic roles. He was an extra on a chorister of the Municipal Theatre. One evening, " he roared the chorus points which had remained in his ears " during a performance of " Pagliacci " with, while the baritone Adolf Robinson became aware of him, who received him in a selfless manner as a student and trained. As the singing adjourned little with the profession of a machinist, he joined the military and slapped then with odd jobs as a clerk in a law firm and representative " for Powidl " by.
He made his debut in 1896 in Brno as Lohengrin, 1898, he went to the Royal Court Opera in Berlin, but was not busy, which is why he moved to the theater in Wroclaw after a year. Here he met his future wife, actress Elisabeth Wertheim ( born April 25, 1874 † May 27, 1944 ) know. Guest appearances in London and Vienna, where he was enthusiastically celebrated each. From September 1901 he has been a constant member of the Vienna State Opera (1926 Honorary Member ) and his successful career began. In 1907, he studied to give yourself the finishing touch for an international career in Paris at the world-famous tenor Jean de Reszke. In 1909 he received a three- year contract at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and was hailed as Wagner and Verdi singers. When, during a guest performance in Russia broke the First World War, he had to flee and was received by the Viennese back with open arms. Not only on the opera stage, also known as song singer he was successful worldwide. In April 1934, he entered the last time as Otello, the stage of the Vienna State Opera.
Slezak's voice was a heroic tenor, his pianissimo was legendary, even to the technically inadequate recordings of his time fascinated by his voice, among others, with surprising understanding of the text. With a height of 195 cm and a weight of about 150 kg, it was also a visually striking appearance.
Countless anecdotes, but the truth of which is not always unequivocally report of Slezak's great humor, which did not leave him on the stage: as a stage technician sat in " Lohengrin " the swan too soon in motion before the tenor had risen, he is the asked bewildered audience: " Excuse me, when does the next swan " This quip even found its way into the vernacular.
1932 began his second career as a star in German films in which he portrayed mostly comic roles and almost always sang. The better-known titles are La Paloma ( 1934), Gasparone (1937) and It was a glittering ball ( 1939).
Leo Slezak lived mostly in Vienna, starting in May 1938 in Berlin, during holiday periods from 1911 in an old farmhouse in Rottach -Egern, where he was also a friend of Georg Hirth and the writers Ludwig Thoma and Ludwig Ganghofer. In Vienna he was a member of a Masonic Lodge. He spent his last years in Rottach -Egern, where he is also buried in the cemetery next to his wife Elizabeth.
His children Walter and Margaret Slezak decided for the stage career, Walter was in the United States a well-known movie star. As this occurred during the Second World War in Hollywood in anti-Nazi films, Slezak was occupied in 1943 in the Greater German Reich with a film ban.
In 1960 in Vienna Waehring ( 18th District ), the Leo Slezak Alley and named in 1977 in the Berlin- Neukölln High Deck the settlement Leo Slezak - street after him.
Writings
As a writer Leo Slezak wrote several books in which he describes his eventful life in a humorous way: