Max Alvary

Max Alvary, real name Maximilian Achenbach, ( May 3, 1851 in Dusseldorf, † November 7, 1898 in Tabarz / Thüringer Wald ) was a German architect and opera singer.

Life

Max Alvary, son of Düsseldorf landscape painter Andreas Achenbach studied at the Polytechnic School Aachen architecture and was here in 1871 the founding members of the Corps Teutonia. After graduation, he initially practiced as an architect in Dusseldorf down and built there own some villas on the Rhine. However, he broke off his career as an architect and studied the initial resistance of his father in Frankfurt at Julius Stockhausen and in Milan with Francesco Lamperti singing.

Alvary had a fine dramatic voice and an extraordinary stage presence. This provided he rose in Germany in a short time become one of the most important tenors in Wagner operas, especially in Tristan and Siegfried, on where he opposed the customs of that time renounced during his appearance on wearing a full beard and with his Siegfried performances no flesh-colored pantaloons wore. From 1885 on, he also appeared in the USA and the UK. On January 13, 1888 on his 100th performance of Wagner's Siegfried found in the sold out Metropolitan Opera House in New York City before an audience of 3500. The highlight of his career he reached as Tristan and Siegfried at Covent Garden in 1892.

In October 1894 he suffered during rehearsals for Wagner's Siegfried in Mannheim a serious stage accident, from which he never fully recovered. In 1897, he stepped on the stage. After his death he was buried in the cemetery Ohlsdorfer in Hamburg.

Honors

In Tabarz a street was named after Max Alvary.